I.ate in the afternoon, the sunlight But this is not a run-of-the-mill off- work crews and to safeguard both man changes and the color of the sea shore platform. It is Platform Gilda, and the environment. changes with it. The gentle breezes big sister to Union Oil's Platform Gina Gina and Gilda are perhaps the that caressed the Santa Barbara Chan- which sits a few miles further to the most efficient offshore installations nel off the California coast all day have southeast. Both platforms-although found on the West Coast. They are the now intensified. Whitecaps like cotton producing in separate fields and differ- result of years of planning, countless puffs, appear on a pewter-colored sea ent in design-began production one tests and the investment of a consider- that was emerald-tinged only a few }rear ago and are prime examples of able amount of capital. minutes before. The land masses of the cleanliness and efficiency associ- Although Gilda is dwarfed in size Anacapa and Santa Cruz-two of the ated with today's state-of-the-art energy b}r some of the mammoth platforms fabled Channel Islands-begin to mist technology. found in the Gulf of Mexico, Cook over to the west, but the foothills of Gina and Gilda-rugged steel Inlet and the North Sea, it can accom- Ventura County in the east are still islands designed to tap energy located modate 96 wells, the largest such bathed in golden sunlight. deep beneath the sea-are soon capacity in the world. A few yards away a group of califor- expected to produce more than 11,000 The skeleton-like steel structure is nia sea lions keep a precarious hold to barrels of crude oil and 4 million one hearty platform. It tipped the a buoy and bark their complaints, as if cubic feet of natural gas per day. Peak scales at 2t200 tons at launch. With rate of 16,000 barrels per day from pilings, drilling and production decks ;er,opt:sa:ndgcg:n::rcpooT::Eosqthueali|:::lr Gilda is expected in 1985. added, Gilda weighs 6,200 tons. Like motors and pumps, that are the never- Offshore platforms are designed most of those working sculptures that ending symphony of any offshore oil- and constructed for a number of pur- producing platform. poses: to drill and produce from a Cranes load §upplie§ onto Gilda`§ worle number of wells that tap a given deck (LCF[) . Cre'n7s counect a belly tt) a deposit of energy resources; to house drill Strung. sit offshore, producing to quench civi- Gilda in 210. Both, however, tap oil near Oxnard. There, water produced lization's thirst for energy, it is secured reservoirs at less than 6,000 feet below from the fields is separated from the to the ocean floor by large pilings the bottom of the channel. oil and then returned back to the plat- driven deep into the subsoil. Twelve In time, exploratory work may be forms where the water is reinjected piles were used to anchor Gilda. performed, from Gilda, into the even into the reservoir. The platform has nearly one acre of deeper Monterey formation, some Following the separation process, deck space. According to richard C. 10,000 feet below the ocean floor. the crude oil from both platforms is Keller, former district production According to Richard S. Gillen, then sent into exisdng pipelines. Even- superintendent of the Oil and Gas regional production engineer, Oil and tually it joins the Torrey Canyon pipe- Division, Western Region, in Ventura, Gas Division, Western Region, CCWc are line system and it is transported to it currently has nine producing wells equipped to handle producdon from Union's Los Angeles Refinery. that yield 3,200 barrels of oil and I.8 the Montcrey, if there is any there." In due time, crude produced from million cubic feet of natural gas per Platforms, unfortunately, are only Gina and Gilda winds up as various day." the first step in the long and involved refined products serving the public's In contrast, Gina, the smaller of the process resultlng in usable energy in energy needs. two structures, has five producing today's world. Once production has wells and five injectors. Current been established, Union Oil project Operations are directed fron'i the control production is 4,000 barrels of crude personnel involved must find a way to roo772 (Top Left). Uac¢o7£ 'f wor4 Gofl)£ c¢7.