*** ***
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
*** ***
| V
The Daily Telegraph
OUTLOOK CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS
MILES DONOVAN AT PEEPSHOW
FANTASTIC
DAY 10: The storage distribution depot
Over 150,000 people and several thousand contract workers are directly or indirectly employed by Britains downstream oil and gas industry. They include logistics managers, who plan the transportation of fuel to both commercial and retail sectors. Commercial clients are usually power companies, industrial, transport and agriculture customers, independent fuel distributors, government agencies, public services and the military. Retail fuels, meanwhile, are mostly sold at filling stations.
JOURNEY
WHAT EXACTLY DOES IT TAKE TO GET CRUDE OIL FROM THE SEABED AND TURN IT INTO THE FUEL THAT POWERS OUR LIVES? JAMES LEAVEY FINDS OUT
DAY 1: The oil platform
Every day, in the harshest of conditions, the 286 offshore fixed and floating platforms dotted around northern Britain produce 2.8 million barrels of oil and gas. Crude oil is pumped from the sea and is channelled into pipelines to mainland terminals, or is loaded offshore onto shuttle tankers. Gas, meanwhile, is transported to shore by pipeline. The process is all down to a dedicated team of upstream workers, including rig managers, toolpushers, derrickmen, drillers, roughnecks, roustabouts, and subsea and maintenance technicians. They are busy day and night making sure the "tap" is turned on. Safety and environmental protection are paramount, and great care is taken at every stage during transportation to avoid spillage and deal with it effectively, should the worst happen. dried and, before it is allowed to enter the national grid, mercaptan, a colourless gas, is added to it. This gives gas its distinctive "rotten cabbage" smell, making it easier to detect if there is a leak from a pipe or faulty appliance. The stabilised crude oil is then usually sent by pipeline to the refinery or transported by tanker to one of the UKs nine main oil refineries. range of transport fuels, heating oils and lubricants. The remainder has usually been turned into a wide variety of products, from petrochemical feedstock for plastics to cosmetics. This is where science graduates come into their own, which is why the industry is always looking for qualified scientists and technical specialists to improve existing products and create new ones. Depending on the location of the refinery and the customers it serves, the fuel is then transferred to the UKs key storage distribution depots by pipeline, road or sea, direct to downstream customers, or commercial clients.
DAY 13: On the road
The processed fuel is usually held at storage distribution centres for two to three days prior to transfer by specialist road haulier companies. Tanker-loads of fuel are delivered every day to just over 9,000 service stations across the country. Sean Cusack, group health and safety manager for logistics specialist, Wincanton, in Somerset, says: "Drivers require special skills to carry hazardous liquids. They also have the added responsibility of using complex pumping and measuring equipment, safety devices and associated electronic equipment for loading and off-loading."
DAY 2: The onshore terminal
When the liquid hydrocarbons or natural gas have arrived at the mainland terminal, midstream professionals, including process technicians, separate the water and gas from the oil. The gas is
DAY 6: The oil refinery
Crude oil is received into storage and, after three to four days, over half of it has been refined into a
DAY 14: The garage forecourt
The fuel arrives at the forecourt and is pumped into underground tanks. It is now ready to go on sale.
From platform to forecourt: crude oil from the deep is pump-ready in just two weeks
WONDER
STUFF
FROM RADIOS TO TENNIS SHOES AND COSMETICS TO HOSIERY, OIL HAS BEEN USED TO PRODUCE MYRIAD EVERYDAY OBJECTS. GABRIELLE COLETTE-WHITE CONSIDERS ITS CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN LIVING ELECTRONICS Imagine having an electronic
newspaper so thin you could roll it up and put in your pocket or image-altering wallpaper that you could change with your mood. Plastic electronics, created using petroleum, have opened up the possibility of high-tech devices that could revolutionise the way we live. A team at Manchester University has pioneered a way to make high-speed plastic transistors which have the potential to result in items such as pocket-sized, roll-up information screens and electronic stamps. The technology is also being used to make plastic-based solar panels. Cheaper than the silicon-based alternative, it has the advantage of being flexible. This opens up the possibility of having roll-up solar panels which you could take on camping trips or expeditions. "We are using highly specialised petroleum-based plastics to create electronic devices that will lead to a new generation of remarkable products suited for use in everyday life," says Professor Mike Turner, director of the Organic Materials Innovation Centre at the university.
