Blow Out Preventer (BOP)

Blow out preventer (BOP) adalah sebuah alat yang besar yang terdiri dari beberapa unit katup-katup(sering disebut juga sebagai “rams”), BOP ditempatkan diatas sumur (wellhead), dimana BOP ini bisa ditutup untuk alasan keselamatan pada saat pekerjaan pengeboran dilakukan. Rams atau BOP ini dirancang untuk menutup jika tekanan dari dalam tanah menyebabkan fluida (miyak atau gas alam) masuk ke dalam lubang pengeboran dan mengancam keselamatan rig.

Dengan menutup BOP tersebut, maka aliran dari fluida yang tidak diinginkan tersebut dapat dicegah, sehingga lubang sumur (wellbore) memungkinkan untuk dapat dikontrol kembali. Sekali sumur telah ditutup, selanjutnya situasi dapat dievaluasi untuk menentukan prosedur yang dipersyaratkan dalam rangka melanjutkan operasi dalam keadaan aman.

BOP ini dapat dipasang baik diatas tanah maupun didalam air. BOP untuk sumur-sumur diperairan yang dalam, digerakkan dan dikontrol dari jarak jauh oleh actuator hidrolis. Pada saat ini, rata-rata BOP untuk laut dalam dapat mengontrol 15.000 psi untuk kedalaman air sampai dengan 10.000 feet (sekitar 3000 meter).
Ada tiga tipe katup (valve) yang biasa dipakai untuk BOP di air dalam: Satu katup adalah “ram” yang berfungsi sebagai penutup/segel (seal) pada pipa dengan diameter yang spesifik dengan membentuk sebuah gerakan horizontal yang tajam. Tipe yang lain dengan berfungsi sebagai penutup/ segel pada pipa dengan diameter yang bervariasi. Sedang tipe ke tiga adalah katup BOP yang menutup langsung ke lubang sumurnya.
Untuk Horizon Deepwater BOP mengandung ketiga element dari jenis-jenis katup tersebut diatas.

Sumber: www.bp.com

Metode Top Kill untuk Menutup Kebocoran Sumur Minyak di Laut Dalam

Membaca berita di kompas.com, mengenai bocoran minyak mentah di Gulf of Mexico karena tenggelamnya drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, dimana pihak BP sebagai charterer, betanggung jawab atas tumpahan minyak tsb. Maka, BP bakal menerapkan metode baru penghentian tumpahan minyak. Dimana menurut catatan dari Reuters dan AP pada Selasa (25/5/2010), cara itu disebut "top kill". Ringkasnya, BP akan memompakan lumpur dan semen ke dalam sumur yang meledak. Dengan cara itu, tumpahan minyak diharapkan terhenti.

Kebocoran minyak mulai terjadi lebih dari satu bulan lalu ketika anjungan pengeboran minyak tsb yang dioperasikan atas nama BP meledak dan menewaskan 11 orang. Jutaan barrel minyak meluber ke laut dari pipa sumur yang bocor di kedalaman 1.524 meter di bawah permukaan laut. Tumpahan minyak itu meluber ke laut di dekat Louisiana dan juga mengancam Florida serta Kuba.

Sebenarnya bagaiamana metode "Top Kill" tersebut akan dilakukan, berikut adalah saduran dari http://www.bp.com.

Prosedur Top Kill
Tujuan Utama dari proses top kill ini adalah memompakan lumpur pekat (heavy mud) kedalam sumur sehingga dapat mengurangi tekanan dan kemudian aliran dari sumur diharapkan akan berkurang. Sekali kill mud telah berada didalam sumur dan sumur padam, maka kemudian akan diikuti oleh pemberian semen untuk menutup kebocoran.
Dalam rangka penerapan prosedur top kill ini, BP sedang merancang peralatan dengan kemampuan pompa (killing rate) yang setinggi mungkin, yang mana hal ini tidak menyangkut dengan flow rate minyak dari dalam sumur, peralatan pompa ini untuk memaksa lumpur mengalir masuk kedalam sumur. Metode ini akan dikombinasikan dengan penggunaan fluida pengeboran yang pekat (heavy drill fluid) yang dirancang untuk menghentikan aliran sumur pada akhirnya. Hal ini belum pernah dilakukan sebelumnya untuk kedalaman laut seperti ini. Hal ini akan sangat rumit – dan melibatkan beberapa prosedur yang rumit berjalan bersamaan.

