Member Info for adoubleuk

BNB,

"Change of Tune , Change of Trading Position perhaps ????"

Haha! I haven't done any 'trading' in this since that little spike last year! Just holding onto my stash.

And btw, I wasn't criticising BW as a company while watching the boat's strange behaviour on the AIS a month ago, which I still find quite inexplicable. And the long-line trawler which was forced to change course was Spanish, not French.

BlooBird,

"In an earlier post @ 14.01 I suggested that, when the new rope arrives, it would be sent to be fitted to the buoy and not to the AM itself. Not 1 single person agreed with me but we will see eventually."

Personally, I didn't comment at all!

But you may well be right. (I think). And that might be a very good explanation for the visit of the Olympic Zeus to the field before the recent attempt. ie fitting the new (spare) rope to the buoy prior to the AM returning from shelter.

I think there's a slight danger in the ongoing correspondence about the 'rope failure' incident, in that none of 'us' here really know what the exact setup is. And it's already leading to a certain pillorying of Bluewater in general, which strikes me as worrying. Because if overall doubt is cast on BW, that could be used by certain 'derampers' or other possible 'share detractors' to reflect negatively on Hurricane as well. In fact, it's already started.

And trawling back to find HSE 'improvement notices' relating to the Aoka Mizu is absurd, imho. Especially when those two notices found relate to noise

OK, I know I'll be mocked for coming on like some crusty oldtimer N.Sea Tiger, but for me, oil installations are inherently noisy places. Sure, an FPSO isn't a drilling rig, so a bit quieter generally. There are still rigs at work where the only way to mitigate noise is to wear both earplugs AND earmuffs! But 'back in the day', that wasn't mandatory, and most people didn't bother, except in the engine-room. Equally, though, in those days one wasn't even issued a survival-suit before boarding the chopper and one could still smoke cigarettes in the heliport departure area!

Don't get me wrong, safety is primordial, but a lot of HSE is nanny-state stuff to my mind. And anyway, returning to the point, what the heck has an HSE notice issued to BW in 2014 about noise got to do with the pull-in rope failing on Saturday? Nothing whatsoever.

Looks like we've now got a week or so to wait again That'll be plenty of time for BW to brainstorm what went wrong at the weekend and plan for it not to recur on the next attempt.

And for 'us' to find something else to discuss during the hiatus, one hopes...

snaggletooth,

"I hope the already ordered rope isnt the same spec as the previous one/ones/spares. "

All this chat today with people suggesting 'stronger rope' has made me think of something, though. (Quite a lot of things, in fact, but let's keep it simple!)

By rights, the rope(s) used should have been OK for the job, whether SWR or fibre. But, how old were they? Was a new one installed in Dubai, or was it the original, used on Ettrick? Did anyone think about that? And had the spare which parted on Saturday been sitting around in the yard for the last 13 years?

The point being, this rope only gets used once or twice in years. Suck in the buoy, and that's it for a few years, until it's unlatch time. So its use (aind maintenence) cannot be compared with a crane-wire, or a drilling rig draworks 'drilling line', in almost constant use, requiring slip - and -cut, etc..

Of course people like us will never get the answer. 'Need to know', and so on.

thestreet,

"Not even 1 reply to the post I made this morning about the rope or the price of this share when it sinks. But it looks like the penny has dropped. I am not gloating it would have been great if they nailed it. But like I said this morning great chance to average down again."

I suspect I know why you had no replies. That being, people who correspond on these BB's are PI's (of whatever sort), supposedly, though of course there are trolls, others trying to 'influence sentiment', and so on. Some PI's maybe have professional advisors steering them, but I suspect that sort don't often post on BB's. Others may be hardline 'LTH', so don't trade at all. Yet again there are others (this list is not exhaustive) who consider themselves 'LTH', but occasionally trade, making their own decisions as to when to do so.

If it's of any interest to you, I fall into the latter category. And absolutely the last thing which influences my decisions as to whether to Hold, Buy, or Sell,is people who appear on BB's offering free advice, proclaiming themselves 'experts' in the matter.

Which is what you seem to be trying to do.

Or are your posts aimed at the spread-bettors, who aren't 'investors' at all?

McGee,

" lets be honest, we don’t even know if the rope is SWR (steel wire rope) or dyminia man made fibre rope"

I nominate that as phrase of the day!

Strangely, I spent some time during the weekend on the net trying to get more details about the AM's buoy-hoisting system, but to no avail. BEFORE today's RNS. Was it a premonition, or what?

The thing which set me on that search was the mention of 'snagged rope' in the RNS on the earlier attempt. I'd come to a mental image of the pull-in line (a neutral term!) being SWR, but tried to figure out how it could be rigged, in a way corresponding with what few details I could find about the turret. And didn't come up with an answer.

And today, and in the light of the youtube clip Wellwell sent, started thinking fibre 'rope', instead. Still can't figure out the rigging, though!

The bottom line being, none of us here really know the boat in close detail like that. So maybe all the hypothesising is pointless.

The main point is, it's good nobody got hurt. Second, it's a good thing there was no damage within the turret. Because if there were damage, that's where it would have happened, not to the buoy / riser / mooring system. Because that lot's designed for all sorts of dynamic movement for years, whereas the turret isn't designed to have a suddenly-released load taken off it and a loose end of 'rope' flaying about.

I think we 'shipwatchers' can stand down for a while...

Miidas,

"my enquiry regarding its buoyancy and its likelihood to have avoided impact damage"

(Disclaimer: opinion only!)

The buoy won't have gone anywhere near to the seabed.

