Offshore Area Needs Research Effort James H. Pittinger, Shell Pipe Line president, says stress must be on deepwater pipe laying. More joint-venture pipelines expected. OFFSHORE technology deserves a tremendous research effort," says James H. Pittinger, youthful president of Shell Pipe Line Co. It's a belief based on his experience in marine geology and on a look at the future. Some of the experience came during a study he made of Nigeria's Miocene delta in 1960. He was working out of The Hague at a time when Shell was engaged in a vigorous wildcat campaign the West Africa country. Nigeria's production was around 15,000 b/d in 1960. It was optimistically predicted that it would reach 200,000 b/d in 10 years. This year it is running close to 400,000 b/d. The extraordinary success of drilling Nigeria's Niger Delta adds to Pittinger's optimism about prospects offshore, particularly those off Louisiana. Looking to the future in the gulf, Shell Pipe Line is already doing a lot of research on such things as wave motion and bottom conditions. This research is needed, Pittinger says, for the day when "we'll have to lay long strings of big pipe in deep water." In its off bore operations, Shell's divisions both cooperate and compete in developing better ways of doing things. Much important work in the offshore field has been by the parent company's marine technology group. Part of this group is working with Shell Pipe Line now. To help speed offshore development, Pittinger says, industry must develop "a lay barge with all-weather capability. We need something that will have stability in heavy seas, probably something that is semisubmersible. Then We can work all year." Use of lay barges is now limited to the few months of calm water. A Company Man - Pittinger is a typical Shell man in that he has moved far and wide and often. When he went to Shell Pipe Line last November, it was his 16th move in as many years. He graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 1949 with a degree in geological engineering and joined Shell Oil Co. in Tulsa as a geologist that year. He was in some area of exploration, including the stint in Nigeria, until 1963. Before going to Nigeria, he was division exploration manager at Corpus Christi. When Shell brought him back from Europe, he was made area exploration manager in Houston. In 1963 he went on a 6-months fellowship with Brookings Institute in Washington. He was the first Shell man to take the program. He regards it as one of his most interesting and valuable experiences. Apparently the company shares his opinion for the fourth Shell representative is doing so now. Its purpose is to acquaint businessmen with internal operations of the federal Government. Pittinger worked in the Department of Interior. He recalls, with particular pleasure, his contacts with John Kelly, J. CordeII Moore, and John Calhoun, among many in Interior and other agencies in Washington. Calhoun, vice-chancellor of programs at Texas A&M, was then science adviser to Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall. The first of two sharp changes in Pittinger's career came when he returned to New York. His entire company background, about 14 years, had been in exploration. Shell, adhering to its policy of exposing its people to a variety of responsibilities, made him general manager, purchasing –stores. The second big change came when he made president of Shell Pipe Line Co. last November. He wasn't in that job long before Shell Pipe Line called the first meeting on CAPLINE, a big-inch crude-oil pipeline planned from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest. Sees More CAPLINES - Pittinger makes it clear that CAPLINE was "our," not "my," idea. The "our," in this case, refers to Shell Pipe Line and Shell Oil's transportation and supply group in Houston. As he puts it, "We saw the need and moved to fill it." CAPLINE will be a joint venture. "It has to be," he says, "because of its size. It has to be big to be economical. No one company can fill such a line by itself." He expects to see more such undertakings, both for crude oil and products. They will either be joint ventures in which several companies own a part of the line or stock companies in which several companies own the stork. The economy of size precludes alternatives. He credits war-time built "Big Inch" pipeline with "showing the way in big joint-venture pipelines." While CAPLINE is in the forefront of Shell activities at the moment, Pittinger is also concerned about other matters. One is personnel. Competition with the "glamor industries" is making it tough for pipelines to hire engineers. Finding technicians to operate today's highly automated pipelines is another problem. Here, he says, "we’ll have to look to small technical and vocational schools to fill these needs." Mines Magazine - November, 1966 *Reprinted through the courtesy of The Oil and Gas Journal (Aug. 15, 1966).