Estimating appropriate levels of financial assurance for offshore petroleum activities in Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Horn ◽  
Felicity Harrison ◽  
Andrew Woodhams ◽  
Miranda Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Environment Management ◽  
Well Control ◽  
Financial Responsibility ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Financial Assurance ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Safety And Environment ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

APPEA has developed a method to assist titleholders estimate appropriate levels of financial assurance for pollution incidents arising from petroleum activities. In 2013 the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (OPGGS Act) was amended to strengthen the polluter pays principles of the act and clarify and broaden its financial assurance requirements. Those amendments included provision for regulation requiring titleholders to demonstrate financial assurance as a prior condition for the acceptance of an environment plan (EP) by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA). The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) has developed a standard method that can be used by titleholders to estimate the level of financial assurance required under the OPGGS Act. The APPEA method broadly follows the approach first proposed by Oil & Gas UK in their Guidelines to assist licensees in demonstrating Financial Responsibility to DECC for the consent of Exploration & Appraisal Wells in the UKCS. The method involves two steps: (i) estimate the cost of well control (if appropriate); and, (ii) estimate the cost of the operational response. For the purposes of estimating the cost of operational response, a pollution incident is assigned to one of eight cost bands, according to its potential impact, based on three parameters: the hydrocarbon type, the total spill volume and the potential shoreline impact. The APPEA method was applied to 10 case studies, spanning a range of petroleum activities, hydrocarbon types and geographical regions. The case studies demonstrated that the operational response costs for each of the case studies are broadly captured by their respective cost bands.

Review and proposed extension of the APPEA Method for estimating levels of financial assurance

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
David Horn ◽  
Kristina Downey ◽  
Andrew Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Fuel Oil ◽  
Marine Fuel ◽  
Environment Management ◽  
Fuel Oils ◽  
Financial Assurance ◽  
Safety And Environment ◽  
Offshore Petroleum

In 2014, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) published the ‘Method to assist titleholders in estimating appropriate levels of financial assurance for pollution incidents arising from petroleum activities’, referred to as the APPEA Method. The APPEA Method provides a standard approach to quantifying the appropriate level of financial assurance required under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (OPGGS Act). The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA) endorsed the APPEA Method for an initial period of 2 years (until December 2016) with the requirement that APPEA review the method against a broader range of case studies to confirm its validity. In 2017, APPEA applied the APPEA Method to 18 case studies, comparing independently calculated cost estimates with the APPEA Method cost band for each case study. For 17 of the 18 case studies, the independent cost estimate was less than the APPEA Method cost band, confirming the validity of the APPEA Method for those case studies. For one of the case studies involving marine fuel oil, the APPEA Method cost band potentially underestimated the response and clean-up costs. The robustness of the APPEA Method can be improved by amending the hydrocarbon type impact score for fuel oils. Based on the review, NOPSEMA has since endorsed the APPEA Method until September 2018. The APPEA Method is currently endorsed for incidents in which the total volume of hydrocarbon released is <1 000 000 m3 and the total volume of oil ashore is <25 000 m3. Based on an assessment of the response and clean-up costs from three additional case studies that exceeded these limits, amendments to the APPEA Method are proposed that would extend the range of incidents to which it could be applied.

Failure Analysis of the Tripping Operation and its Impact on Well Control

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majeed Abimbola ◽  
Faisal Khan ◽  
Vikram Garaniya ◽  
Stephen Butt
Keyword(s):  
Human Error ◽  
Integrated Control ◽  
Fault Tree ◽  
Fault Tree Analysis ◽  
Well Control ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Open Hole ◽  
Critical Components ◽  
The Cost

As the cost of drilling and completion of offshore well is soaring, efforts are required for better well planning. Safety is to be given the highest priority over all other aspects of well planning. Among different element of drilling, well control is one of the most critical components for the safety of the operation, employees and the environment. Primary well control is ensured by keeping the hydrostatic pressure of the mud above the pore pressure across an open hole section. A loss of well control implies an influx of formation fluid into the wellbore which can culminate to a blowout if uncontrollable. Among the factors that contribute to a blowout are: stuck pipe, casing failure, swabbing, cementing, equipment failure and drilling into other well. Swabbing often occurs during tripping out of an open hole. In this study, investigations of the effects of tripping operation on primary well control are conducted. Failure scenarios of tripping operations in conventional overbalanced drilling and managed pressure drilling are studied using fault tree analysis. These scenarios are subsequently mapped into Bayesian Networks to overcome fault tree modelling limitations such s dependability assessment and common cause failure. The analysis of the BN models identified RCD failure, BHP reduction due to insufficient mud density and lost circulation, DAPC integrated control system, DAPC choke manifold, DAPC back pressure pump, and human error as critical elements in the loss of well control through tripping out operation.

scholarly journals Interventions with Sticky Social Norms: A Critique

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Dutta ◽  
David K Levine ◽  
Salvatore Modica
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
General Model ◽  
Negative Externality ◽  
Pigouvian Tax ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Unexpected Consequences

Abstract We study the consequences of policy interventions when social norms are endogenous but costly to change. In our environment a group faces a negative externality that it partially mitigates through incentives in the form of punishments. In this setting policy interventions can have unexpected consequences. The most striking is that when the cost of bargaining is high introducing a Pigouvian tax can increase output - yet in doing so increase welfare. An observer who saw that an increase in a Pigouvian tax raised output might wrongly conclude that this harmed welfare and that a larger tax increase would also raise output. This counter-intuitive impact on output is demonstrated theoretically for a general model and found in case studies for public goods subsidies and cartels.

Applications of an Interactive Balancing Procedure for Gas Turbines and Other Turbomachinery

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Allison ◽  
Harold R. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Cost Function ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Interactive Method ◽  
Balance Weight ◽  
The Cost

Least squares balancing methods have been applied for many years to reduce vibration levels of turbomachinery. This approach yields an optimal configuration of balancing weights to reduce a given cost function. However, in many situations, the cost function is not well-defined by the problem, and a more interactive method of determining the effects of balance weight placement is desirable. An interactive balancing procedure is outlined and implemented in an Excel spreadsheet. The usefulness of this interactive approach is highlighted in balancing case studies of a GE LM5000 gas turbine and an industrial fan. In each case study, attention is given to practical aspects of balancing such as sensor placement and balancing limitations.

scholarly journals Editorial introduction: Gender and political financing

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212110409
Author(s):  
Rainbow Murray ◽  
Ragnhild Muriaas ◽  
Vibeke Wang
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Contesting elections is extremely expensive. The need for money excludes many prospective candidates, resulting in the over-representation of wealth within politics. The cost of contesting elections has been underestimated as a cause of women’s under-representation. Covering seven case studies in six papers, this special issue makes theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding how political financing is gendered. We look at the impact on candidates, arguing that the personal costs of running for office can be prohibitive, and that fundraising is harder for female challengers. We also explore the role of political parties, looking at when and how parties might introduce mitigating measures to support female candidates with the costs of running. We demonstrate how political institutions shape the cost of running for office, illustrate how this is gendered and consider the potential consequences of institutional reform. We also note how societal gender norms can have financial repercussions for women candidates.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document