Metocean Awareness Course

Starts: Wed, Mar 4, 2020 8:00 AM CST
Ends: Thu, Mar 5, 2020 4:00 PM CST
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Metocean is a discipline covering meteorology and physical oceanography and is concerned with quantifying the impact and effect of weather and sea conditions on a wide range of activities particularly in the offshore oil and gas and renewables industries.

Why will this course benefit you?
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For all offshore industries, the effects of meteorology and oceanography (metocean) have a major impact on design and operations. If users of metocean information are not aware of the implications that the weather, waves, currents and water levels can have on their operations or design work, then things can go wrong with serious health and safety and economic consequences.

This two day Metocean Awareness Course is aimed at those who need to have a greater understanding of metocean conditions worldwide and how they might impact the effectiveness of their work. The course format will include a mixture of short presentations presented by expert speakers in this field. Delegates will receive a comprehensive course manual on attendance.

Who should attend?
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This course is essential for Project Managers and Engineers in the offshore oil and gas and renewables industries, involved in operations or design, from new entrants to the industry to those with many years of experience. The course will enable delegates to interact and network with expert speakers and other delegates from various backgrounds who use or provide metocean data.

Course Content
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Part I: Requirements for Metocean Criteria and Statistics - Introduction Jan Van Smirren Why metocean is important What exactly is metocean Requirements for metocean at each stage of the project cycle How metocean meets those needs

Part II. Metocean Parameters and Processes Chris Yetsko, Rafael Ramos Winds and atmospheric circulation Waves Currents and Ocean circulation Water level (tides, surges, and tsunami)

Part III. Metocean Data Sources, Data Quality Control, Archiving and Climate Variability Jan Van Smirren, Rafael Schiller Data sources – measured and modelled Data sources – satellite Data QC/archiving

Part IV. Metocean Conditions Around the World Rafael Ramos Temperate climates (eg North Sea) Tropical climates (eg Gulf of Mexico, SE Asia, West Africa) Arctic type climates (eg Sakhalin, North Caspian)

Part V: The Role of Meteorology and Oceanography in the Offshore Industry Jan Van Smirren The applications of metocean data through life of field Acquisition (permitting, fatal flaw) Exploration (seismic, drilling) Appraisal Development (concept selection, tows, construction and installation) Production Life extension Abandonment

Part VI: Metocean Statistics for Operational Planning Shejun Fan Scenarios – when to use, what to ask for Operability – weather windows: seismic, drilling, pipelaying, installations, heavy lifts, tows, float-overs, decommissioning, etc Aviation and marine logistics – helicopters, marine crew change,etc

Part VII: Developing Metocean Design Criteria Dave Driver How to derive 100 year extreme values How to produce final design criteria Typical design criteria products and presentations Differing requirements for fixed versus floating installations Independent criteria versus response based design Uncertainties, reliability and impact of climate variability

Part VIII: Critical Applications Don Allen, Shejun Fan Drilling operations in high current deepwater environments Tendons and risers Wave slam and green water, turret versus spread mooring and other general metocean issues for concept selection Pipeline issues

Part IX: Uncertainties Reliability and the Impact of Climate Variability Don Conlee

About the Presenters
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Chris Yetsko
Chris Yetsko has worked at ConocoPhillips for over eleven years as a Metocean Engineer. He has 23 years of experience in metocean work and marine weather forecasting, primarily in support of the oil and gas industry. Chris received a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology with a Minor in Earth Systems from the Pennsylvania State University in 1996.

Rafael Ramos
Dr. Rafael Ramos is Regional Manager at Woods Hole Group, and has more than 25 years of experience working in many aspects of ocean engineering, marine, and atmospheric sciences for government entities, research institutions, and the offshore oil industry. He earned a Master’s Degree in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Doctorate Degree in Applied Marine Physics at the University of Miami. He also completed a Post-Doctorate appointment at the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advance Remote Sensing of the University of Miami. He has been involved in multiple aspects of design and requalification of fixed offshore platforms, and managed several related projects including the generation and implementation of risk-based design and assessment criteria and recommended practices for offshore platforms in Bay of Campeche. Dr. Ramos has been also involved in several field experiments focused on further understanding atmospheric, oceanographic, and air-sea interaction phenomena, ranging from internal waves to momentum and heat transfer on the ocean surface. He is author or coauthor of more than 13 peer-reviewed technical articles and more than 10 conference proceedings papers dealing with modeling and interpretation of data collected by shore-, vessel-, and satellite-based remote sensing systems as well as moored and non-moored buoy instrumentation.

