[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
An increasing number of federal agencies are pursuing plans to use pilotless surveillance aircraft to help patrol the Mexican and Canadian borders, protect the nation's major oil and gas pipelines and aid in other homeland security missions.
Oil companies and mercenary companies http://www.google.com/search?q=%22oil+companies%22%2C%22executive+outcomes%22%2C%22sandline+international%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/special/chron10001/912004
June 28, 2001, 11:05AM
CHRONICLE 100: ODD DEVICES IN THE DEEP
Deep-water drilling's cast of characters: pigs, crabs, pikes
By NELSON ANTOSH
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle
Before the summer is over, Shell Oil will start remotely launching pigs into a flow line stretching from an oil well to its new Auger platform in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Pigs in this case are slugs made out of plastic, with scraper ridges front and rear, that are used to clean out pipelines.
The remotely operated, diverless, subsea pig launcher may provide a low-cost solution to a nasty problem -- flow lines in deep water that require pigging because after a while they become clogged, much like an artery filled with cholesterol.
Typically, in water that is several thousand feet deep, the pigs run in a loop with pumps. This circular route brings the pigs from the well and back into the deep waters.
The Shell plan is different because it would use a single flow line, providing savings estimated at $21 million per project.
This savings is just for reduced cost of the installation. It doesn't include the long-term cost of single vs. round-trip pigging, said Jim Hale of Shell's deep water execution group, speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference.
The trick to putting in just one line is getting the pigs down to the wellhead.
Shell's cagelike device, complete with a cartridge full of pigs, is lowered until it sits on the wellhead on the sea floor. The concept came from Houston's Oceaneering International.
Working almost like an automatic gun, it will drop a pig into a chamber and then send it on its way with a puff of natural gas, to be pushed farther along by the flow of oil as it clears out the buildup from a variety of sources.
For instance, Shell's Serrano well has waxy condensates in the natural gas, while its Oregano well nearby is an asphaultic type of crude, which also creates a gunky buildup, Hale said.
The launcher will hold nine pigs, which the designers calculate will be enough to keep this particular line clean for a year. After that, it can be reloaded using an ROV, or remotely operated vehicle, that does tasks where divers don't dare to go.
A robot well-crawler
Drillers have found ways to drill wells that slant, go horizontal and even turn. But the technology for getting tools into those holes hasn't kept pace.
A long, thin robot that can crawl miles into the earth down a borehole, do a job and then crawl back to the surface promises to help solve that problem.
Called the MicroRig, the robot differs from other "downhole tractors" because it doesn't trail electric wires, which too often pull apart.
Furthermore, it can force its way down a well flowing as much as 5,000 barrels per day through a 3 1/2-inch diameter pipe, according to Joe Donovan of Intelligent Inspection Corp., which is working with Halliburton to commercialize Micro-Rig and other robots.
Powered by batteries, it grips the walls of the pipe with what look like rotating bicycle chains. A computer brain tells it what to do and helps it avoid getting stuck.
It sees when it is getting into trouble, he said. For instance, it knows what a spit pipe looks like and can spot it with eyes that are 11 feet ahead of the traction units.
The first tasks will be relatively simple, such as measuring temperatures and pressures in a well, at depths where communication is nearly impossible.
Later, and it may take years to get there, the robot should be able to open and close the downhole valves used in smart-well technology.
MicroRig should be a real cost-saver in slanting or horizontal wells, Donovan said. Putting something down a vertical well is relatively easy, but in horizontal wells it has to be pushed with a coiled tubing unit that is bulky and expensive to use, especially if the well is offshore.
Crab, fish serve as models
Limited only by their imagination, oil companies are getting a shot at some weird helpers in doing their tough jobs at the bottom of the sea.
These include a 2-foot-wide, 40-pound vehicle modeled after a crab, and a 3-foot-long mechanical fish that was modeled after a pike.
The crab could be used for running seismic lines or laying cable, while the fish could swim along a pipeline sniffing for leaks, according to Joe Donovan, a vice president for the Intelligent Inspection Corp.
The Somerville, Mass., firm is collaborating with iRobot, a developer of small robots for the Department of Defense, NASA and the toy industry.
They showed off these ideas at the Offshore Technology Conference. They are hoping these ideas will inspire practical uses, like the MicroRig, which it is working on with oil industry partners.
The fish was developed for the Navy because sonar can't tell it from a fish, while the bottom-crawling crabs were planned to clear mines off Kuwait, but they weren't needed because the conflict with Iraq did not last long.
The six-legged crab, named Ariel, can scramble over obstacles that would stop vehicles with wheels. It can maneuver equally well right side up or upside down.
The mechanical pike prototype was developed in cooperating with MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering, has a caudal fin and swims with the motion of a fish. A micropocessor is packed inside its waterproof head.
"These things have been built, they do exist and can do things. What we are trying to do is find ways to use them in the oil business," said Donovan, who has held positions with Texaco, Mesa Petroleum and Baker Hughes.
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DARPA and Wetware http://www.libertythink.com/2002_12_01_archives.html#90035865
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