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Þ Look around your street, home, car, or desk at work and you will see plastic in dozens of forms and colours. Most of it is made from petroleum. "It is impossible to think of modern-day life without plastics," says Peter Davis,
ALAMY, CORBIS
director general of the British Plastics Federation. "In 2006, 245 million tons of plastics were produced worldwide. They make an enormous contribution to everyday life -- from lightweight parts in cars and aircraft to blood bags and artificial hips. They even play a role in renewable energy -- wind farm rotor blades are made from glass-fibre reinforced plastic and many components of solar panels are plastic."
Þ The first plastic was celluloid, which was developed in 1868 by the US printer, John Wesley Hyatt, using a mix of pyroxylin (derived from cotton), nitric acid, and camphor. Celluloid was used to make film and is
still in use today under its chemical name, cellulose nitrate. Its also used to create table tennis balls and guitar plectrums.
Þ Bakelite was widely used
in the early 20th century to produce everything from telephones and cameras to radios and lavatory seats. Belgianborn chemist Leo H Baekeland, left, developed the versatile casting resin and moulding material in 1907. Every decade has seen new developments, but the most recent innovation is so-called "high temperatureplastics". These materials can withstand temperatures of 400F or more, so are ideal for use in the aerospace and aircraft industry.
Sound vision: left, old-fashioned Bakelite radios and objects have become highly covetable for collectors and antique enthusiasts
The fact that it is cheap, flexible, durable and chemically resistant, makes it one of the most popular fabrics in the world. Discovered in 1933 by Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett while working for British industrial giant ICI, the company soon recognised polythenes incredible potential and went on to produce the material on an industrial scale. It wasnt until the supermarket boom of the 1950s that it really began to make its mark in food wrapping and packaging. soon to be renamed nylon. Originally developed as an alternative to silk, nylon is extremely lightweight, strong and resistant to damage. Unlike its forerunners, rayon and acetate, which were made from plant cellulose, nylon is petro-chemical based. Its first commercial use was as a replacement for animal hair in toothbrushes, but nylon really hit the big time in 1939 when the first nylon stockings were unveiled at the San Francisco Exposition. Since their invention more than 50 years ago, nylon resins have become the most widely used of all engineering plastics, from automotive parts to textiles, electrical equipment to ice skates. "Recent developments have allowed the use of engineering polymers as viable alternatives to metals in very demanding applications," says Glen Barber, head of DuPont Engineering Polymers in the UK. "While metal offers strength and high stiffness, it is limited in its ability to create complex shapes. Plastic, on the other hand, offers tremendous freedom to create shapes and to integrate functions."
NYLON
In 1935 chemist Wallace Hume Carothers developed a tough new material which he called Fibre 66,
PETROLEUM
Without petroleum, the roads we drive on would look very different. Bitumen, a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum, is mixed with mineral aggregate to make the asphalt that surfaces many of the highways and byways that criss-cross the planet. In 1901, Edgar Purnell Hooley, a county surveyor of Nottingham, noticed that a barrel of tar had spilled onto the road and been covered with waste slag from nearby furnaces. Hooley saw that this section of road remained dust free and undamaged by traffic, so he set about obtaining a British patent for a method of mixing slag
with tar, naming the material Tarmac. He went on to set up the company Tarmac Ltd, which remains one of the leading asphalt producers in the world. As petroleum production increased, bitumen replaced tar as the binder for road aggregates. From 2004 to 2005, Tarmac manufactured eight million tons of asphalt -- enough to pave the Great Wall of China 10 times over.
Today a staggering 13 billion polythene bags are handed out to shoppers in the UK annually. Over 50 million tons of polythene is produced worldwide every year, making it the most popular plastic in the world. Produced from crude oil through a process called "cracking", it comes in two basic forms -- hard and soft. The former is used to make plumbing fittings and car parts and the latter to make products like plastic bags and cable insulation.