Deskripsi Rinci dari Prosedur ini.
BP mempunyai kapal Q4000 di permukaan dimana kapal tersebut memiliki sebuah crane besar untuk mengangkat alat-alat berat dan kapal tsb juga akan bertindak sebagai pusat dari peralatan atas air dalam prosedur ini. BP juga memiliki beberapa kapal yang lain: HOS Centerline, dengan peralatan pompa milik Halliburton; HOS Strongline; BJ Service Blue Dolphin dan kapal pompa Halliburton Stim Star IV. Total sejumlah 50.000 barrel lumpur akan berada dilokasi untuk menutup sumur – lebih dari sekedar cukup, tetapi BP menginginkan semuanya siap dalam segala hal. Kapasitas pompa di lokasi lebih dari 30.000 hidrolik horsepower. Lumpur tersebut akan dipompa mauk dengan pipa bor (drill pipe) ukuran 6-5/8 inchi dimana pipa tersebut terhubung dengan Q4000, kemudian lumpur akan melalui selang (hose) berukuran 3 inchi yang kemudian mengalir ke manifold di dasar laut. Lumpur kemudian akan bergerak mengalir ke selang 3 inchi yang lain yag terhubung ke Deepwater Horizon BOP choke dan menutup jalur alirannya.
Dengan manifold ini, akan dapat juga dipompakan ‘junk shot’ jika perlu, untuk menghentikan lumpur penyumbat (kill mud) yang terlalu banyak sehingga akan mengalir keluar melalui bagian atas dari BOP daripada lumpur yang masuk kedalam sumur untuk menghentikan aliran.
Junk shot telah diuji di daratan, dan konfigurasi yang berbeda sedang dicari untuk segala hal yang mungkin membatasi aliran keluar dari riser milik Deepwater Horizon dan tipe material apa yang mungkin membantu untuk mematikan aliran sumur tersebut. Material junk shot dapat termasuk barang-barang yang telah umum diketahui seperti potongan-potongan ban, bola golf dan potongan-potongan tali. Banyak dari peralatan yang sudah berada dilokasi dan persiapan untuk opersi ini sedang berlanjut.

What Happened with Titanic from 1980?

The movie Raise of Titanic was already mentioned in a previous article about 10 movies you should avoid where it came out on 4th place.

Hence its bad reputation, the movie got an interesting story about the ship that was used in the movie.

Raise of Titanic was released in the UK in December 1980 with a budget on $10.5 million.

The major expense was on the highly detailed Titanic model ship. There has been put a lot of work into the 10 tons heavy ship so it could have the exact design for every scene in the movie, even under water.

The model has been around for several years, until today, but it is no longer the ship model it once was.

Source: http://www.thisblogrules.com

Through the eye of a needle

source: http://zuzutop.com

Russian Ekranoplan (pictures)

Russian Ekranoplan

1987 was the year when the first 350 tons ground effect “ship” from the series of Soviet battle missile carriers was produced. It was called Lun after the Russian name for a bird of prey - hen harrier. Another name for this vehicle was Project 903. It carried 6 Moskit cruise missiles (SS-N-22 Sunburn in NATO classification). Hitting four of them causes inevitable sinking of a vessel of any know type and size. The second Lun-class battle aircraft was supposed to be produced in several years but due to the end of cold war and partial disarmament the project was changed to a rescue aircraft and it was never finished.

This type of vehicle called in Russian ekranoplan uses so called ground effect - extra lift of large wings when in proximity to the surface. For this reason they have been designed to travel at a maximum of three meters above the sea but at the same time could provide take off, stable “flight” and safe “landing” in conditions of up to 5-meter waves. These crafts were originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. In 2005 crafts of this type have been classified by the International Marine Organization so they probably should be considered flying ships rather than swimming planes. It is also interesting to note that this aircraft is one of the largest ever built, with a length of 73,8 meters (comparing with 73 of Airbus A380).

