Let’s take this scenario - there is an impending hurricane and your offshore platform is in its path. Due to not having ample time to plan a rescue mission, you abort operations and abandon ship along with your employees.
Then the hurricane wreaks havoc. Your asset is damaged, your operations suffer and therefore your oil or gas production is halted. Your business takes a toll and your bottom line suffers a huge blow. Even worse - there are damages onboard your offshore platform that will burn a hole in your pocket to repair, and has also left a scar on the environment.
This scenario is what nightmares are made of.
And it would truly be an offshore operator’s worst nightmare indeed.
There is clearly a huge cost to bear when weather-related disasters strike. The offshore oil and gas industry is vulnerable to all these severe weather conditions, especially due to increasing adverse weather effects due to climate change.
Operation downtime
When such severe weather conditions develop, offshore operators are required to shutdown operations for the safety of their personnel.
While other safety concerns happen onboard an offshore platform, one of the longest downtime for operations happens when there is an adverse offshore weather condition. Oil and gas offshore operators have to protect not only the lives of their people on board but also their assets from damage. Plans also have to be set in place to ensure no further damage to the environment is caused after a severe storm.
Shutting down operations - whether it’s in the offshore construction or production stage - affects the bottom line of any offshore operator. It causes delays in the project; delays that still bear operational costs and require wages to be paid.
Asset and facility damages
In the wake of a hurricane, storm or severe offshore weather condition, crews are evacuated from offshore platforms, often only to return and find assets damaged and facilities needing repair. The actual damage or destruction of a platform is dependent on the severity of the offshore weather condition.
The damage to offshore infrastructure naturally leads to other issues - such as loss of operations, production or function. All these cost money. Assets are destroyed after a storm takes time to repair or reconstruct, and transporting raw materials to and fro offshore platforms is costly. Not to mention the cost of employing additional manpower to fix these offshore structure and operation damages while still running regular operations.
How to save offshore operational cost
Due to climate change, there has been an increase in severe offshore weather conditions that have affected oil and gas operations year on year. These severe weather issues can possibly endanger the offshore industry.
The good news is that there is a way for offshore energy firms to weather the storm. The most important way of doing so is by understanding the effects of climate change on the offshore industry - and to do so, you need a robust offshore weather forecast system.
Ask yourself this - even with extreme weather events taking place all over the world, how have upstream operations carried on like normal?
The answer is simple: these operators have invested in cutting-edge offshore weather forecasting technologies that can not only alert them on an impending hurricane or storm but also help them recognize location-based metocean trends to safeguard their crew and structural integrity from weather-related damages.
In a report by the National Ocean Industries Association, for example, Shell’s Mars platform sustained serious damage during Hurricane Katrina but dedicated and talented crews were able to repair the facility. This is because their platform was designed to sustain the hurricane season - something that they were aware of due to metocean forecasts.
With the weather forecasting technology that Global Meteocean provides, we can help you track weather-related trends that are specific to your offshore location. These metocean forecasts service will help you build in safeguards and provide you with alerts through a robust and updated offshore weather forecasting system.
If your ideal goal for your offshore platform is to have a structure that can withstand extreme weather conditions and still protect your people and assets, then weather forecasting is something that is a must to invest in.
For more details on accurate weather services for your offshore operations, contact us today at commercial@globalmeteocean.com.