Location and Field Architecture
Green Canyon Block 518 (GC 518) is located 118 miles (190 km) south of Fourchon, Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. (See Figure 1.) The field development is in 4,000 - 4,285 ft (1217 - 1306 m) water depth. GC 518 has a deep, high-pressure oil reservoir. All subsea equipment and flowlines are being designed for 10,000 psi.

Three existing wells will be connected to a single production manifold; two through insulated jumpers and one through a pipe-in-pipe in-field flowline. See Figure 2 - System Isometric Overview (pg. 3). Initially a single well will be completed and tied directly into the flowlines. Two adjacent wells are planned to tie into the production manifold. The product is carried through two 12" x 7" nominal diameter pipe-in-pipe flowlines from the manifold to the Marco Polo TLP located 8 miles away. The dual flowline architecture allows round-trip pigging.

A multiplex electrohydraulic system will be used to control and monitor the subsea facilities from a Master Control Station (MCS) on the host platform. The MCS will have a data link to shore and a hard-wired link to the platform's emergency fire and gas system. The controls umbilical contains super-duplex stainless steel tubes and electrical quad cables.

Design Challenges
INTEC Engineering has been performing complex design work under a very demanding schedule while meeting the following challenges:

• Simultaneous design and procurement activities - Procurement activities commenced prior to the end of the preliminary design phase.
• First pipe-in-pipe to be made up on the firing line - Traditionally, pipe-in-pipe joints are assembled on land and then transported to the lay vessel for installation. In this case, the components for the pipe-in-pipe joints will be transported to the lay vessel. The pipe-in-pipe joints will be assembled in the firing line as part of the pipe-lay procedure.
• First installation of very large, inline sleds using S-lay - Each flowline has three in-line sleds with an integral folding mat of 15.5 feet long, weighing approximately 13 tons in water.

• Flowline engineering and fabrication support
• Flowline equipment preliminary design and specifications: PLETs, in-line sleds, well and flowline jumpers
• SCR engineering and fabrication support
• Subsea production equipment engineering and fabrication support
• Subsea control system engineering and fabrication support
• Control umbilical preliminary design and specification
• Materials and welding engineering and fabrication support
• Survey assistance
• Project scheduling for the subsea facilities
• Procurement support / bid preparation and evaluation
• Preparation of pipeline right-of way permits
• Preparation of deepwater operations plans

INTEC Engineering has met and overcome the many challenges encountered in this fast-track project. The project is progressing as planned and is within the budget. Installation of the subsea facilities will commence in early November.

INTEC's Brazil office opened in December 2001. A strategic plan was put forward in January, 2003 to increase INTEC's operations in the country. Since then, several projects have been awarded to INTEC. These were executed in Brazil by a group of young engineers working together with an experienced project manager - and with comprehensive support from the Houston office related to software, design guidelines and the corporate knowledge system - AskINTEC. The projects awarded in 2003 were instrumental in INTEC establishing a pipeline team that has grown in design capability. They have performed a variety of tasks such as the design of risers and clamps for a fixed platform, thermal analysis for shallow and deepwater pipelines and the basic design for short load lines.

Transpetro is the company responsible for transportation of oil and gas in Brazil and is 100% controlled by Petrobras. In October, 2003, Transpetro awarded INTEC a year long contract to assess the potential for rehabilitation of pipelines onshore and offshore Brazil. In February, 2004, Petrobras awarded the second long-term contract with an estimated duration of two years that extends the engineering activities to geophysical, geotechnical and oceanographic data acquisition. This created the opportunity for INTEC to recruit and train more young and experienced people with extensive knowledge in data acquisition and pipeline design.

Today, the office has grown in staff and the engineering activities are tailor-made to our clients’ needs. INTEC works in close cooperation with Petrobras to help in project organization and to produce project documentation in a format to allow subsequent design verification work by a certifying authority.

The Brazilian office is planning its next steps with the vision of providing pipeline and subsea engineering services for projects all over the world. The engineering services in Rio de Janeiro are cost effective and performed with the high degree of quality and competitiveness required in the international arena. The Brazilian office has the potential to provide supportive design work for INTEC global locations - with the highest quality level as established in the INTEC Quality Management System and improving the competitiveness and profitability of worldwide projects.

