An Assessment of Iceberg Loads for Operations in the North Barents Sea

Author(s):  
Ujjwal Raghuvanshi ◽  
Sören Ehlers

With increasing demand for oil, drilling operations are soon going to start in the North Barents Sea. This area experiences iceberg occurrences. A systematic mapping of iceberg needs to be done to keep a tab on the iceberg location. Also, a study is required to assess the loads that come on to the mooring system in case of an iceberg – floater interaction. Therefore, this paper seeks to create a systematic mapping procedure for the occurrence of icebergs in the North Barents Sea using MATLAB. Further, from information on iceberg attributes and drift speed, the paper computes the iceberg mass and energy to define a probability density function of encountering an iceberg of a particular size. A scenario of an iceberg-floater interaction has been studied for different contact area geometries based on the kinetic energy model. Forces that develop on the mooring lines of a floater have been computed to aid in the designing of the mooring system of structures operating in the region fraught with the dangers of floating icebergs like the North Barents Sea.

Author(s):  
Yuanchuan Liu ◽  
Yao Peng ◽  
Decheng Wan

With the increasing demand of floating structures in offshore, coastal and marine renewable energy engineering, the interaction between the mooring system and floating structure becomes more and more important. In this paper, motion responses of a semi-submersible platform with mooring system under regular wave conditions are investigated numerically by a viscous flow solver naoe-FOAM-SJTU based on the open source toolbox OpenFOAM. Influence of the mooring system on the platform motion responses is evaluated in two different ways. Investigations are covered for analysis methods adopted for solving mooring lines and the length of each part of a multi-component mooring line. Several important conclusions are drawn.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halvor S. Gustad ◽  
Per Thomas Moe ◽  
Dag André Fjeldstad ◽  
Knut Olav Sønåsen ◽  
Arve Bjørset

Abstract The Reactive Flex-Joint (RFJ) is a nitrogen gas torsion springfully integrated in the LMRP-BOP stack. Its purpose is to reduce the dynamic loads and the fatigue damage applied to wellheads during drilling operations. The system achieves the reduction by applying a bending moment opposing and inverting the bending moment at the Lower Flex-Joint (LFJ). The RFJ is continuously monitored by the WAMS measurement system. The second generation RFJ has been extensively tested in a full scale workshop test rig before being shipped offshore for a year of operations on two semi-submersible rigs operating in the North Sea/Barents Sea. This paper demonstrates by calculation and measurement that the RFJ is capable of reducing wellhead loads by more than 50% and the wellhead fatigue by more than 95%. The accuracy of the measurement system is discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Asst. Prof. Dr. Khalid M. Mousa ◽  
Chief Eng. Aqeel Sheikha Arafat

The oil drilling operations large quantities of contaminted water known as "produced water" .   The present study aims to treatment of produced water of the North Rumaila and Zubair oil fields,using stainless steel autoclave. A series of experiments were carried out at different conditions,temperature, pressure, acidity, revolution per minute (RPM) and salinity with and without flocculation.The result showed that 93% of oil was removed. An improvement was conducted when usingsurfactants.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.T. Martí

The water problems in Marina Baja district, located in the north of Alicante Province, southeast Spain, gives rise to very interesting practices in the management of this scarce resource. The key issue in water use both in the Júcar Catchment and in Marina Baja district is the growing demand for water in inland areas for intensive crop irrigation (principally fruit, medlars and citrus fruit) and the growth in demand for water for urban use, as well as for use in the tourist industry and its related services mainly in the towns in the coastal areas, due to strong growth in tourism. This trend of increasing demand has created a tense situation as well as conflict between existing water uses and the need for integrated water management in the area. This step implies that procedures for water exchange contracts have to be developed, that are significantly different from emerging water markets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Mohamad Alremeihi ◽  
Rosemary Norman ◽  
Kayvan Pazouki ◽  
Arun Dev ◽  
Musa Bashir

Oil drilling and extraction platforms are currently being used in many offshore areas around the world. Whilst those operating in shallow seas are secured to the seabed, for deeper water operations, Dynamic Positioning (DP) is essential for the platforms to maintain their position within a safe zone. Operating DP requires intelligent and reliable control systems. Nearly all DP accidents have been caused by a combination of technical and human failures; however, according to the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) DP Incidents Analysis, DP control and thruster system failures have been the leading causes of incidents over the last ten years. This paper will investigate potential operational improvements for DP system accuracy by adding a Predictive Neural Network (PNN) control algorithm in the thruster allocation along with a nonlinear Proportional Integral derivative (PID) motion control system. A DP system’s performance on a drilling platform in oil and gas deep-water fields and subject to real weather conditions is simulated with these advanced control methods. The techniques are developed for enhancing the safety and reliability of DP operations to improve the positioning accuracy, which may allow faster response to a critical situation during DP drilling operations. The semisubmersible drilling platform’s simulation results using the PNN strategy show improved control of the platform’s positioning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Dongsheng Qiao ◽  
Binbin Li ◽  
Jun Yan ◽  
Yu Qin ◽  
Haizhi Liang ◽  
...  

