Kicking the OPEC Habit

This article highlights that major offshore oil and gas projects may help North America reduce its dependence on the oil cartel. When members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut their production by 4 million barrels per day from March 1999 to March 2000, they tripled oil prices, from $11 to $33 per barrel. The combination of higher gasoline, diesel, and heating oil prices led President Clinton and Congress to pressure the OPEC countries to increase their production. Spar technology has been used for 25 years for loading buoys and storage vessels. The spar is a floating system, basically a cylinder on end that maintains its position with mooring lines sunk into the seabed. Many offshore oilfields are beyond the reach of underwater pipelines. This is an opportunity seized by SOFEC Inc. in Houston. Since 1972, the company, a subsidiary of the FMC Corp., has designed equipment to support floating production storage and offloading systems. These systems consist of a floating platform, basically a moored ship-shaped vessel, equipped to accept oil and gas from a drilling system on the sea bed.