Rafael Schiller
Rafael Schiller is the manager of the Metocean Consultancy Services at Fugro in the Americas Region. He has a BSc degree in Oceanography from FURG (Brazil) and a PhD degree in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Miami. His background is in data analysis and metocean numerical modeling. For the past years he has worked on multiple data analysis, hindcast/forecast modeling and metocean criteria projects in the Gulf of Mexico and the Americas region involving site characterization and asset integrity requirements.

Dave Driver
David Driver has 36 years of experience working in the physical oceanography realm, 28 of which were spent working in the offshore oil and gas industry. Before retirement, his primary responsibility was the development of environmental (metocean) criteria for the design, installation, and operation of offshore production facilities (spars, semis, TLP, etc). He collected and analyzed meteorological and oceanographic data from a variety of sources, including measured data from company/industry monitoring programs, government and academia monitoring programs, and proprietary numerical hindcast data. He served as BP’s Principal Metocean Engineer and Technical Authority for the Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad, and Brazil.

Don Allen
Don Allen graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 and completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Rice University in 1986.   Upon completion of his Ph.D. studies and concurrent summer assignments at Exxon, Don joined Shell and began work in offshore structures research.  In 1987, he began research in vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of risers, tendons, pipelines, and umbilicals.  Shortly thereafter Don performed his first experiments on VIV suppression devices, that led to the discovery of both the short fairing and the tall helical strake.  These two discoveries represent the vast majority of VIV suppression devices used in the ocean today.  During the period of 1992-1994, Don led a joint industry program with MIT that resulted in the program SHEAR7 which has become the industry model for analyzing VIV of deepwater tubulars.  In the mid-1990s, Don’s Shell team began fabricating VIV suppression devices for internal projects, partner projects, and then eventually third-parties.  The team was formally acknowledged as a small business entity by Shell Global Solutions in 2002.  Don managed this business for nearly a decade while continuing to conduct VIV research.  This team achieved many “firsts” including underwater retrofitting of fairings, s-lay installation of fairings, and use of tail-fin fairings (now called Tail FairingsTM) for drilling risers.  In 2010, Don retired from Shell and founded VIV Solutions.  Don has been awarded 49 US patents and has received several industry awards.  He has been inducted into the Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame as a Technology Pioneer together with his Shell colleagues that developed the steel catenary riser.  This team also received the ASCE OTC Hall of Fame Award.  In 2019 Don was inducted into the Oilfield Energy Center Hall of Fame as a Technology Pioneer for VIV.

Shejun Fan
Dr Shejun Fan has a BS in Mathematical Mechanics from Peking University, a MS in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a PhD degree in Oceanography from Old Dominion University in Virginia. Dr Shejun Fan is a Metocean Specialist and Technical Authority 1 at Shell. He has more than 25-year experience in metocean criteria studies and asset support, marine science, coastal and ocean engineering, numerical modeling and all aspects of physical and meteorological data processing and analysis.  Dr Fan had worked for East China Normal University, MIT, Princeton University, Stevens Institute of Technology and Fugro.

Don Conlee
Don Conlee is an Instructional Professor at Texas A&M University, where he earned his doctorate in Meteorology in 1994. He also holds an MS in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School. Don is a retired Naval Officer where he was a METOC (Meteorology and Oceanography) operator, program manager and educator in a career of over 20 years. He served NOAA as the Chief Scientist for the National Data Buoy Center, and was an applications scientist for current meter manufacturer Nortek USA before joining the A&M faculty.

Jan van Smirren
Since graduating with a B.Sc. in Geology and Oceanography (1981) and M.Sc. in Oceanography (1982), Jan has gained over 35 years of experience in commercial oceanography, and is current an Oceanographer with Ocean Sierra LLC, prior to this he held positions as Managing Director of BMT Energy and Metocean Global Business Line Manager at Fugro where he was responsible for overseeing all meteorological, oceanographic and environmental activities.  Jan’s experience includes director level appointments in Holland, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with planning, management, business development and operational responsibilities.  His oceanographic experience has seen him undertake studies in the North and South Atlantic, South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.  This has included both field measurement and monitoring system campaigns and the detailed analysis and interpretation of data. 


Contact
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You can contact us at communications@sut-us.org for questions regarding this course.