Attendees from around the world gained technical insight into new and, in some cases, renewed applications of composites in offshore oil and gas development at the Fourth International Conference on Composite Materials for Offshore Operations (CMOO-4), held Oct. 4-6 in Houston, Texas. University of Houston professor Dr. Su-Su Wang chaired the event, heading a team of industry composite champions, including Him Lo of Shell, Metin Karayaka of Chevron, Andreas Echtermeyer of Det Norsk Veritas, Bjorn Melve of Statoil and K.H. Leong of Petronas.

Turid Storhaug of Aker Kvaerner Subsea, a new standalone company that replaced a now defunct 50/50 partnership between Aker Kvaerner and ConocoPhillips, described the company's new dynamic umbilical project, based on the old CompTether project originated in 1998. Umbilicals link the host drilling platform to subsea structures and carry electricity or service chemicals. Currently manufactured in the company's Mobile, Ala., facility, the Aker Kvaerner umbilicals use carbon fiber-reinforced pultruded rods as strength members in a tether-type design, within PVC conduit tubes. The rods are pultruded by Vello Nordic AS in Skodje, Norway, using Zoltek Corp. (St. Louis, Mo.) Panex 35 fiber combined with Reichhold (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) DION vinyl ester resin. The umbilicals should be ready for deployment in 2006 on two Kerr-McGee platforms.

Other presentations outlined several potential carbon fiber applications, including tethers for MODU units, under development by DeepSea Engineering & Mgmt. (Epsom, Surrey, U.K.); pressure vessels for subsea separator facilities; and several new drilling riser concepts.