During the long-term service condition, the mooring line of the deep-water floating platform may fail due to various reasons, such as overloading caused by an accidental condition or performance deterioration. Therefore, the safety performance under the transient responses process should be evaluated in advance, during the design phase. A series of time-domain numerical simulations for evaluating the performance changes of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) with different broken modes of mooring lines was carried out. The broken conditions include the single mooring line or two mooring lines failure under ipsilateral, opposite, and adjacent sides. The resulting transient and following steady-state responses of the vessel and the mooring line tensions were analyzed, and the corresponding influence mechanism was investigated. The accidental failure of a single or two mooring lines changes the watch circle of the vessel and the tension redistribution of the remaining mooring lines. The results indicated that the failure of mooring lines mainly influences the responses of sway, surge, and yaw, and the change rule is closely related to the stiffness and symmetry of the mooring system. The simulation results could give a profound understanding of the transient-effects influence process of mooring line failure, and the suggestions are given to account for the transient effects in the design of the mooring system.


Author(s):  
Jorge Mendoza ◽  
Jacopo Paglia ◽  
Jo Eidsvik ◽  
Jochen Köhler

Mooring systems that are used to secure position keeping of floating offshore oil and gas facilities are subject to deterioration processes, such as pitting corrosion and fatigue crack growth. Past investigations show that pitting corrosion has a significant effect on reducing the fatigue resistance of mooring chain links. In situ inspections are essential to monitor the development of the corrosion condition of the components of mooring systems and ensure sufficient structural safety. Unfortunately, offshore inspection campaigns require large financial commitments. As a consequence, inspecting all structural components is unfeasible. This article proposes to use value of information analysis to rank identified inspection alternatives. A Bayesian Network is proposed to model the statistical dependence of the corrosion deterioration among chain links at different locations of the mooring system. This is used to efficiently update the estimation of the corrosion condition of the complete mooring system given evidence from local observations and to reassess the structural reliability of the system. A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the framework.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Schumacher ◽  
Inga Moeck

Abstract Temperature logs recorded shortly after drilling operations can be the only temperature information from deep wells. However, these measurements are still influenced by the thermal disturbance caused by drilling and therefore do not represent true rock temperatures. The magnitude of the thermal disturbance is dependent on many factors such as drilling time, logging procedure or mud temperature. However, often old well reports lack this crucial information so that conventional corrections on temperature logs cannot be performed. This impedes the re-evaluation of well data for new exploration purposes, e.g. for geothermal resources. This study presents a new method to correct log temperatures in low-enthalpy play types which only requires a knowledge of the final depth of the well as an input parameter. The method was developed and verified using existing well data from an intracratonic sedimentary basin, the eastern part of the North German Basin. It can be transferred to other basins with little or no adjustment.


Author(s):  
Øystein Gabrielsen ◽  
Kjell Larsen

The Aasta Hansteen spar in the Norwegian Sea is designed to be moored with a taut polyester rope mooring system. The water depth at the field is 1300 meters, and due to the short installation season the most efficient hookup is with pre-installed mooring lines, which require the mooring lines to be laid down on the seabed. DNV certification does not allow seabed contact for polyester ropes unless proven that no soil ingress and damage takes place. To be able to certify the ropes Statoil developed a test method including contact with soil, rope movement and forced water flow through the filter construction. Full scale tests were performed with actual rope and Aasta Hansteen soil, both in laboratory and at site. This paper discusses the certification requirements and presents adequate qualification test together with results from testing.


2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Haug ◽  
Garry B. Stenson ◽  
Peter J. Corkeron ◽  
Kjell T. Nilssen

Abstract From 14 March to 6 April 2002 aerial surveys were carried out in the Greenland Sea pack ice (referred to as the “West Ice”), to assess the pup production of the Greenland Sea population of harp seals, Pagophilus groenlandicus. One fixed-wing twin-engined aircraft was used for reconnaissance flights and photographic strip transect surveys of the whelping patches once they had been located and identified. A helicopter assisted in the reconnaissance flights, and was used subsequently to fly visual strip transect surveys over the whelping patches. The helicopter was also used to collect data for estimating the distribution of births over time. Three harp seal breeding patches (A, B, and C) were located and surveyed either visually or photographically. Results from the staging flights suggest that the majority of harp seal females in the Greenland Sea whelped between 16 and 21 March. The calculated temporal distribution of births were used to correct the estimates obtained for Patch B. No correction was considered necessary for Patch A. No staging was performed in Patch C; the estimate obtained for this patch may, therefore, be slightly negatively biased. The total estimate of pup production, including the visual survey of Patch A, both visual and photographic surveys of Patch B, and photographic survey of Patch C, was 98 500 (s.e. = 16 800), giving a coefficient of variation of 17.9% for the survey. Adding the obtained Greenland Sea pup production estimate to recent estimates obtained using similar methods in the Northwest Atlantic (in 1999) and in the Barents Sea/White Sea (in 2002), it appears that the entire North Atlantic harp seal pup production, as determined at the turn of the century, is at least 1.4 million animals per year.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document