Subsurface wave initiatives could save millions in design costs

摘要

The deepwater Gulf of Mexico undoubtedly is one of the most extensively studied oil and gas basins in the world. Yet, as the DeepStar MetOcean Committee has discovered, when it comes to subsurface circulatory phenomena, mysteries continue to unfold. In the late 1990s, an operator came across the powerful and cyclical topographic Rossby waves (TRWs) at the steep and rugged Sigsbee escarpment in the Wilcox trend of the northwestern Gulf. That discovery joined loop currents, eddys, subsurface cyclones and, more recently, amplified near-bottom tidal currents as distinctive oceano-graphic anomalies that over the years have cost untold millions in design and operational costs, and in some cases have forced operators to completely reconsider development strategy. According to DeepStar, the ability to monitor and model unique metocean conditions will expedite the development of design performance criteria that will ensure the survivability and long-term integrity of offshore facilities.