True monopolies are almost always illegal. Some exist, however, at the pleasure of the government, e.g., your local electricity provider. A virtual monopoly, on the other hand, is the possession of some product or service that is nearly impossible for competitors to duplicate. If you can attain the distinction of having a virtual monopoly, it brings the power to selectively choose the projects, the prices and the terms on which you are willing to provide your product or service. Your requirements are supported by the knowledge that substitutions for your product are extremely limited. Virtual monopolies abound in the business environment. For example, Microsoft absolutely dominates the development and provision of operating systems and Coca Cola dominates the world of soft drinks. These two companies attained their virtual monopolies in completely different manners. Microsoft originally achieved it with technology and now maintains it with marketing, resulting in control of approximately 90% of their market. Coca-Cola does it with image and marketing. They say the Coke formula is secret and they make a big deal about the security around it, however, any food chemist could easily determine the ingredients. In reality it is part of the marketing magic of Coke. They have created an image that people feel better, look better, have more fun, etc., if they drink Coke. Of course there are many substitutes for Coke, but apparently not in the minds of most since it is the most popular soft drink in the world.

The ability to largely control your own destiny is reason enough to strive to achieve virtual monopoly status, but I think there is more. Being a virtual monopoly also means you are the best at something. You have, know, provide or can create something others cannot. It gives a sense of pride in being part of something unique and better. It is part of creating a work environment where people feel challenged, strive for improvement and do not settle for "good enough." Therefore, I believe trying to build a virtual monopoly is a worthy goal.

So how do we build it? The creation of the virtual monopoly is in fact a puzzle in which all the pieces fit together and are held in place by the vision of the company. In our case that vision is: INTEC will be the engineering company of choice for the most challenging marine hydrocarbon developments worldwide.

I believe the first piece and the foundation of our virtual monopoly is the hiring, training and retaining of the very best people in each service area we offer. This means making tough decisions like continuing to hire great people when they are available even if it's not the perfect time for us. It also means making equally difficult decisions about where to cut back when the situation warrants it.

The next piece is providing a work environment that is conducive to the virtual monopoly formation. By this I mean people must be given a clean and healthy workplace, the proper tools, be provided with motivating challenges and be rewarded for meeting those

The last piece of the puzzle, in my view, is that we must be willing to try lots of small experiments. Like a juggler, we must keep many balls in the air. We then figure out which ones will develop into new service offerings and nurture those, exit the others and try some more. You can see that philosophy in action in our current list of balls - LNG services, Nigerian office, Russian business development, Interface Management, and Risk Management. Maybe not all of these experiments will make it, but regardless we will continue to add and delete as we see new opportunities rise.

I believe we have, to varying degrees, achieved virtual monopolies in several areas. For instance, in May I gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees of the Heerema Group and mentioned the following areas as service offerings where I felt we had a virtual monopoly to some extent:

• Deepwater Production Systems
• Deepwater Pipelines
• Arctic Pipeline Design
• Flow Assurance/Subsea Systems
• Concept Selection Expertise

To close, we have a virtual monopoly in many areas that is surrounded by high barriers. But it is only fleeting if we do not constantly rebuild our walls with good people, a good workplace, exciting challenges and rewards.

Johnny Reed
CEO

The first WDDM fields to be developed by Burullus, Scarab and Saffron, used INTEC's deepwater expertise and started production in March 2003. Eight deepwater wells are tied into an underwater gas gathering hub in the form of a pipeline end manifold (PLEM), which is connected through the main 65km trunklines to the onshore terminal. With Simian / Sienna Sapphire, the overall tieback length of 114 km makes this one of the longest subsea multiphase tiebacks in the world.

Dynamic Model
INTEC Engineering (UK) Ltd. has been retained by Burullus to provide technical services on the Simian/Sienna and Sapphire Fields, which are due to start production during Spring 2005, adding a further 14 wells to the production system.

Due to the large pipeline capacity, managing offshore liquid hold-up is crucial to the success of the future production operations. INTEC has developed a dynamic model to simulate the impact of changes in both offshore supply and onshore demand on the WDDM pipeline network and the onshore reception facilities.