Lun doesn‘t have a landing gear, only a huge hydroski so there’s no way for it to get on land and for this reason a special floating dry dock was designed for it.
This hybrid vehicle is driven by 8 turbojet engines.
Functionally the body of this strange ship was divided into 4 parts: fore, middle, after-part and keel together with stabilizer. Fore part possesses pilot house and a pillar holding 8 main engines, as well as a room with secondary ones.

Middle and after parts were fully equipped with test facilities but still have also a caboose and a toilet. The whole keel is filled with power installation for electricity supply during mooring and a complex of radio navigation and communication equipment. A room for a gunner is placed in a cross-line of keel and stabilizer at a height of 12 meters over the waterline.
The ecranoplan’s crew consisted of 7 officers and 4 warrant officers. It could be absolutely autonomous for 5 days.
Don’t miss the 2nd and 3rd pages of photos. There are plenty of them

Source: http://englishrussia.com

Old Russian Aircraft Carrier

This Russian aircraft-carrier boat had a strange story. When it was being built it was called “Riga” - the name of Latvian capital city, but just after the construction was over and 20 minutes later the ceremony of the ship’s launching started they got a call from Moscow demanding to change the name to “VARYAG”, probably just because at that time Latvia demanded independence, so Russian government understood that if they leave the old name, in just a few months one of their top-ships would carry the name of the capital of the another state. So they called and changed the name same day the boat was launched. That was a bad sign.


A few years later, they couldn’t maintain it anymore, and the ship itself demanded some sort of upgrading so they decided to… sell it for iron-and-steel scrap! The company which bought it couldn’t transport it to scrap site, mainly because Turkey didn’t allow the private company to pass the big and scary aircraft-carrier through its waters it in time so it stayed for one and a half year and they seriously considered on abandoning it.

Later they got permission from Turkey and moved it from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. And then in Mediterranean it has almost got stuck on sandbank. So it took it a few years to come to travel in its the last journey.

Source: http://englishrussia.com

The World's Record-Breaking Container Ports

Port of Singapore, Singapore
Total cargo volume: 471 million tons (2009)
Container traffic: 25 million TEU (2009)
The Port of Singapore handles a vast array of cargo, including containers and conventional and bulk cargo. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) oversees the development of the port acting as its port authority, regulator, planner and national maritime representative. The port has a number of terminal operators, including Jurong Port Pte Ltd and PSA Corporation.
According to some sources, Singapore is the world's busiest port in terms of total shipping tonnage and tranships a fifth of the world's shipping containers and half of the world's annual supply of crude oil. Given the nation's lack of land and natural resources, the port plays a critical role in importing natural resources and exporting them after they have been refined.
Last year the MPA revealed it was aiming to develop the Port of Singapore into a centre of excellence for maritime research and development over the next 15 years. In particular it aims to focus on emerging technologies such as clean technologies for more eco-friendly shipping.

Port of Shanghai
Total cargo volume: 368 million tons (2009)
Container traffic: 28 million TEU (2009)
The Port of Shanghai has three major container port areas: Wusongkou, Waigaogiao and Yangshan, which collectively, from 2001 to 2006, saw container throughput almost quadruple.
Its non-container terminals play an essential role in serving the economic development of the Yangste River Valley, with a terminal situated on the banks of the Huangu River acting as a regional distribution centre.
As well as being an important transport hub for the Yangste River region, which has a strong agricultural and industrial base, it acts as one of China's most important gateways for foreign trade. A number of new technologies have been implemented across the port in recent years including an unmanned automatic container yard, which can handle 21,685 TEU.

Port of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Total cargo volume: 245 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 23 TEU (2007)
The Port of Hong Kong is one of the few major international ports in the world to be financed, owned and operated by the private sector. It is one of the busiest ports in the world in three categories – shipping movements, cargo handled and passengers carried.
The port is a vital entry point into southern China, with about 70% of container traffic handled in Hong Kong being related to that region, which is one of the world's fastest industrialising areas. It also handles 88% of Hong Kong's total cargo throughput and has an integral role in the global supply chain with 450 container liner services per week to over 500 destinations worldwide.

