OTC to recognize Burkhardt, Perdido with 2012 Distinguished Achievement awards
The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) will present its 2012 Distinguished Achievement awards on 29 April to Joe Burkhardt for engineering Exxon USA’s subsea production system (SPS) and to Shell’s Perdido development project. The awards will be presented at the annual OTC dinner at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, kicking off the world’s largest conference for offshore development 30 April to 3 May at Reliant Park.
Mr Burkhardt is being honored for his leadership and contributions to the industry, in particular, his record of developing subsea and offshore technology advancements and tools, including the development of many concepts that are still in use today. He is credited with leading the concept and system engineering of the SPS, a shallow-water pilot program that was recognized as OTC’s Project of the Year in 1980. He has also co-authored and received numerous patents for these concepts that helped advance offshore technology for exploration and production.
Shell is being recognized for Perdido, an ultra-deepwater development of the Great White, Silver Tip and Tobago fields in the remote southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Perdido project pushes the ultra-deepwater boundaries by applying technologies to what was thought to be an impossible field with inherited challenges such as extreme water depth, rugged seafloor terrain, low-temperature and low-pressure reservoirs, and fluids with aggressive hydrate formation tendency.
For more information on the 2012 OTC, click here.
I worked with Mr. Burkhardt on the SPS, but for the abandonment portion of the project in 1979-80. SPS was honored OTC project of the year in 1980; not the 1970’s as you note above…
Thank you for your comment.
We are seeking clarification with OTC on the correct date and will update the article accordingly.
An interesting point raentilg to oil shale: Several groups had (have) developed processes for extracting oil from the oil shale that would be economic at current oil prices. One or two of these groups were in the process of getting financing to establish a commercial venture, then something changed the election of 2008. As a result the American nation had foisted upon it the dumbest Secretary of Interior in the history of the nation Old all hat, no cattle Salazar. He immediately shut down all activity in the oil shale except for small experimental ops, thus ended the opportunity to get early oil from shale.