Schlumberger

Schlumberger is the world's leading provider of technology for reservoir characterization,

drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry. Working in more than 85
countries and employing approximately 100,000 people who represent over 140 nationalities,
Schlumberger supplies the industry's most comprehensive range of products and services,
from exploration through production and integrated pore-to-pipeline solutions for
hydrocarbon recovery that optimize reservoir performance. In 1927 Schlumberger was
founded by the two brothers, Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel who invented wireline
logging as a technique for obtaining downhole data in oil and gas wells. Today Schlumberger
continues to build on the industry's longest track record for providing leading edge E&P
technology to develop new advancements from reservoir to surface. Since its founding, the
company has consistently invested significant time and money on research and development
as a long-term strategy to support and grow our technology leadership.

Water

Every day, offshore platforms use large amounts of water in their activities related to oil
exploration and production in the sea. Usually the drinking water used comes from a drinking
water treatment station on land and is transported by offshore supply vessel. The seawater is
also used for less noble activities, such as flushing toilets. The OSV used in water transports
is a complex operation because it depends on weather and navigation. Thus, sometimes the
reduced water supply due to shipping difficulties may lead to stoppage of drilling activities.
As an alternative, each offshore oil rig has a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), devices
designed to remove the physical impurities, chemical and pathogenic organisms as much as
possible, also preparing the effluent to be released into sea. The desalination and reusing
processes have been adopted in many countries as way to meet the growing demand for
water, the lack of surface and underground water sources and their preservation. As an
examples, the water supplied to the platforms comes from the Macae River, Brazil is 12.5
miles from the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is pumped for placing the OSV tanks. In 2013,
the WTP generated 0.06165 kg of sludge per m3 of water for 1 095 000 m3 of water supplied
to the 60 offshore oil platforms. The OSV nowadays is mainly used to carry enough drinking
water supply to platforms.
Steam

The revolutionary of oil drilling processes and the demands of oil and gas leads to the
development of its technological improvements in specialized equipment like oil rigs. In the
wake of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, some of the giant company created more
advanced blowout preventers. Fossil fuel drilling is even using green energy. A system of
mirrors inside a glasshouse that generates the steam required to force the oil to surface of the
Earth. Normally, this steam is heated by natural gas, but using the sun’s power is cheaper and
cleaner. GlassPoint Solar is a company that created this glasshouse system produces more
steam than other solar facilities used in the same purpose. Even though the 19th century oil
drilling industry is driven by steam. The oil industry's need for steam power in the 1860's
wasn't based solely on drilling or pumping oil wells but also for refineries and even for river
vessels that transported oil and products. Pipelines commenced to use steam pumps in 1865.
Steam hammers made some of the fittings and parts of the drilling paraphernalia. Nowadays,
the steam is widely used to replace the man works. The usage of steam in multi-purpose
generators available in wide range of capacities, perform numerous important functions
including desalination of sea water.

Condensate recovery

Condensate contains a significant amount of sensible heat that can account for about 10% to
30% of the initial heat energy contained in the steam. Feeding the boiler with high-
temperature condensate can maximize boiler output because less heat energy is required to
turn liquid into steam. When efficiently recovered and reused, it can even be possible to
reduce boiler fuel needs by up to 10 to 20%. A system composed of a scrubber,
a compressor and a switch. Its main purpose is to recover vapours formed inside completely
sealed crude oil or condensate tanks. The switch detects pressure variations inside the tanks
and turns the compressor on and off. The vapours are sucked through a scrubber, where the
liquid trapped is returned to the liquid pipeline system or to the tanks, and the vapour
recovered is pumped into gas lines. Reusing hot condensate can lead to considerable savings
in terms of energy and resources, as well as improve working conditions and reduce your
plant's carbon footprint.
Fuel gas

About 85% of natural gas produced from conventional wells is methane, a compound
comprised of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Ethane, propane, and butane also
occur in natural gas and are often separated and processed as natural gas liquids. Natural gas
exists as:

1. Associated gas in crude oil wells where natural gas exists separate from the crude oil
in the underground formation or is dissolved in the crude.