Port of Shenzhen, China
Total cargo volume: 199 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 21 million TEU (2007)
Shenzhen Port is located in China's Guandong Province on the south of the Pearl River Delta adjacent to Hong Kong. From 1979 to 2004, the port invested over 30bn yuan in the construction of port infrastructure facilities in a number of areas including Shekou, Chiwan, Mawan, Yantian, Dongjiaotou, Fuyong, Xiadong, Shayuchong and Neihe. It currently has 140 berths, of which 51 are of 10,000dwt or above.
The total length of the port's coastline amounts to over 22km and it has an annual handling capacity of 83.764 million tons. The port is thought to be home to 39 shipping companies, which have implemented 131 international container routes and 21 feeder routes to other ports in the Pearl River Delta region.

Port of Busan, South Korea
Total cargo volume: 243 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 11.9 million TEU (2009)
"Busan has opened three container ports since 1978 and is fast becoming one of the world's busiest ports."Busan has opened three container ports since 1978 and is fast becoming one of the world's busiest ports. According to some sources, it has the capacity to handle up to 13.2 million TEU shipping containers a year.
The port is overseen by the Busan Port Authority, which, since 1995, has launched an ambitious 9,154.2bn-won Busan New Port project that it hopes will see the port transformed into a hub for international logistics in Northeast Asia by 2011. New Port will have a cargo handling capacity with a simultaneous berth supply for 30 vessels with a maximum level of up to 50,000t.
Busan's North Port currently has a vessel berth capacity of 18, with a maximum level of up to 50,000t and a cargo processing capacity of 6.14 million tons a year. Large parts of the other port are focused on the local marine products market. Busan's South Port, for instance, is occupied by Busan Cooperative Fish Market, which houses over 800t of produce and accounts for 30% of the country's total volume of marine product consignment sales.

Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Total cargo volume: 385 million tons (2009)
Container traffic: 9.8 million TEU (2009)
Situated directly on the North Sea, the Dutch Port of Rotterdam is the largest of its kind in Europe. The port has an annual throughput of more than 400 million tonnes of goods and has more than 500 scheduled line services connecting the city to over 1,000 ports worldwide.
The port and its accompanying industrial area stretch over 40km and encompass 10,000ha of land. As such, the port is equipped to handle chemicals, ores, liquid bulk, dry bulk, vehicles, perishables and general cargo. It has also invested substantially in new infrastructure and industrial sites and is currently preparing the reclamation of almost 2,000 extra hectares of new industrial land off the coast. The Maasvlakte 2 site is seen as essential for creating extra space for future port activities.

Dubai Ports, UAE
Total cargo volume: 130 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 10.6 million TEU (2007)
DP World, which was founded in 2005 following a merger between Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International, oversees both Dubai's Port Rashid and Jebel Ali Port. The latter is the world's largest manmade port and the largest port in the Middle East. In 2008, DPA announced that all cargo operations would be moved from Port Rashid to Port Jebel Ali. Port Rashid is becoming a cruise terminal and mixed-use urban waterfront area.
The Port of Jebal Ali is located 35km south-west of the city of Dubai and covers over 134km² including one million square metres of container yard. Its container freight station also includes 17,400m² of covered storage, over 200,000m² of open storage and a 2,695m² perishables storage facility. The port is linked by Dubai's expressway system, which offers direct access to Dubai International Airport's cargo village.

Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Total cargo volume: 149 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 10.2 million TEU (2007)
The Port of Kaohsiung is located in Southern Taiwan and is the nation's largest port. It is overseen by the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau, which is a division of the central government's Ministry of Transportation. The port has over 100 berths. It also has 65 warehouses and transit sheds that can store over 929,000t of cargo as well as seven outdoor yards that can handle more than 35,000t of cargo.
Kaohsiung is an important manufacturing city and the 2,200ha Linhai Industrial Park is located in proximity to the port, which contains a shipyard, a steel mill and a petrochemical complex.

