Thrown for a Loop

Starts: Thu, Nov 9, 2017 11:30 AM CST
Ends: Thu, Nov 9, 2017 12:30 PM CST
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Thrown for a Loop
Overview, Challenges, and Impacts of the Loop Current on Offshore Operations.
Presented by SUT-US' Group on Environmental Forces (GEFUS) and Loop Current & Eddies Alliance (LCEA)

This presentation will provide a descriptive overview of the Loop Current and a recent history of the studies of the oceanographic processes associated with it insofar as they affect offshore operations. The tools and techniques utilized to monitor, study, and forecast Loop Current and Eddy movements will be discussed and the challenges of collecting the data required for analysis will be presented. In addition, examples will be provided of the impact and costs of Loop "events" on offshore operations and some of the lessons learned will be offered up for consideration. It is hoped that this overview will assist offshore operators and contractors to better understand the Loop Current and therefore more effectively manage their resources, limit potential downtime, and to work as safely as is possible.


About the speaker:


Chris Riffe, Chief Technology Director at Horizon Marine, Inc.

He has over thirty years of commercial fishing, oil field, military, and academic marine operations experience. Chris started his oil-field career with Levy-Mellon Marine in 1981 as an ordinary seaman and worked his way up to becoming a supply vessel captain in 1985.  During the down-turn in the late eighties he attended the University of North Carolina and graduated with a degree in Marine biology in 1990. From 1991 to 2001 Chris simultaneously wore the hats of marine technician and captain aboard the Louisiana Marine Consortiums research vessel PELICAN. In 2001, Chris was enticed off the PELICAN to move to Houston where he managed several oceanographic firms’ Gulf of Mexico field operations teams. In 2006 Chris joined Horizon Marine, Inc. to start the company’s Field Operations Division and to assist in the development of the FAST Eddy service. Recently, Chris is spending his time developing services around advances in newer technologies.