2. Non-associated gas in dry gas wells that generally produce only natural gas that does
not contain any hydrocarbon liquids.

3. Wet gas (a type of non-associated gas) in condensate wells where natural gas occurs
along with natural gas liquid.

4. Coal bed methane in coal seams.

The gas must be treated for sales or disposal. In the past, disposal sometimes meant flaring or
venting, but now gas that can’t be transported is usually compressed for reinjection into the
reservoir. Gas treating may involve only separation from the liquids, or it may include
additional processes such as: compression, dehydration, removing H2S and CO2 and gas
processing to condense heavier components that can be transported as a liquid. Natural gas
may be processed to remove impurities at the gas field or at a natural gas processing plant.
After processing, natural gas is usually transported by pipelines from producing fields to
consumers. However, if natural gas is chilled to about –260 degrees Fahrenheit, it changes
into a liquid and can be stored in this form. Known as liquefied natural gas (LNG), it can be
loaded onto tankers and shipped overseas.
Plant and instrument air

The equipment associated with the instrument air system as used in the industry, generally
consists of an air compressor, air dryer and an air receiver fitted with a liquid drain trap. The
instrument air system is utilized from various plant instrumentations. They has critical role in
plant operation and safety. Therefore, the equipment should be properly sized and capable of
producing the required air quality. Things must be considered: pressure dew point, particle
size, lubricant content and contaminants. Plant air is basically for machines that require air
that does not need to be extremely clean or dry, and usually require large volumes. Instrument
air needs to be clean and dry, for pneumatic instrumentation. This is important for say, a
control valve positioner where the feedback baffle/nozzle can be plugged off by dirt. Plant air
generally runs anywhere from 60 to 150 psig, and usually has considerable condensate and
sometimes particulate. Instrument air is clean and dry, having been filtered for both
particulate and moisture, and runs a normal maximum of 20 psig at the drop, since the typical
pneumatic instrument is looking for 3-15 psig. It is never advisable to use plant air directly as
a source of instrument air without filtration and de-humidification.

Flare

Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. Flaring disposes of the
gas while releasing emissions into the atmosphere. One reason that companies may flare
natural gas is because it is simply worth less than oil. Oil has a higher market value than gas
so companies in are likely more interested in drilling for oil rather than gas. Another reason
for flaring is simply for safety. It can be very dangerous if industrial plant equipment, vessels,
or pipes over-pressurize. Flaring is a way that can help relieve over-pressuring.
Product storage

In its raw state, crude oil is transported by two primary modes: tankers, which travel
interregional water routes, and pipelines where most of the oil moves through for at least part
of the route. Once the oil has been refined and separated from natural gas, pipelines transport
the oil to another carrier or directly to a refinery. Petroleum products then travel from the
refinery to market by tanker, truck, railroad car, or more pipelines. Storage tanks come in all
sizes and shapes. Special applications might require tanks to be rectangular, in the form of
horizontal cylinders, or even spherical in shape. Horizontal cylinders and spheres are
generally used for full pressure storage of hydrocarbon or chemical products. The petroleum
industry has experienced significant changes in the types of products used to feed the
refineries around the world. The increased use of petroleum products has prompted the
industry to turn to other sources for supply. Changes in product, physical, and chemical
properties impose new challenges to the storage tank industry. Environmental and safety
requirements continue to be a significant factor in the selection and design of the storage
tanks used by the petroleum industry. The general types of atmospheric storage tanks (AST)
in use may be open top tanks (OTT), fixed-roof tanks (FRT), external floating-roof tanks
(EFRT), or internal floating-roof tanks (IFRT). Depending on the product, a closed floating-
roof tank (CFRT) may even be selected.

Electric supply

The oil rig electrical supply may come from various sources. Wave energy converter is
designed to either attach to the legs of these oil & gas platforms or moored near the platforms
to provide them with renewable energy. This offers the Oil & Gas market potential new
solutions that could drive down project operational costs (OPEX). This could also help to
make current fields that offer low commercial returns more attractive for development. The
wind converter also is used for the electrical supply needed by exploration activities in oil
and gas platforms.