POLYTHENE
DID YOU KNOW? 10 top oil and gas facts
1
2
Most pipelines are buried at in the UK. It is expected to a typical depth of about provide 20 per cent of the UKs three to six feet. total gas consumption for the Oil pipelines are made from next 40 years. Russia has the longest oil steel or plastic and have an Pipelines are inspected by pipeline network by far -- inner diameter ranging from special gauges called "pigs". In some countries, totalling 46,938 miles. Mexico four to 48 inches. Natural They travel through the pipeline, pipelines are "tapped" by comes a distant second with gas pipelines, which are made cleaning off any material that local people and criminal gangs. just over 17,398 miles. from carbon steel, vary in size has built up on the inside. It is common to find illegal from two to 56 inches. extractions in the middle of At 808 miles long, the The fictitious oil-pumping Langeled pipeline is the the pipeline. Companies should Trans-Alaska pipeline is one station in Azerbaijan in the Oil is pumped through worlds longest subsea gas be able to detect theft if the of the largest in the world. It Bond film The World is Not pipelines at speeds ranging pipeline, running 745 miles from maximum flow rate drops by carries up to 925 million gallons Enough, featuring an oil pipeline from three- to 19ft per second. Nyhamna, Norway, to Easington more than two per cent.
Totalling over one million miles at the last count, the worlds pipelines for oil, gas and petroleum products make up one of the biggest man-made infrastructures on the planet. They may not look as imposing as other great engineering feats, but they are just as impressive.
of crude oil a day, crossing three mountain ranges and 800 rivers.
on its roof, is actually the Motorola building in Swindon.
7
3
5 6
8 9
10
4
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH CAREERS IN Power trip: TRANSPORTING OIL FROM PLATFORM TO FORECOURT Page 5 What lies beneath: THE FUTURISTIC WORLD OF SUBSEA DIVERS Page 6 Stranger than fiction: HOW SCIENTISTS CREATED AN OIL-PRODUCING BUG Page 7 MILES DONOVAN AT PEEPSHOW oil gas THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 200
*** II *** *** THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | *** CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS SUSTAINABILITY The Daily Telegraph CUTOUT ANDKEEP WORLD THE RACE TO MAKE FOSSIL FUELS A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY OPTION IS RESULTING IN SOME OF THE INDUSTRYS SMARTEST IDEAS ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COM
*** *** THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 *** *** | III The Daily Telegraph GRADUATES CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS TANTS THE CONSUL Priya Sodhi, 25 Consultant accountant, Deloitte Consultancy is another great career option for those looking to enter the oil and gas industry, with a var
*** IV *** *** THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | ***
*** *** THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 *** *** | V The Daily Telegraph OUTLOOK CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS MILES DONOVAN AT PEEPSHOW FANTASTIC DAY 10: The storage distribution depot Over 150,000 people and several thousand contract workers are directly or indirectly employed by Br
*** VI *** *** THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | *** CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS NEW RESERVES The Daily Telegraph T CORBIS THERES SO MUCH SCI FI-LIKE ACTIVITY GOING ON BENEATH THE OCEAN FLOOR, IT TAKES DARING AND A SPECIAL KIND OF SKILL TO WORK THERE. JO CLARKE UNRAVELS THE MYSTE
*** *** THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 *** *** | VII The Daily Telegraph INNOVATION CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS THE EDGE OF REASON THE DRIVE TO MAKE FOSSIL FUELS CLEANER AND GREENER IS RESULTING IN SOME AMAZING TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES THROUGHOUT THE INDUSTRY, SAYS ESME MCAVOY. WE TA
*** VIII *** *** THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | *** CAREERS IN OIL AND GAS PEOPLE The Daily Telegraph industry means workers can probably afford a good break too. So far this year, Jennifer Watson, a lab technician for InterTech on the Beryl Bravo platform, says she has tra
