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Janardhanan 2
Abstract
This paper describes one method of increasing local content by constructing and pressure testing all the Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) and Flowlines on an appropriate land site using local skilled workers and then towing the fabricated system to the field for offshore installation using NOC contracted Anchor Handling Towing and Supply (AHTS) Vessels. Subsea integrity will be the basis for all stages of design, fabrication and installation without compromise on the quality standards. Brazil is ideally suited for this type of construction. The reasons for choosing Brazil is that Petrobras and other oil companies are planning on developing a large number of their deepwater offshore fields in the next ten years. The slated amount of expenditure for the next ten years is 10 billion US dollars. Brazil requires a large percentage of local content. In order to be able to meet this goal all methods of installation of flowlines using international and local contractors is envisaged. One method of using locally available skilled workers is to building the flowlines onshore and then towing them to the offshore field for installation. The tow method selected for this paper is off-bottom tow method. This installation method is suitable for many countries such as Angola, China, India and Brazil where there is push to use local skilled workers. For this paper, the selected country for example, where this method can be used is Brazil. This method can be used for developing any offshore field in Brazil where a reasonably flat beach area for fabrication the SCRs and flowlines is available. As an example here in this paper a typical deepwater field development in the offshore Campos Basin area is chosen.
1. Introduction
Many National Oil Companies (NOCs) require high percentage of local content in the development of their Offshore Oil & Gas Fields. This can be achieved by allowing subsea flowlines/pipelines and SCRs to be fabricated and tested on land and then towed to the deepwater field for installation by using Company owned/leased AHTS vessels. There are several methods of towing the fabricated flowlines and SCRs depending on the depth at which the flowline is situated during tow. The tow methods are listed below: Surface Tow Below surface or Mid-depth Tow Off-bottom Tow Bottom Tow In this paper the selected method is off-bottom tow. The reason for selecting off-bottom tow is to be able keep the towed system away from the higher currents and wave induced effects. Keeping it off-bottom, avoids having to deal with hazardous irregularities found along the seabed. This however does not preclude having to do a detailed bottom survey along the route that is finally chosen. Off-bottom tow requires additional buoyancy and chains to be attached along the towed system which increases the cost when compared to a bottom tow. But this additional cost can be distributed as long as there are several tows to be performed using the same buoyancy and chains. For towing integrity in off-bottom tow, two AHTS vessels are required one in the front and one at the back. While towing the flowlines and SCRs using two vessels imparts tension helping to stabilize the towed system in shallow areas where there could be large cross-currents.
______________________________ 1 Subsea Pipeline Engineering Manager - BECHTEL OG&C 2 Subsea Systems Manager BECHTEL OG&C
Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 Brazil is beginning to develop its newly found large number of offshore fields in the Campos and Santos Basins. Therefore, this paper is directed to installation of flowlines and SCRs in offshore deepwater field in these areas using off-bottom tow method. However, this method can be used to develop offshore fields anywhere along the coast of Brazil using locally available skilled labor and Companys AHTS vessels.
SYNTACTIC INSULATION
PRODUCTION LINE
Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 Insulated pipe joints for production flowlines Straked joints with and without insulation Three layer Polyethylene (3LPE) or FBE coated joints for water injection lines Pre-fabricated PLETs, inline sleds and anchoring clamps for SCRs Heavy Chain and Buoyancy Modules for Flowlines, SCRs and Sleds/PLETs Rigging Material Railway Bogies for supporting the flowline on the rail
All the heavy equipment required for handling onshore pipeline fabrication must be made available at the site mainly, cranes and sideboom tractors.
Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 The deepwater survey will run from 190m water depth to infield area at 1800m water depth. Another parking area (2nd) in deepwater is required. From here the flowlines will be reverse towed as shown in Figure 16. This second parking area needs to be surveyed. The route for parking each of the flowlines is shown. The back-end of the flowline with the PLETs will become the front-end for towing into the infield area. Preparation of the tow route consists of covering all cables and pipeline crossings with several layers of concrete mats for protection. All the crossing locations and hazards close to the 50m corridor of the tow route will be marked with transponders in such a way that the tow vessels and the survey vessels used during the tow can pick up these locations from the transponder signals.
