The first SMM Offshore Dialogue, held on the occasion of SMM 2010, 24th shipbuilding, machinery & marine technology, international trade fair at the Hamburg Fair site, concluded on Thursday 9 September. It showed very clearly that the offshore industry needs forums such as the SMM Offshore Dialogue [ds_preview]to meet the varied requirements of the market. It was a workshop event, bringing together some 400 industry experts from business, politics and research for two days, to discuss the existing and future potentials and challenges for offshore oil and gas production, for deep sea mining, and for offshore wind energy.
»The events in the Gulf of Mexico have shown the tremendous technological challenges which the offshore industry has to face,« said Dr. Manfred Schubert, Ministerial Director at the Federal Economics Ministry, in a warning note during his address at the opening of the Offshore Dialogue on Wednesday. Dr. Schubert described this workshop, comprising the Oil & Gas Dialogue, the Deep Sea Mining Dialogue and the Offshore Wind Energy Dialogue, as a unique opportunity to learn from and with one another. John Westwood, Chairman of Douglas-Westwood Ltd., a UK based energy consultant, forecasts continuous growth for the offshore market in the next five years, both directly off the coast and further out to sea. He predicts global investments totalling about EUR 250 billion, adding that »There is more oil below the seabed than anywhere else. By the middle of this decade, that will be our main source of petroleum to cover global demand«.
Offshore Oil & Gas Dialogue – »Huge areas with enormous potential«
The first part of the workshop was the Oil & Gas Dialogue, where the experts discussed the development and design of special-purpose ships for offshore oil and gas production. Drilling and production platforms and research and tender vessels have to meet high safety and environmental standards, to fulfil the economic requirements, and to withstand extreme environmental conditions. One of the focal areas of this Dialogue was oil and gas production from ice-covered areas. This is regarded as a key area by the Session Chairman, Dr. Walter Kühnlein, Managing Director of German consulting company sea2ice and Chairman of the German Association for Marine Technology. He notes that 20 to 30% of all new oil and gas finds are expected in areas which are ice-covered at least for part of the year. »At present, the extraction of raw materials from icebound waters has received little attention, because it is extremely difficult. We are gradually moving into this field«.
Enormous oil deposits have been found in the Russian Arctic, in the Caspian Sea, and in the US and Canadian Beaufort Sea, as reported by Eero Mäkinen, Senior Vice President Marketing of STX Europe, a Norwegian shipyard. »There we have huge areas with enormous potential«, he adds.
The Statoil Arctic Tandem Offloading Terminal was presented by Ola Ravndal, Chief Engineer for the Platform & Ship Structures Division of the Norwegian oil company Statoil Asa. That is a concept developed by the company to optimise the production and onward transportation of petro-
leum in icebound waters.
Offshore Deep Sea Mining Dialogue – »A lot has happened in the last 20 years«
Session Chairman Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Kümpel, President of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in Hanover, opened the Deep Sea Mining Dialogue on the second day of the workshop. »A lot has happened in deep sea mining in the last 20 years. And yet the industry is still right at the beginning of its development in some areas. While there are very advanced technologies available for diamond exploration, the industry still has to face great challenges for example in the exploration of polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts.« Dr. Sup Hong, Principal Researcher at the Maritime & Ocean Engineering Research Institute in Ansan, South Korea, gave workshop participants an overview of the existing resources and potentials for marine minerals. »Polymetallic nodules, massive seabed sulphide deposits and cobalt-rich manganese crusts are the most frequently found marine minerals,« he reported. »They contain eight of the most important metals – copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, lead, zinc, gold, silver and platinum.«
Diamonds are also among the natural resources which can be found on the seabed. Peter Heinrichs, COO of Aker Wirth GmbH from Erkelenz, a subsidiary of the international technology company Aker Solutions, gave information on deep sea diamond mining. He likewise referred to the advanced mining technologies use there. »They enable us to extract diamonds successfully, even in deposits with smaller yields.«
Jan Willem van Bloois, Managing Director of IHC Merwede from the Netherlands, an industrial group specialising in the construction of equipment and special-purpose ships for the offshore market, underlined the future importance of deep sea mining for shipbuilding – »This industry will grow continuously, once the first deep sea mining companies have successfully extracted minerals from the seabed.«
Offshore Wind Energy Dialogue – »We have to get all the parties together«
The Session Chairman for the last part of the workshop, the Offshore Wind Energy Dialogue, was Thorsten Herdan, Managing Director of the Power Systems Division of the German Engineering Federation and Vice-President of the German Wind Energy Foundation. He believes the offshore wind market gives enormous growth potential for the maritime industry – »The greatest challenge is to get the various parties together. They include the port companies, shipyards and marine equipment suppliers, shipowners, mechanical engineers, the wind industry, and not least the investors«.
Tore Ulstein, Deputy CEO Ulstein Group, Norway, warned of the high costs currently incurred by the offshore wind industry. He pointed out that the installation systems used offshore are based on technologies used for construction of wind turbines on shore, and warned that simply transferring these technologies offshore was expensive and inefficient. Nils P. Olschner, Marketing Manager at the North German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen, then described the opportunities and challenges posed by the offshore wind industry for German shipbuilding. »Everyone is talking about the installation vessels. But never forget that offshore wind farms also need servicing after they have been built. The construction of service vessels is just as important«.
»The SMM Offshore Dialogue gives the maritime industries and the wind industry an opportunity to exchange ideas on the developments and requirements of the offshore market,« said Peter Bergleiter, SMM Project Director.»It showed the perspectives for the industry, and discussed the challenges. We are delighted at the lively participation, and are planning to continue this subject in future in the framework of SMM, the world’s premier shipbuilding fair.«
