Our next technical talk is to be held on the 18^th November, at OneSubsea, 4646 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, 77041 (directions attached). The talk is titled “Remote, Real-Time Monitoring of Offshore Drilling” and will be presented by Frank Chapman of Ashford Technical Services. A small charge of $10 will be collected at the door to cover the cost of food.

About Frank:

Frank co-founded Ashford Technical Services in 1989 and is currently the company’s president. At Ashford, Frank leads the development of a number of systems for controlling and monitoring equipment in several industries including petroleum, semiconductor manufacturing and telecommunication. Prior to founding Ashford he was a technical manager at FPS computing; FPS developed high performance computing hardware for a number of industries. Frank started his career at Brown and Root where he developed structural analysis software for designing some of the early offshore production platforms (100 – 1000ft water depth). Frank has a BS from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Michigan.

More on the technical talk:

  After the BP Macondo Well / Transocean Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010, government regulators have been looking for ways to improve offshore drilling safety. The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has proposed a number of rules for offshore drilling. One of these rules, remote real-time monitoring of offshore drilling operations, is very controversial. Working through the American Petroleum Institute (API) the industry has expressed its concerns regarding BSEE’s rulings. Final details of the rules and what’s technically reasonable is still in flux.  The presentation will cover recent developments related to remote, real-time monitoring of offshore drilling operations focusing on both political and technical issues.