In preparing to launch, SCR string with a pull-head in front is placed on bogies sitting on the rail. Sideboom tractors are used in this operation of lifting the flowline string on the bogies as shown in Figure 17 and Figure 18.
At the same time, the Front Tow vessel is anchored nearshore at the 10m contour water depth. In this case the distance from the beach to the tow vessel is 1 km. The tow wire from the vessel is transferred to shore using a winch on the beach as shown in Figure 19. To prevent the tow wire from dragging along the seabed, Norwegian buoys can be attached at a pre-determined spacing as shown in Figure 20. The tow wire is now ready to be connected to the pull-head in front. The side-boom tractors lift and move the completed flowline string on to the bogies sitting on the rail as shown in Figure 18. A holdback winch is connected to the rear end of the string to provide some back tension. As the rail would be sloping towards the beach, the string will have a tendency to move towards the water and is prevented by the back tension provided by the holdback winch. The tow wire is connected to the front pull-head of the SCR string. The SCR pipe joints will come with strakes fitted on it or it can be fitted on the beach as shown in Figure 21. The SCR string is ready to be launched. The tow wire is attached to the pull-head in front of the string. Buoyancy and chains are attached to the SCR string at predetermined spacing. The chains at this time are tied along the top of the buoy. This will allow the abrasion resistant HDPE outer layer of the flowline to rest on the seabed when launched into the water. Launching of the SCR string is performed by the tow vessel slowly moving forward on its own propulsion until the end of the string is near the welding station. The divers release the chains tied to the buoyancy modules allowing the SCR section to rise up above the seabed. The back end of the SCR string is fitted with an anchor 6
Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 clamp. When this is near the water line, the flowline string is lifted and placed on the bogies on the rail. Then the front end of the flowline string is welded to the back end of the SCR string. Buoyancy and chains are attached to the flowline string. When the welding and NDE are completed, the tow vessel will move forward again to pull the flowline string into the water. An inline sled is then welded to the back end of the flowline string. The number of strings that need to be welded depends on the number of inline sleds. The PLET is welded to the back end of the last string near the water line. With the flowline system completely fabricated and pulled into the water, the flowline can be pressurized with nitrogen from the PLET end. A successful pressure test is assumed when the pressure is held for four hours without any significant drop in pressure. Now the first SCR/flowline system is ready for tow to the first parking area in 20m water depth.
Vessels Features Bollard Pull Winch Capacity Storage Capacity for 203mm F Polyester rope MAERSK BOULDER 235 t 500 t 2 drums @ 1,600m NORSKAN COPACABANA 180 t 350 t 4 drums @1,300m
8. Towing Operation
Initiating tow after fabricating and testing the flowline will require the maximum tow force. In this case with the longest flowline with the SCR attached is approximately 6.3km requiring a tow force of approximately 200 metric tons. Table 1 above shows two of the candidate tow vessels that may be available offshore Brazil. If one tow vessel does not have the capacity to initiate tow, two vessels in tandem can be used as shown in Figure 22 as shown above. The tow will proceed to the first parking area in 20m water depth. The tow is stopped here to check if the off-bottom height is more or less as designed (~2m to 3m). If not, divers can trim the height by adding more chain. The tow can then proceed after confirming that the flowline is suspended at the designed height above the seabed.
Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 platform crane to the pull-head. The other end of the keel haul wire is lowered to the Tow vessel on the other side of the FPS. This tow vessel will slowly haul in the keel haul wire and move the pull-head of the SCR under the FPS to the same side as this vessel. Only when the SCR pull-head has completely cleared the FPS pontoon will the ROV release the tow wire of the other vessel on the other side. The second tow vessel will pass the connection to the winch on the FPS. This winch will pull the SCR up and place it into receptacle with the help of a ROV.
12. Acknowledgements
This paper is based on the approximately 40years of experience the author has accumulated while working in the offshore pipeline industry. The author also acknowledges Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals, Inc. for allowing the publication of this paper.