The pipeline and process model has been built using OLGA, a leading multiphase pipeline dynamic simulation package. Using OLGA's recently developed ability to handle diverging as well as converging flow paths, together with a multiphase separator module, INTEC has incorporated the entire subsea network into a model. This model also includes the facilities of the onshore process, including slug catchers, and the high-pressure (HP) and low-pressure (LP) separators. See the schematic (pg. 4). Due to the limited control system functionality within OLGA, a link between OLGA and MATLAB/Simulink has been used, allowing a detailed model of the onshore terminal control functions to be developed in Simulink. This includes a DCS style controller function written specifically for the project by INTEC. This approach has allowed a variety of control system options to be evaluated without changing the OLGA model and without the need for a separate process modeling package for the onshore facilities.

Specific Benefits
Employing this combined model, INTEC has been able to analyze the behavior of the WDDM onshore pressure control and liquid handling systems across the full range of operating conditions and flow disturbances anticipated throughout field life. The information obtained from the model is being used to define an operating envelope for the pipeline network, including limitations on the rate at which demand changes can be handled. A finding that will prove important, particularly during early operation of the new LNG plant, was that these limitations on ramp-up rates were dependent on the length of time spent operating at low rates. This is due to liquid accumulation in the pipeline network.

The model has also been used to verify the design capacity of the slug catchers, taking into account the maximum liquid handling rates of downstream equipment. This resulted in modifications to the liquid distribution control system design. The modifications maximized the available capacity of the four LP separators under liquid surge conditions in either (or both) of the trunklines and their respective slug catchers.

The modeling of the complete pipeline network and the onshore facilities has also given an insight into the interactions between the fields and between the two trunklines. This has led to the development of preliminary operational strategies for field re-starts, enhancement to the pressure control strategy, and to consideration of field segregation at the PLEM when turn-down in the 36-inch line is no longer an issue. In summary, the OLGA-MATLAB/Simulink model has allowed the project to:

• Evaluate operational performance of alternate control schemes and implement modifications as appropriate.
• Evaluate performance of parallel pipeline operation and determine whether distribution problems are likely to be experienced. An example is liquid or gas flowing preferentially in one trunkline due to incorrect control of arrival pressures.
• Investigate options, such as modified control schemes, to rectify issues arising from unacceptable flow splitting between parallel pipelines.
• Evaluate onshore arrival rates for both water and condensate under a variety of transient conditions to determine potential for handling problems of each liquid stream.

The pitch (or is it a field?), looks much smaller than on the telly (how they laugh over here when I say telly!!). The atmosphere was pretty good though. They have a break for a kiss: the camera zooms in on couples and you have to kiss…sweet innit? They have the 7th inning stretch where you have to get up and sing and dance. The camera zooms in on people and you're supposed to do something. It homed in on this guy 3 rows in front of me, he put on a really interesting dance. You wouldn't get that at an Arsenal game.

The food on offer was unbelievable: jacket potatoes (well I think they were) heaped with heaps of stuff and nachos also heaped with loads of stuff. So I thought I'd play safe and go for a beef fajita. It was huge. Instead of slivers of beef, there were great chunks. Onions and peppers were very few and it had rice in it. Rice and tortilla make a very interesting meal combination, such that 2 bites and you're full!!

Other than that, all's well. Have got the hang of driving and am whizzing around all over the place. I now drive with attitude, just like everyone else here. There was a minor incident with a "lady of the night" when I got lost downtown last week, but I survived. Well that's all for now.

P.S. If anyone is sending a package out here, please send my heater. The office is very very cold. In fact, everywhere indoors is too cold for me. I only brought 1 jumper with me, and funnily enough I can't find any in the shops!

July 6, 2004
Me again. I know, I just won't go away. I bet you all thought she's thousands of miles away, peace and quiet at last - how wrong can you be!

First of all though a few of you want to know about the project (???) and few more actually enjoyed my last email... move over Bill Bryson!!

So just to prove that I haven't forgotten why I'm here...

The project is going well in a kinda so-far-so-good kind of way. I think you all know that it's called Blind Faith, and contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with me being on the team. It is called Blind Faith after a 1960's rock group (I bet Richard knew this), who's most famous member was Eric Clapton.

Rock groups are the theme for the area, and yes "Thunder Horse" is or was a rock group. Not sure about Devils Tower and Na Kika, though. And did you know that it's the reservoir engineers who get to name the fields?

This phase of the work is the concept phase (pre-FEED to you & me) but ChevronTexaco (CVX) call it Phase 2 (they have this CPDEP process for each phase of a development).

It took a while, obviously, to get settled as I had to get to know people and find them around the office as INTEC is spread over 4 floors. Finding stuff on the server and getting up to speed on the work done during the previous phase. But hey, being the star that I am, I'm there now...