"Port of Hamburg, Germany
Total cargo volume: 140.4 million tons (2008)
Container traffic: 9.7 million TEU (2008)
Germany's Port of Hamburg is located 110km from the mouth of the river Elbe. It is the largest port in Germany and according to some sources it is the second largest in Europe.
It has four large container terminals – the Eurogate container terminal, the HHLA container terminal Tollerort, the HHLA container terminal Burchardkai and the HHLA container terminal Altenwerder – each of which are continually expanded to match the changing demands of the market and ship sizes, and 42 additional terminals dedicated to project cargo, liquid cargo, suction cargo, bulk cargo and grab cargo.

Port of Los Angeles, US
Total cargo volume: 59.4 million tons (2007)
Container traffic: 6.75 million TEU (2009)
The Port of Los Angeles stretches along 69km of waterfront on San Pedro bay in Los Angeles. The port handles nearly $190bn of cargo each year and in 2002 the port's homeland security division was created in response to the growing need to make US ports safe against possible terrorist attacks.
The port also has the first container terminal in the world to use alternative maritime power. The technology reduces emissions by allowing container vessels docked at the port to run off shore side electrical power instead of consuming diesel power.

Source: http://www.ship-technology.com/features/feature75321/feature75321-1.html

Russian “Ecranoplanes”

An “ekranoplan” literally “screen plane” is a vehicle resembling an aircraft, but operating solely on the principle of ground effect. Ground effect vehicles (GEV) fly above any flat surface, with the height above ground dependent upon the size of the vehicle.


During the Cold War, ekranoplans were sighted for years on the Caspian Sea as huge, fast-moving objects. The name Caspian Sea Monster was given by U.S. intelligence operatives who had discovered the huge vehicle, which looked like an airplane with the outer halves of the wings removed. After the end of the Cold War, the “monster” was revealed to be one of several Russian military designs meant to fly only a few meters above water, saving energy and staying below enemy radar.
The KM, as the Caspian Sea Monster was known in the top secret Soviet military development program, was over 100 m long (330 ft), weighed 540 tonnes fully loaded, and could travel over 400 km/h (250 mi/h), mere meters above the surface of the water.


The important design principle is that wing lift is reduced as operating altitude of the ekranoplan is increased (see ground effect). Thus it is dynamically stable in the vertical dimension. Once moving at speed, the ekranoplan was no longer in contact with the water, and could move over ice, snow, or level land with equal ease.



These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as very high-speed (several hundred km/hour) military transports, and were mostly based on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. The development of ekranoplans was supported by Dmitri Ustinov, Minister of Defence of USSR. About 120 ekranoplans (A-90 Orlyonok class) were initially planned to enter military service in the Soviet Navy. The figure was later reduced to less than thirty vehicles, planned to be deployed mainly for the Black and the Baltic Soviet navies. Marshal Ustinov died in 1985, and the new Minister of Defence Marshal Sokolov effectively ceased the funding for the program. The only three operational A-90 Orlyonok ekranoplans built (with renewed hull design) and one Lun-class ekranoplan remained at a naval base near Kaspiysk.



The all photos above were made during the Soviet Era, when the Soviet state had money and desire to experiment with this strange ekranoplanes. These days almost none of the left in working condition.
On these photos made by Russian blogger Bu33er you can see the one of the last ekranoplans “Orlyonok” being transported by the tow-boat across the Volga river to one of the entertainment parks of Moscow, where it would be probably installed as another monument for never to be returned Soviet times and achievements.

Source: http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007/06/21/ekranoplans/

Concept Lamborghini Ship

http://www.fununzip.com/?p=438

Giant Ship For Whale Watching

Celebrity PhA Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) ship is a floating instrument platform and manned research vessel that is 355 feet long. The FLIP has been widely used to study the acoustics of whales and other marine mammals, the effects of seismic waves on the water, and heat exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean. It works by being towed out to sea and having one end submerged. The instruments and crew are located in a portion of the ship that remains above the surface of the ocean. This giant ship is most impressive.


Source: http://bezbrige.com/index.php/WoW/giant-ship-for-whale-watching.html