Ed Horton evaluates bottom tension risers. (Image courtesy of Horton Deepwater Development Systems Inc.)

It is perhaps surprising to find out that Ed Horton, who is known for developing the tension leg platform (TLP) and spar – production systems that pushed the depth limits for the industry – did not start his career as a marine engineer.

It was during his stint in the US Navy that Horton started to think about floating structures. In fact, according to Horton, the first inkling of the TLP concept came from his observations during his time as a submariner.

“I noticed that the ocean doesn’t wiggle as much at 200 ft (61 m) water depth as it does on the surface,” Horton explained. “It occurred to me that if you put something on the bottom, it would not move as much as it would if you put it on the surface. So if you designed something that works below the surface, it should be more stable. It seemed to me that tying something vertically to the seafloor could make sense.”

Following his tour of duty in the Korean War, Horton went back to school to pursue his petroleum engineering degree, a move that led him eventually to R&D work on offshore production systems.

“Petroleum engineering was interesting. It was glamorous,” Horton said. “The idea then was that the oil industry was probably the most adventurous and entrepreneurial field to go into. The people who drilled oil wells were thought of as good guys.”

Armed with his degree and some novel ideas, Horton went to work for Ocean Science and Engineering, a company owned by Willard Bascom, “a guy who would do everything,” Horton said. As part of a company that was doing “everything,” Horton was encouraged to think outside the traditional boundaries of accepted practice and to entertain new ideas. The chance to give free rein to his creativity sparked an interest that in time led Horton to branch out on his own.

In 1967, six years after joining Ocean Science and Engineering, Horton formed a company with Fluor called Deep Oil Technology (DOT), a company that was exclusively R&D. “The idea was that we could make steps forward using technology as the key asset,” Horton said. “That is when I really got interested in the TLP.”

In discussing the TLP concept, Horton is quick to give credit to the other members of the team that conceptualized and proved the design. “I don’t want to take credit for the TLP concept because I didn’t do that entirely on my own,” Horton said. “I worked closely with Randy Pauling at Berkeley, the head of the naval Architecture Department, who was a pioneer analyst in hydrodynamics. I also worked intimately with Bill Silcox at Chevron. We built a prototype triangular TLP, 110 ft (33.5 m) on each side, and moored it off the coast of California to evaluate its performance. That was one of the first big JIPs. There were 13 or 15 oil companies that participated,” Horton said. The JIP was initiated by DOT.

Though the company made some significant steps in the realm of R&D, DOT was not a large company. “As head of Deep Oil Technology, I was like a captain of a dinghy,” Horton said, “but we built up DOT to be a pretty successful company.”


In fact, DOT was one in a string of Horton’s successes, all of which have been based on formulating novel concepts and going out on a limb to prove that they will work.

Horton is at home in the realm of the unknown. “I’ve never been particularly afraid of starting something where the solutions aren’t apparent,” he said. “When you don’t know the answer, you have to be intuitive. You have to be OK with the idea of solving problems you don’t know the answers to. You have this hunch. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you improvise.”

That is the sort of thinking that allowed Horton and his R&D group to tackle the concept of the TLP and to bring it into the marketplace. And it is the same sort of thinking that led to the development of the spar.

Developing a smart idea

In 1983, when Horton was with Global Marine Development, Arco offered the company a contract for a floating production system if it could “come up with something smart,” Horton said. Although Global Marine Development didn’t capitalize on that offer, Horton did. When he left the company, he secured funding from Arco to pursue his “smart” idea, a concept that would eventually become the spar floating production system. And when Arco shut down its deepwater operations, Horton retained the technology.

The principle of a floating cylinder that extends deep underwater has been understood for years, and the stability of such a structure was well established. The trick was figuring out how to build it. “It isn’t science – the search for the truth – it’s engineering,” Horton said.

To make a concept work, Horton said, “You have to understand the whole system. I thought if I knew how things wiggled and bent, I would be set, but then I realized I needed to know how and when things would break. Many of the things I’ve worked with have to be understood as components. It is one thing to have an idea. It’s another to have the tools necessary to prove that it works.”

As times have changed, proving that something works has become more and more demanding. “There was a time,” Horton said, “when you could make mistakes, then correct them. That is not the way things are done now. Then, you did not have to prove you were right before you started.”

Computer modeling and analysis, the means of proving a design is “right,” have come a long way since the 1960s. “Then, we used to impress people by telling them we solved the problems using high-speed electronic computers,” Horton joked. Today, an enormous amount of computing is behind every design, and sometimes the results of those computations indicate flaws.

“Sometimes you have to realize that you aren’t going to be able to solve a problem and that it is better left for the next generation,” Horton said. “When you’re dealing with ‘unattainium’ (a new material that doesn’t exist), you are better off leaving the problem for a later time.”

People are key

When things progress as anticipated, however, engineers have been able to make enormous progress and to do so rather rapidly. “You get there a lot quicker with new analytical tools,” Horton said, “but regardless of the tools available to us in the industry today, there is still no substitute for people.”

Today, as never before in the history of the oil and gas industry, personnel are a scarce and valuable commodity. Fortunately for Horton, the number of employees has never been the primary issue. At his new company, Horton Deepwater Development Systems Inc., the small staff has not been a liability. In fact, the company has been able to break new ground with just a few engineers.

The key, Horton said, is to have the right people in the right place. “I’m convinced that with a few dedicated people who want to accomplish something, you are more productive as a company. There are a lot of problems that need to be solved in this industry. It will be innovative, insightful, and creative people who will find the solutions.”
The growing demand for oil is a reality, Horton said, and we need to find ways to get more of it out of the ground. “There’s no clear substitute on the horizon for the next 30 years. For the real problems we have, the solutions are there. We have to move forward with the solution that gets us what we need to know to find a better design.”

Horton’s company has put forward one of those designs, the Multi-Column Floater (MCF), a deep-draft semisubmersible. According to Horton, the engineering that went into the MCF incorporates the proven advantages of past successful designs while overcoming their associated design constraints. The MCF’s flexibility is one of its greatest features, Horton explained. “It is reconfigurable, relocatable, and reusable.”

Though proud of his latest creation, Horton cautioned against relying on a production system to solve the technology issues associated with deepwater operations. “We should be working on trying to reduce the time it takes to get new technology into the field,” he said.

That means focusing on things like floatover decks, dual-density mud pumps, control systems, synthetic rope mooring – taking advantage of technology that is available but not being used, Horton explained.

“We should be looking at what we could do in three to five years to improve our ability to produce oil and get new solutions into the marketplace,” Horton said.
There are many challenges, but none that the industry can’t find answers for, Horton said. “The hard thing isn’t really coming up with the ideas. The hard thing is to sell them.”