MCS to Deliver Six Presentations at Inaugural Technical Conference during Australasia's Biggest Oil & Gas Event
16 February 2009
Subsea engineering and software company, MCS, will be fielding six speakers at the SUT's technical conference held in conjunction with AOG (Australasian Oil & Gas). The largest biannual oil and gas exhibition and conference in South-east Asia, AOG, is this year taking place from 17 to 19 February in Perth, Western Australia.
MCS will share its extensive subsea engineering expertise at the inaugural conference which has been introduced to AOG with the aim of identifying key subsea technical challenges and their solutions to a region where subsea oil and gas activity is rapidly expanding and developing.
MCS' group director, services and technology, Patrick O'Brien will present a keynote speech on the UK subsea industry and what it can offer the Australasian region. He will also examine the opportunities for collaboration between UK and Australian companies.
The remaining presentations by key members of MCS staff will focus on the complex challenges facing pipeline, risers and semi-submersibles in the deep and ultra-deep waters offshore Australia.
John Conroy, chief executive officer of MCS said: “The acceptance of four technical papers and two poster sessions into the conference is a significant endorsement of MCS' expertise and authority in subsea engineering. This opportunity means that we can share our findings and the solutions we have developed with an Australian audience. Our Perth office has more than doubled in size in the last 12 months, reflecting the demand for our subsea expertise and experience.
Pipeline installation becomes increasingly challenging in deep water and can lead to significant static and dynamic stresses to the pipeline itself. In their presentation on deepwater pipelay fatigue, MCS will present results of installation fatigue analysis and examine how to obtain more accurate fatigue calculations to reduce processing time and investigate the true risks, using features from its PipeLay software tool.
Another presentation will examine various scenarios for deepwater flowline design using MCS' Flexcom software to determine the effects of lateral and vertical movement on the flexible pipe integrity which can cause buckling.
The use of FPSOs in harsher environments with the need to extend service life and maximise operating conditions, puts an increasing demand on riser systems. In MCS' third presentation, the drivers for the design of disconnectable riser systems will be explored and innovations for their design highlighted.
Over the coming years an increasing number of flexible pipes will reach the end of their design life and prudent operators are focusing on understanding the integrity of these assets. MCS' presentation on managing ageing flexible pipe assets will put forward guidelines for developing and implementing an integrity management strategy, using the correct mix of inspection and assessment tools and operating procedures that allow operators to asses whether or not their life can be extended.
Using a real life case study of a vacuum test of the Mutineer-Exeter flexible riser system on the FPSO MV-11, MCS' fifth presentation will investigate annulus testing as a an effective way of assessing flexible riser integrity.
Finally, MCS will examine the design challenges and solutions for semi-submersibles in ultra-deepwater with particular focus on the feasibility of steel catenary risers.
MCS has been involved in many major subsea projects around the world and has become recognized as an authority on riser and subsea systems, from their design and delivery, to integrity management and running joint industry projects (JIPs), which set the industry standards.
A subsidiary of international energy services company, John Wood Group PLC, MCS provides engineering solutions including subsea and riser design expertise, integrity management, software and hardware expertise, across a wide variety of projects worldwide. With offices in Galway, Houston, Aberdeen, Rio, Perth, Paris and Kuala Lumpur, the company currently employs over 200 people.
