Chevron’s post-hurricane restoration program in the GoM is only now winding up. The cost has been huge but the company says important new lessons have been learned and technologies developed that will change the way the industry does things for the better – whatever the weather. Thanks to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike and Gustav in 2008, Chevron suffered damage to 30 platforms, 18 caissons and 325 wells. Lew Dennis, US offshore decommissioning manager for Chevron, led the company’s Hurricane Restoration Team and says it can be a challenge just appreciating the scale of the damage. Mactech’s Take: Having an arsenal of tools creates an ideal working environment for contractors to be sure they can handle any situation. Split frame cutters have recently increased their machining capabilities with the ability to adapt themselves with attachments to perform milling, sawing, and drilling capabilities. These plug and play attachments provide an environment where unexpected situations become controllable and practicable scenarios. Internal cutting equipment has lead to increased success in machining cuts where the external environment is not ideal for an external cut, or where time saving can be applied due to no longer necessitating external drilling or dredging around the mud line. These efficiencies in time reduction and cut performance allow for the increased use of concurrent decommissioning practices, reducing the total time and capital associated with decommissioning projects. This also provides more scenarios to keep divers out of the water as much as possible and, in turn, out of harms way. Read more from the source: decomworld.com