|
As oil, often referred to as the Black
Gold is increasingly obtained from hostile environments such as in
deeper waters, war zones and in seas were ice is predominant for most
of the year if not all, technology has to advance in-step. As such
Swire Pacific Offshore have moved into a new area of offshore supply in
Sakhalin in Russia (under the name of Prisco Swire Offshore) initially
by building three Ice Breaking vessels, a start to what may become a
large part of their offshore business.
Alongside these three new and large
Ice Breaking supply and support vessels, officers are being prepared
and trained to operate them when they leave the yards next year. One
form of training is the ICE course held in Victoria, Canada at the
Executive House Hotel. Apart from the Hotel and the town of Victoria
providing a beautiful and active setting, the seminar/course held much
of interest to the twelve or so Captains, Chief Officers, Chief and
Second Engineers who attended. From Russia to Britain, South Africa to
Taiwan, officers of the Swire Pacific Offshore Fleet flew in to learn
all about Ice Standards, Sakhalin Ice and environmental conditions,
operational characteristics and performance of platform supply vessels
in ice and cold conditions and the transit and escort of other vessels
through ice. The course was the first of its kind held and one that
sparked a lot of interest internally and externally to Swire Pacific
Offshore.
The course was held by a company
called AKAC Inc, led by Arno Keinonen, Naval Architect and Marine
Engineer who has many years of ice breaker design, testing and
operational documentation, ice offshore development and risk based
operational control. Experience with 30 icebreakers including latest
azimuth thruster vessel designs and trails!
If somebody were to wander past the
room were the course was being held it could have been easily assumed
that a bunch of hard looking men were learning to cook. Words like soup
kitchens, cakes and egg codes and grease were bandied around freely and
had one listened to some of the accents in use it would further lead to
the assumption that the fare was to be Russian! All things considered
(though the food was excellent at dinner) this course was not about
food but about ice and should anybody now assume that two hours would
have covered the content rather than the two days given they would be
equally as wrong.
Different forms of ice exist in
different parts of the world. Sakhalin is not iceberg territory and so
any images of titanic disasters or looming bergs can be dispelled
immediately. Ice in Sakhalin occurs for most of the year with only
August and September being typically ice free months. The ice is highly
dynamic, it constantly moves around the island, often leaving the area
and away before returning. Generally the ice forms in what is called
the Soup Kitchen north of the Island, the ice is generally on the move
and is formed of ridges and rubble up to what will hopefully be no more
than one meter thick.
The scope of the course covers more
than just ice conditions it enters into the arena of how the cold
temperatures affect vessel operations, the dangers to personnel when
working outside in these temperatures and the dangers of ice pressure
and weather whilst working the vessel at the rigs. It includes such
details as how to read satellite images and helicopter observations of
current ice conditions how to interpret egg charts (the international
standards for ice characteristics) and how to plan vessel courses to
counter ice movement.
One aspect of the seminar that
probably sparked most interest was the new methods developed to break
ice. The traditional idea of ramming large chunks of ice at high speed
has for all practical purposed been superceded by more practical and
less damaging to the vessel approaches. The new ice breakers being
built certainly maintain the designed capacity to ram at speed but also
include alternative methods to clear channels through the ice and to
move ice away from the rigs. The simplest method is to ram but instead
of relying on the ice to crack with the impact these vessels ride up on
top thus using the weight of the vessel to break up the ice beneath the
hull. The ice cracks with the sheer mass above and is pushed underneath
the vessel, to the sides and away. Alternatively the two azimuth
propellers clear channels by using the wash they produce to redirect
the ice away from the vessel often with the vessel steaming astern. In
this manner channels can be easily cleared that are far larger than the
beam of the vessel, thus becoming suitable for channel clearance for
tankers or vessels of larger beams.
As oil gets deeper, becomes harder to
extract and as it becomes scarcer the challenges for those involved in
its extraction get bigger. The Sakhalin project is only the start of
what may become a massive operation and it is only through such courses
as these that personnel involved become proficient, safe and confident
in their new line of work - able to enjoy the challenges ahead!
|
