American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2017 - 85

SpecialReport: Gulf of Mexico Operations
to safely operate Stampede's complex subsea equipment, well
completions and topsides facility. Using the operator training
simulator during procedure development allowed the team to
identify improvement opportunities that were incorporated in
each SOP before a definitive version was issued.
Because SOPs were developed simultaneously with the
control system revision and validation process, several cycles
of feedback were necessary to solidify revisions and obtain approvals. An interdisciplinary team of process, operations and
automation engineers also used the simulator to review initial
startup procedures for buyback gas, oil export and well ramp
up. This was particularly valuable because the simulator provided
a safe environment to look at options during activities that
require the facility to be operated outside its base configuration.
Operations Training
After 11 months of development, the Stampede training
simulator was delivered to operations. The training plan was
designed around the operations work schedule already in place:
four teams in a 14-14 rotational scheme, with a crew assembled
one year before anticipated first oil and four months before the
platform's sail away date.
The simulator was an integral part of operations training and
competency planning, which included training modules ranging
from environmental, health and safety to technical and processes.
The modules were delivered as computer-based training, vendor-provided training and instructor-led training. The training

LEONARDO
PUECHER

Leonardo Puecher is a facilities engineer at Chevron and is part of the
Stampede project team. He joined
Chevron in 2000 as a communications,
instrumentation and automation supervisor in Argentina. Puecher had previously served as a communications and
IT supervisor at Bridas Energy Services
and an electronics technician in the Argentinean Navy. He holds a degree in
electronics engineering from the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, and an
M.S. in petroleum engineering from the
University of Southern California.

allowed control room operators (CRO) to become familiar with
SOPs and prepare to safely startup, shutdown and operate
facility systems. At the end of the allotted training period,
CROs demonstrated their competency by means of a computerized
assessment tool, which documented the correct execution of the
assessed SOP in both sequence and timing.
Corresponding system operating manuals also were used in
the training. The manuals included detailed information about
processes and equipment, as well as safety requirements, design
and operating parameters for each system and subsystem, and
the consequences of deviating from those parameters.
Since all control systems were modeled, CROs were trained
to operate and troubleshoot the process control system, the
process safety system and the emergency safety system. CROs
also were trained in identifying and handling alarms, aided by a
logic diagram and trending tool in the human/machine interface.
Deploying an integrated engineering simulator early in the
design phase has proven beneficial on the Stampede project by
linking dynamic subsea and topsides models to provide an
overview of how the entire facility interacts across multiple disciplines. By connecting all the systems together-subsurface
and artificial lift equipment, risers and production facilities,
export pipelines pumps, etc.-the simulator has been crucial in
solving the challenges the project faced. Using the complete
platform model, the project team was able to identify and solve
potential issues before they could become problems.

PAUL
CLARE

Paul Clare is a process engineering
advisor at Hess Corporation and is part
of the Stampede project team. He joined
the company in 2011 as a senior process
engineer after serving for nine years as
a process engineer at KBR/Granherne
and for five years as a senior process engineer at Snamprogetti. Clare holds a
degree in chemical engineering from the
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

ANKUR
RASTOGI

Ankur Rastogi is group manager and
senior technical advisor at Kongsberg
in Houston. He joined the company in
2007 as a senior process consultant and
subsequently served as technical advisor before assuming his current position. Rastogi had previously served as a
process consultant at Fantoft and a simulation engineer at Trident Computer
Resources. He holds a B.S. in chemical
engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur, and an M.S. in
chemical engineering and an M.B.A.
from the University of Houston.
OCTOBER 2017 85

American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2017

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