Becht Engineering Advisor Supports ExxonMobil-Led Strike Force to Staunch Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico

The Marine Well Containment Company is a non-profit venture formed by ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Approximately 40 engineers from four of the world’s largest oil companies came together to design a rapid-response system to capture and contain up to 100,000 barrels per day of oil flowing from 10,000 feet below the surface of the sea.

Responders first would install a sealing cap that would have the ability to connect to the diverse systems of valves and casings in use in the deepwater Gulf. That cap would keep oil from escaping into the ocean, redirecting it towards flexible pipes or to a fixed riser located at an unspecified distance from the broken well. The pipes would connect to ships modified to process large quantities of crude.

The new system, designed specifically for the Gulf of Mexico, would be ready to mobilize within 24 hours of an incident and could be used on the wide variety of equipment found in the deepwater Gulf.

ExxonMobil, which is leading the engineering and construction, called on Becht Engineering to support the electrical engineering component of the project. Our Advisor, Rick Shriner, mobilized to Houston in October 2012 to consolidate the work scope of multiple contractors, and to lend his significant expertise in power systems to the effort. He took a short break from the Marine Well Containment project in December 2012 to provide temporary electrical engineering leadership to ExxonMobil Development Company affiliate, Mobil Cepu Ltd., in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Shriner, a resident of Lomita, California, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, and has previously worked at ExxonMobil facilities in Joliet and Torrance, and at the Ultramar Refinery in Long Beach, California.

We appreciate Mr. Shriner’s flexibility in supplementing the Owner’s Team in Jakarta over the 2012 holiday break, and thank him for adapting with ease and grace to his expanding role and lengthen assignment duration on the Marine Well Containment project.