From Apollo to Cognac

Abstract

Shell Oil Company started oil and gas production from a new offshore platform called Cognac located in the Gulf of Mexico. It is the world's tallest oil platform, slightly taller than the Empire State Building. The highly complex job of installing Cognac's support "jacket" under water more than a thousand feet deep was directed from a barge-based control center. To enable crews to practice in advance difficult tasks never before accomplished, Honeywell, adapting NASA's Apollo technology, developed a system for simulating the various underwater operations. In training sessions, displays and controls reacted exactly as they would in real operation.