PROJECT ABSTRACT

The participating team members for this study include:

Patrick Dubouchet BEng,
Stewart Forsyth BSc,
Brandon McAdam BEng
and Cyril Pacot MEng (French Engineer diploma).

The team members have experience in the following areas:

Energy Systems,
Electronic Engineering,
Civil Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering,
Finance and Government Taxes.

Part 1

Decommissioning offshore oil and gas installations is deemed costly both in economic and environmental terms and it is the primary objective to determine the technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of an innovative concept to re-use them as renewable energy centres as an option to near term decommissioning.

The focus of the study will be toward economically and commercially viable renewable energy systems and compatible electrical processes which are suitable for deployment on offshore oil and gas installations.

The first phase constitutes a comprehensive literature/web-site review to identify studies which have been carried out in connection with decommissioning and options for re-use of offshore structures.

In the second phase we will establish:

current decommissioning procedures/ policy.
the location of offshore installations.
state of the art in renewable energy systems (generation, transmission and storage concepts).
market potential.
environmental impact.
cost effectiveness.

This information will lead to a status report which will identify the current position relative to the above criteria.

Part 2

The second objective of this project is to determine the performance of Offshore Wind Energy Converters (OWEC) in world-wide locations where offshore oil and gas installations exist.

The first phase will be the collection of appropriate wind data.

The second phase will involve using this information to compute the average mean wind speed and the expected power output from state of the art large offshore wind turbines. This work will be carried out in conjunction with Part 1 i.e. identifying world-wide locations of offshore oil and gas installations.

Part 3

The objective of this project is the realisation of a web-site which can assist operators/owners of offshore oil and gas installations to determine whether or not an offshore installation could be considered for re-use as an offshore renewable energy centre (OREC).

The following crucial parameters will be identified to provide appropriate decision personnel support in the decision making process when deciding the outcome of structures which are no longer required for gas or oil related duties:

renewable energy systems which could be considered for use on offshore installations,
an estimate of the amount of electrical power available from the resources,
the types of offshore installations suitable,
the methods of distribution and storage of the energy
and the cost effectiveness.

Results of part 1 and part 2 will be used as input for the review of a real case scenario which will help us assess the viability of OREC.

The paramaters identified should assist the appropriate organisations decide whether the re-use of an offshore installation as an OREC is worth in-depth study.