When the oil & gas community looks to the aeronautical industry it's usually for technological inspiration. Now offshore training is entering the space age too, courtesy of a recent deal brokered by defense specialist Raytheon that will enable Petrofac to offer survival training in the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's Houston facility. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
The Sonny Carter Training Facility near the Johnson Space Center in Houston is home to a 6.2 million gallon pool that is the heart of NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). NASA's astronauts have used the facility since January 1997. A full-scale mockup of the International Space Station occupied one portion of the 40ft deep pool when NASA opened the facility up for a tour last December. Astronauts practice space walks, tasks and repairs on the ISS mockup while suited up for neutral buoyancy – which sufficiently simulates reduced gravity for astronauts to practice on-orbit procedures – in the 86°F pool.
‘We have a facility that meets our needs for the harsh environment of space,' says Stephen A Koerner, deputy director of mission operations at NASA.
A change in US policy focusing NASA's expertise on deep space exploration from low Earth orbit transportation systems has resulted in the retirement of the space shuttle. With the space station construction complete, NASA needs to conduct spacewalks only for maintenance and repairs, which reduces the need to carry out so many training sessions. NASA realized it could offset some costs by allowing businesses from other industries to use a portion of the pool, as long as NASA could simultaneously access the pool when needed for its own purposes.
‘Sensitive isn't so much the key in this. It's about access,' Koerner says. ‘There's still a need for a facility to train for spacewalks.'
In 2010, NASA authorized Raytheon, which has managed and operated the NBL for NASA since 2003, to seek potential users for the capacity that will be available until training for longduration missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars is needed. But, Koerner says, ‘There was a sense of nervousness that we couldn't bring in just anybody.'
Concerns revolved around making sure anyone who would use the pool would adhere to a pair of values NASA holds dear because of the harsh environment in which it operates: a safety culture coupled with a meticulous attention to detail. The offshore oil & gas industry, too, has its own harsh environment and presented Raytheon with a pool of logical potential candidates from which to pull.
‘The safety culture that applies to space exploration is coincidental with the oil & gas industry,' Paul Groves, Petrofac Training Services managing director. ‘When you see oil workers training alongside astronauts, it's kind of unique.'
Under the five-year agreement, Petrofac will use what has been termed the Hi-Con Center – for high-consequence – at the NBL to deliver a series of water survival training courses. The initial offering includes a one-day HUET course, which has been available since mid-December 2011, as well as additional courses expected to become available in 1Q 2012 and 2Q 2012. Those include the three-day Basic Offshore Survival Induction Emergency Training (BOSIET), one-day Further Offshore Emergency Training (FOET) and the two-day Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) to be available from the end of this month, plus the five-day Major Emergency Management (MEM) course and the five-day Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping (STCW) course to be available in early 2Q 2012.
‘Linking manned space fight and oil & gas is exciting,' says Tony Littler, Petrofac Training Services regional director for the Americas.
Petrofac is keen on the arrangement for several reasons beyond the fact that the pool provides trainees one of the most realistic environments available globally for learning critical elements of water survival. As Littler notes, the industry faces a trio of challenges: post- Macondo regulations, the big crew change which will see a number of experienced personnel retire, and the expectation that the Gulf of Mexico will see the addition of 120,000 new jobs by 2012, according to a study by the American Petroleum Institute.
‘We are already seeing demand for survival and ERCM [Emergency Response & Crisis Management] training outpace supply,' Groves says.
The training Petrofac is offering at the Houston facility is approved or expected to be approved by various training watchdogs like OPITO, International Association of Drilling Contractors and the US Coast Guard before the courses move forward.
‘That NASA, Raytheon and Petrofac see the need for a standards-based safety program in the Gulf of Mexico is a huge step in the right direction,' says OPITO Gulf of Mexico VP Albert Skiba. OPITO was formed in the aftermath of the Piper Alpha disaster (in 1986, Occidental Petroleum's platform at the North Sea Piper field caught fire, killing 167).
‘The subsequent investigation identified failings in the management of the emergency and the competency of individuals. We want to make sure that doesn't happen again,' he says.
OPITO manages offshore safety training standards; the organization doesn't create them. In 2011, more than 200,000 people were trained worldwide in OPITO-certified courses.
The courses Petrofac is offering at Hi-Con will help the trainees learn teamwork and how to respond in a simulated emergency. As Groves puts it, they will have ‘experienced alarms going off and they know how to work as a team to respond to an emergency.'
Upgrades
The two Demag cranes are to be recertified from 10 tons to 21 tons. According to Cindy Hendershot, commercialization program manager with Raytheon, the cranes were installed 15 years ago with 25 ton capacity. At the time, NASA's safety factor required more of a buffer, and the rating was dropped from 25 tons each to 10 tons each. Now that the cranes have been used for 15 years without incident at the 10 ton rating, Hendershot says, the agency is in the process of recertifying the cranes for 21 tons each by carrying out analysis and load testing. The higher load recertification is expected to come in the next six months.
Other changes were to happen at the pool around year-end. First, a floor was to be installed under the area in which Petrofac is training. That false floor will be set at 12ft as a means of keeping the trainees from being exposed to the full 40ft depth of the pool.
Second, the ISS mockup was due to come up for semi-annual maintenance before year's end. On its return to the pool, it was to be shifted 20ft south to better accommodate the non-NASA activities. This shift, according to David Appel, senior director of operations, training & logistics for Raytheon, means Petrofac may even be able to carry out two HUET courses simultaneously. The mockup is full-scale of the ISS components. The actual ISS has been continuously inhabited for over 11 years, has a module length of 167.3ft, a truss length of 357.5ft and a solar array length of 239.4ft. The ISS itself weighs 861,804lb; its habitable volume is 13,696ft3, and its pressurized volume is 32,333ft3.
A third effort is underway, but no timeline has been divulged. Appel says the helicopter frame used in the HUET course doesn't drop as fast as it could to simulate a crash. ‘The engineers are looking at that,' he says. ‘They're looking at how to have it descend at a more realistic rate.'
The Petrofac arrangement isn't the first time representatives of the oil & gas industry have been granted access to the pool at the NBL. According to Appel, the defense contractor arranged for a company to test a dive suit and repair procedure in the pool before taking the suit offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. Raytheon is investigating the possibility of allowing ROV operators to carry out test runs in the pool as well, he says. OE
Other collaborations
The NASA-Raytheon-Petrofac deal isn't the only bit of co-operation going on that involves companies that focus on space and the offshore oil & gas arena. Late last year, Space Florida and Lockheed Martin inked a deal to test and produce a new AUV known as the Marlin.
Under the deal, Lockheed Martin will outfit the Marlin systems with sensors and imaging equipment to conduct underwater inspections. The systems are well suited for use in the oil & gas industry as a safe and cost-effective way to inspect underwater infrastructure and pipelines, especially after severe weather such as hurricanes.
‘These AUVs have multiple commercial and civil applications in areas such as infrastructure inspection,' says Space Florida president Frank DiBello. Space Florida is investing in Lockheed Martin's technology to allow for further refinement and marketing of the AUV before commercial production.
Lockheed Martin will build the Marlin AUVs at the Palm Beach, Florida, facility, and will test and demonstrate the units off Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
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