Historical Development of the Offshore Industry

Historical Development of the Offshore Industry

Endeavor Management Consultants Victor Schmidt, Bruce Crager, and George Rodenbusch contributed an opening overview article in the recently published Encyclopedia of Marine and Offshore Engineering (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.), explaining the Historical Development of the Offshore Industry. The article covers the industry’s three major stages: exploration, drilling, and production, showing how specialized engineering is required and has been applied throughout each of these stages over the past 120-plus years, as the industry steadily advanced into deeper water and more challenging environments. The full Encyclopedia may be reviewed at the Wiley Online Library http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781118476406.

Abstract

The oil and gas industry finds and develops offshore oil and gas fields in three major stages: exploration, drilling, and production. Specialized engineering is required and has been applied throughout each of these stages resulting in the industry’s steady advance into deeper water and more challenging environments. The advances in engineering are best seen in the structures and technologies that have been applied in the vessels designed for use on and in the water, in the new materials developed to meet harsher conditions, and in the control systems developed to guide the flow of fluids from deep in the earth, through the water column, and into the platforms and floating production systems that gather and process the production, so it can be sent to market. The engineering challenges continue to evolve, and the solutions that are developed set the stage for industry’s next advance into the ocean’s depths.