OFFSHORE PLATFORMS & FLOATERS AND MOORING SYSTEMS 

The cost of producing oil and gas through offshore facilities increases sharply as the water depths increases. In recent years, to ensure profitability in deep-water and ultra-deepwater fields, the size of processing plants and the number of risers have increased. The result is the development of number of large floating production systems capable of taking on big loads and offering large deck areas and storage capacities.

The increased size of floating units solves some problems but compounds others. Besides raising costs, due to the increase in steel weight and equipment, the big platforms bring about complexity in a new scale, demanding development of new technologies. These changes, in turn, add to the risks (cost & planning). The larger size also limits the number of available shipyards capable of delivering such a hull on time and on budget. In a broad economic sense, with current technology and in waters deeper than 1000m, oil fields must have reserves greater than 300 MMbbl, of crude lighter than ~20° API, to warrant development.

The aim of this document is to review the current state of the art of platforms and floaters, which are well adapted to deepwater field developments, and to highlight its key engineering topics, limitations, advantages and disadvantages.

This document commences, in Chapter , with an overview of existing available platform and floater concepts (e.g. FPSO, TLP, SPAR, Semi-Submersible, SSP), as well as new concept under development (e.g. EDP).

The Chapter will compare and gather the perceived ‘Strengths & Weaknesses’ of the available deepwater floater concepts.

Chapter provides an overview on ‘Contracting Strategy’ with regard to the provision of Floating Production Units (FPU) and key issues, e.g. EPCI, shipyard availability, leased FPSO, floater transportations & installation.

Finally the different mooring techniques and systems will be reviewed in Chapter .

Floating concrete structures (such as Nkossa floating production barge, Heidrun TLP, Troll Olje Semi-Submersible,…) are more seldom in Deepwater and thus are not included in the scope of this document which concentrates on comparing steel fabricated floating structures.

Tip Click these links below for access to 3D resources: 3D Pictures of FPSO Hull 3D Pictures of Mooring systems 3D Pictures of Oil Offloading Lines (OOL) 3D Pictures of Buoys

This study is based on the following sources:

We wish to thank the platforms & floaters designer for the provision of technical information and photographs.