This website is about how subsea engineering design takes place.
Extracting oil or gas from the depths of the ocean is not an easy feat. It’s so much more difficult compared to extracting oil/gas from the deserts of Texas or Saudi Arabia. In the ocean, you’re faced with waves and current that are so strong, they can moves cars along the seabed if the cars are not tied down properly. That is why everything that is supposed to be on the seabed is made heavy.
And steel doesnt like water. So steel corrodes, and you will have to protect your steel pipeline against corrosion. That’s on the outside of the pipeline. Then we get the inside of the pipeline which is exposed to the gas/oil that you’re sucking out from the depths of the ocean and these fluids can be very corrosive/toxic (we call them sour), and also has to be dealt with as these fluids can eat up steel very easily, causing a big hole in your pipeline within months. So you tend to consider using materials other than carbon steel, like pipes with some stainless steel attached to them.
And then your boss comes over and asks how you’re planning to foot the bill for these pricey steels. You gotta explain why you chose that. “You can’t just expect money to fall from the sky, dude!” he screams at you.
Hence, your quandary.
Do you still want to work in this industry?
Unfortunately, that is what I have been doing for the last 20 years.
And this is my story…