It's a fairly large team and it's the same set-up as Simian (pre-FEED & FEED) in that we are working with a topsides processing company called EDG. There is also an option to consider a new build FPSO and, although I have nothing to do with it directly, it's very fascinating getting to know the aspects that they have to consider. So purely for my own reasons I hope they go with this option. The team consists of pipelines, risers, subsea hardware, hull/moorings engineers and me. CVX is doing the flow assurance work, but Noel for what it's worth you're still my star in the world of FA (closely followed by Joe, Abu and Dom of course….oh, and you too Atul). So that's it except that this phase is currently scheduled to end around October/November. Ok, so now for the low down of life in Houston...

I think I'm giving y'all the wrong impression, there are downsides to living out here you know. So far, I've only given you the highlights so for those of you who think I'm partying, here are the low points.

The Weather
Rain, thunder and lightning with hurricane and tornado forecasts/warnings in neighboring cities. If the next email requests details of an ark builder, it will not be a joke!

And they all say "I bet your used to that?" The answer being NO…..if the total UK rainfall in a year was as much as we've had here in the last 3 weeks, it would be like the Noah Bible story all over again, and I am not exaggerating.

I have been composing this email over several weeks and it has actually stopped raining. But there's a downside to that, too, as the long period of out-of-season rain has brought the mosquitoes out in full force. And guess who they're finding tasty? My arms, legs and even my stomach are covered in bites and I'm itching like mad.

The Language Barrier
There are times when I could cry. But I've given up (or more like given in) now. As they say, "when in Rome...” So I now back-up out of the parking lot, I eat my meals on flatware using silverware and I live in an apartment and instead of a flat. But that said, I will never get used to being called ma'am.

My Own Office When written down it looks good, but it's a bit isolating and as I'm new here I don't socialize like I did back in the UK. This is also isolating from a working point of view; excellent if you were working on a study on your own, but not so good when working as part of a team.

Standard Greeting
The phrase "have a nice day now" has gone, not that that's a bad thing, but in its place is "hi ma'am/sir how are you today, or how y'all doing today?"

Even ordinary people in shops and on the street greet me like this. Thing is, I don't know how to reply. I mean, am I supposed to just say I'm fine or should I ask them how they're doing in return? I alternate between the two responses, but the former seems rude and the latter a bit too personal.

So now I try and avoid them but they follow you around the shop or just shout it at you so you have to answer.

Their take on England
Everyone without an American accent is English. A friend's wife is Polish, and even though she's been in the UK for many years she still has a strong Polish accent, and they say to her "I like your English accent."

Everyone in England lives in London. They all want to come to England as it's so quaint. One woman said she can't wait to see all the little houses with the thatched roofs!

Our accent is so cute and I've just about had it with that word.

When I was being shown around an apartment, the lady said that her mother-in-law was English. When I asked if she knew where about, she said Edinburgh.

Another friend's wife (English) was told by one of the American moms that she was impressed at how well her kids had picked up the language... that I think tops the lot!!!

Insects, animals and flying big things I believe my fear of spiders is legendary. Not any more, give me a UK spider any day over flying cockroach things, wasps the size of small birds, spiders that do serious harm and armadillos. I saw my first armadillo a few days ago; they are so weird looking. It was just mulling around by my apartment.

I found a very large cockroach in the kitchen the other morning and even though it was dead it scared the life out of me. Lord only knows what I would have done if it was still alive.

The mosquitoes I've already mentioned, and my apartment complex is inundated with frogs, again due to the recent wet weather.

Driving
Yes, I got lost again. Stopped at a McDonald's to ask directions and again the person seemed nice enough and he was standing upright. But when he started to speak, the smell of alcohol, the slurred words and the fact that he kept leaning towards me led me to believe that he was slightly intoxicated. Bet it wasn't on beer though: it's all Bud light, Miller light and so on so you'd need the constitution of a camel to get drunk on that stuff. Anyway, it turns out that the safe place that I picked to stop at is called Greenspoint, which a while back was affectionately referred to as Gunspoint!

Anyway, I will no longer be reporting on incidents of getting lost as they are a daily occurrence. However, despite the fact that some road signs are on the junction, the road system is logical so I can now get my self un-lost without panicking and/or crying.

That's it... Happy (belated) 4th July.