Drill Cuttings Newsletter - Issue 1 (July 1999)

Welcome to the newsletter for the UKOOA Drill Cuttings Initiative. Many of you will have participated in the Stakeholder Dialogue seminar held in London last November and will be interested to hear of the progress made since then. This issue is the first of a series of newsletters designed to keep you up to date with developments.

Research and Development Plan

Using feedback from November’s Stakeholder Dialogue seminar, a comprehensive research and development plan has been drawn up covering work to be completed by the end of the year. The scope was presented to prospective research institutions and engineering companies at meetings held in London and Aberdeen in March. Organisations with the necessary expertise to carry out particular research tasks were invited to attend in advance of seeking formal proposals to ensure that all those interested in the initiative had a clear understanding of the objectives and an equal opportunity to demonstrate their competence.

Interested organisations subsequently submitted their initial proposals identifying particular areas of expertise. The Task Force has screened these and has selected groups to be invited to make formal bids for each scope item. Organisations with complementary expertise are being encouraged to join forces so those groups demonstrating as broad an experience as possible can be considered for the work.

It is hoped that the first contracts will be awarded in July, with initial results due towards the end of the year. These will be reviewed firstly by the Scientific Review Group and then discussed at a further stakeholder workshop.

Scientific Review Group

Professor John Shepherd, who until recently was Director at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, is to chair the independent Scientific Review Group. His immediate task will be to assemble a group of acknowledged independent experts to review the results of the research programme and to provide advice.

A Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Shepherd is currently Director of the Earth System Modelling Initiative in Southampton.

SEBA Meeting – Hamburg

The UK Government submitted a paper on drill cuttings at the SEBA (OSPAR’s Sea Based Activities group) meeting in Hamburg in February 1999. The paper described the Industry initiative and outlined its twin track approach combining research and development with extensive public consultation. SEBA’s acceptance of the paper is seen as an endorsement of this approach.

DNV Appointed as Project Manager

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) joined the initiative in May as project manager, providing the co-ordination and administrative support required by a project of this size. Angus Lyon, Operations Manager at the DNV Technical Consultancy in Aberdeen, will head the core team of four. DNV is an independent, autonomous foundation with a long track record in providing safety, quality and environmental services to the world’s offshore industries. “One of the fundamental principles underlying this initiative is transparency. I believe DNV’s appointment will assist in that process,” says Angus Lyon.

OLF Co-Ordination

The UKOOA work programme is designed to complement ongoing work commissioned in Norway by the Norwegian Oil Operators representative organisation, OLF. There is regular liaison and co-operation to ensure that the efforts to understand the issues and seek solutions are not duplicated and information is exchanged in the interest of achieving a common goal.

UKOOA Drill Cuttings Web Pages

Your contribution to the initiative is important and we would value your comments and suggestions. Those with access to the Web will be able to maintain contact with the initiative, read background literature and raise any comments or queries via the new UKOOA Drill Cuttings web site at www.oilandgas.org.uk/issues which goes live from 25 June 1999.

Please call Trisha O’Reilly at UKOOA for further information on Tel. 0171 802 2422.

01/07/99