(a) It's buoyancy is sufficient for it to have been 'hovering' at 20m depth, holding the weight of the cables.
(b) It's flat-bottomed, so lots of drag as it descended.
(c) As soon as it went below 20 metres, there's less cable-weight for it to hold up, so 'relative buoyancy' would increase.

Personally I doubt it went any lower than about 30 metres before stabilising back to its 'starting point'. (That's a totally un-calculated, off-the-top-of-my-head figure, by the way! Could have been a bit more, could have been less. But you get the idea. Water depth there is roughly 160 metres.)

ifonly1

"42 p would of been a nice entry"

17p about 3 years ago was even nicer!

Wellwell,

" I didn't know the AM has an ROV. I suspect it doesn't but perhaps for the hook-up phase they mobilised one."

It was from that thing you posted a while back from Balltech, part of which says:

"As part of the same project, Balltec has also provided three ROV Interface Panels which are to be installed on the Aoka Mizu’s dis-connectable buoy for ballasting / de-ballasting."

OK, maybe I misunderstood that, am wrong, and that these were purely related to the installation phase. But even so, I'd be surprised if they don't have a small ROV, if for nothing other than video.

Not one of those big Oceaneering 'beasts', of course.

Taverham,

" the lump sum is reassuring but the risk is delay and potential damage."

Personally I can see where you're coming from.

However...

The 'window' for buoy hookup to FoiL has remained unchanged for over a year, ie start January - end June 2019. Despite this weekend's balls-up everything remains within that window. Ergo delay, what delay?

Today's RNS has stated that there's been no damage to either the buoy nor the boat. That sounds fairly categoric to me, and I don't think the company would issue such a statement if it were not true.

By the way, now knowing the story, I suspect we now know why the boat went back to the buoy for a brief time on Sunday before heading for Cromarty. An ROV run over the buoy to check all's OK. (We know the AM has an ROV on board.) Plus although when the wire rope let go, there must have been some pretty sudden movements (including people diving for cover!) and noises. But let's face it, that's tough kit, which will have to put up with a lot during six years' operation, with plenty of winter Force 11's, etc.

The main thing is nobody got hurt. Otherwise, from the OGA / govt HSE side there would have been hell to pay.

From a shareholder point of view, sure, this incident has been a real annoyance. But from the engineering side, it's just a hiccup.

dsmith57,

"Must say that this is a pretty poor show and unexpected from Hurricane."

This is Bluewater's c*ck-up, not Hurricane's. Hurricane will have zero authority on FPSO latch-up to the buoy, nor how it's done.

I find it interesting your post got five tick-ups within minutes. Some people must really have it in for the company!

Right, that enough posts from me for now...

Typical red-top stuff. Won't change anything. The rig's there, should get spud RNS imminently.

One bit made me howl with laughter: the phrase 'deepwater well'. This has got to be a world first, drilling a deepwater well with a jackup! Must have very long legs...

Gritstone,

" that excellent hook up video that I recall Miss Dosh gave us a link to "

A good reminder! Anyone here who hasn't watched that video ought to. At least they'll get an idea of the scale of these things, and during the early pull-in part, see what is being refered to as 'rope'.

daltry,

"Are all these extra expenses all being covered by Bluewater in their contract, or are HUR forking out for this? Can't be cheap."

In the main, surely Bluewater. Suspect the chopper flights will be on the HUR tab, and the other vessels involved, as well.

yellows,

Maybe. But some spread-bet companies will probably be howling with glee. Bound to have been quite a few stop-losses hit within minutes of the opening bell.

Snail,

"I'm parting with precisely 0"

Given what happened to the pull-in wire, that's a terrible pun! Was it deliberate?

Anyway, it shows you're under no stress...

Moon,

"Aduk.Am I right in thinking that as the failure happened immediately prior to the latches being engaged that the buoy was actually in its final resting position?"

Obviously, I don't know, so can't answer that! But it seems to me that the RNS implies something like that. Also, it seems logical that the highest point is when the pull-in wire is under the greatest strain.

SotB,

" The sling failed.Why ?"

Good question, which nobody here will be able to answer, of course. I've got one question along those lines already in my head. See other post.

However, calling that wire rope a 'sling' is making light of some complex stuff.

"Bluewater have a lot to answer for !"

I think I'd agree with that. But am suse that they'll already be starting some high-level internal investigations into the incident. Obviously an event which could have been a lot worse, if you think on't.

Snail,

In the technical sense, the question which immediately springs to mind is was it the same rope which got 'snagged' previously, without having been replaced?

Wire rope (despite appearances) is a complex subject in itself, and after any incident ('snagging'?) must be inspected by a qualified person. And even then, should no external damage be found visually, internal weakening may have occured, and can be hard to detect.

Either way, this is entirely Bluewater's problem, though of course Hurricane suffers time-wise.

scoredagainsteps,

Easy? Everything is relative. The repair can't be considered a 'routine job'. However, the 'pull-in rope' is most unlikely to be found off-the-shelf, so there may be some lead time while a new one is being custom-constructed.

The important thing, though, is that no damage has been done to the buoy or the FPSO, and especially that nobody was hurt.

I think the shipwatchers may anticipate seeing a vessel like the Olympic Zeus (now off-charter) going out to the field to remove any of the old rope that may still be attached to the buoy, and preparing it for the next try.

The guys on the FPSO will certainly have a good 'war story' to tell! When the line let go, the bouy must have taken off 'south' like a rocket!

Sotb,

Should you have a tyre blow out on your car, I hope that when you go to the garage for a replacement, the people there say that it was caused by your incompetence at the wheel.