- oil and 600 thousand cubic feet of bring the production to shore and 7tcf criow7f fo a"djioffl wor4 (Top Right). naural gas. e\Jentually to one of the company's Crews guide a drill through one Of Gina sits in 95 feet of water and refining centers. Natural gas from Gina Gilda'$ 96 well Slot§ (Bottom Lcpt) . The and Gilda is sold to a public utility. Mandalay Beach Separation facility han- That meant that a separation facility dles |]rodttction fi'om Gina and Gilda. had to be built on Mandalay Beach They are marvels of engineering oil per day and an average of 227,000 Board Tours and modem technology-and of all million cubic feet of natural gas. the varied Union Oil operations, off- Highlighting the tour was a visit to Offshore shore production platforms prove to the world's largest well capacity plat- be among the most interesting facili- form: Gilda, now producing from Facilities ties for visitors. Platform Gilda was no eight of its 96 well slots. exception when the company's board The directors boarded a Union of directors toured there late last crew boat for the 45-minute trip to the November. steel island in the Santa Barbara Chan- Union Oil and Gas Division West- nel. Enroute they inspected Gilda's sis- ern Region personnel were host to the Union Oil Company board of direc- g:spl:Tco;#;:a;nanTderE::n¥l:ndalay© tors meeting in Ventura, California, where a presentation of the company's west coast exploration and develop- ment activities were made. Both onshore and offshore produc- tion from Alaska and California and the other states making up the Western Region, yields 67,000 barrels of crude JLLky Picture a person sitting comfortably in the non-flammable, wide and re- clining seat of a contemporary jctliner. This person is perusing a newspaper produced only a few hours before with the aid of word processors, its type set by computers, the pictiires that illustrate the front page were trans- mitted via satellite from half way around the world. The headlines blare that another successful space shuttle mission has been completed. Matter Of factly, the weary passenger adjusts the ventilation system overhead, orders a drink distilled thousands of miles away and adjusts a stereo headseat that only a few years back would have been con- sidered revolndomry. What would aviation pioneers depicted in the preceding story have thought!) At alrfudcs undreamed by the Posts, Lindberghs, Earharts and Hughes , his jet streaks across the sky at a speed nearly the velocity of a .45 caliber bul- let-almost toying with the sound barrier. Our imaginary passenger dozes as barely audible engines lull him with a mournful hum. Even when fully alert, he probably gives little thought to the wonderful fuel that is currently pro- pelling the jet engines at some 20 odd thousand feet. But the rather easy and enjoyable journey would not be possible without the machines and fuel that have tuned today's flying machines into a reality from their early concepts on the drawing boards of aeronautical and refining engineers. A modcm commercial aircraft is. perhaps a quintessential example of two distinct industries-aeronautics and energy-cooperating to accom- plish difficult goals. For without jet fuel, today's jumbo jets would have been an idea that never left the ground. Industry-wide cooperative research programs, plus considerable invest- mcnt in refining hardware assure the quality product demanded by today's sophisticated ai rc raft. What is this liquid marvel that keeps the nation in the skies? According to Thomas 8. Williams, general superintendent of operations at Umon Oil's Los Angeles Refinery in Wilmington, Gal. "Jet fuel as used now is very close to kerosine in composi- don and must be produced under a rigid standard of regulations during the refining and pipeline operations." Presently, Union Oil's Los Angeles Refinery produces only what is known throughout the industry as Jet A, the most popular commercial turbine fuel in use today. Jet A is a kerosine-type geeiTeant38soaa#i5C6bbdoei:ir:gsrif,gelt has an extremely low freezing point and finds wide acceptance on high- altitude, long-distance flights where the fuel tcmpc.rature could be reduced to as low as 50 degrees below zero. These rigid specifications for the fuel were originally written by the #t:r:Ca:sn(S£C+e#)fiirh:;Sctlann8n::dbe altered. 11 The most important specifications dictate that jet fuel must have wide- range flow properties, it must be clean burning, and it must possess thermal stability. These ar,e all properties acquired during the long and complicated re- fining process that takes place within the confines of the refinery. Wide range flow properties: turbine fuel must be deliverable to the engine under a wide variety of operating con- ditions. Not only must the jet fuel not deteriorate under normal storage con- ditions, be non-corrosive and harmless to the fuel system, but it must have a sufficiently low freezing point to assure adequate flow at high altitudes where tank temperatures can be sub- zero. At the same time, the fuel must be thick enough to provide adequate lubrication to the fuel pumps, yet thin enough to give consistent fuel nozzle spray patterns.