The role of chief scientist was created to reinforce the Shell commitment to science, technology and innovation. Each chief scientist has internationally recognised expertise in individual fields. They deliver innovative technology that has a strong impact on wider business development.
|
Charlie Williams
Shell Chief Scientist Well Engineering and Production Technology
Finding solutions to real-world problems is what matters to Charlie. He has held numerous engineering, technology and operational management positions within Shell. The Mars Hurricane Recovery Project in the Gulf of Mexico, which he oversaw, was nominated for the Offshore Energy Achievements Awards.
|
Video transcript
The two 1000 year plus hurricanes in the US, Katrina and Rita, covered essentially all of Shell's infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and shut us down, due to hurricane damage, on all our facilities. Most significantly, we had a large amount of topside damage to the Mars structure, which was the largest producing platform in the Gulf of Mexico with 140,000 barrels a day, in a 70 dollar barrel a day world. So it was quite urgent for us to get it back on production.
There was over 300 million dollars worth of damage done.
The drilling rig at Mars had been blown over and had done most of the damage to the Mars platform. So the first part of the repair was actually to remove it. It was a thousand ton lift in one piece and a really awkward orientation. And we had to do a fully engineered lift, to know how to pick that up in a stable way.
So we brought in one of only two Derrick barges in the world, a Dutch Derrick barge that could pick up 7,000 tons and that was done with no problems and no unplanned events. We wanted the other key pieces of success, to be able to bring a sufficient size crew there to get the work done, since there's only a 140 people capacity out there normally so we brought in a floating hotel that normally works on the North Sea, and anchored it next to the TLP using a Shell designed and Shell procured special anchoring system with suction pods and polyester lines.
This was actually a technical first and it enabled us to bring 500 more workers, for a total of 650 people, working 24 hours a day. The Mars export lines were both destroyed due to anchor drags from offshore drilling units, and had to be repaired in 3,000 feet of water which was a historic first in technology to be able to do an on-bottom repair, using remote operated submarines in that kind of water depth. Which we actually did the technical R&D for 10 years ago, in anticipation of that. So the use of the ROV's was something that we'd already planned out and prepared for and actually even had the kit available to do this work.
You know I'm really proud of what Shell and the Shell team was able to achieve because that kind of repair had never been done before. We had three major technical innovations and we worked over 1,100,000 hours without even a reportable injury. We were able to finish ahead of schedule and below budget and with a perfect safety record.
What we learned from the repairs is just that something else landed a tool kit to go on to even deeper and more challenging waters so we're going from 3,000 feet of water at Mars to 8,000 feet of water.
What attracted me to Shell was definitely Shell's commitment to technology. And its long-term commitment of keeping in-house skill and in-house technical capability and it's something that has allowed me to work on leading edge technology projects throughout my whole 35 years and I think that's a great opportunity for somebody that wants to see all kinds of projects and all kinds of technologies and see these evolve over time.