PRODUCTION ENGINEERING II

SEMESTER

6/3

By

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

(aliyu.adebayor@petronas.com)
(alisulal1@yahoo.com; aliyu.sulaimon@gmail.com)
[D/L: 05368 7051; Mobile: 014 348 5422]

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Lecture Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
Describe an oil platform
Identify different types of oil platforms
Differentiate between various types of offshore structures

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Oil Platform:
This is a large structure with facilities to drill wells,
to produce and process oil and natural gas, and to

temporarily

store the processed fluids.

Some platforms may contain housing units for the crew accommodation
Structural frame analysis, environmental load
predictions, transportation analyses, and installation
procedures are important considerations during the

design and

construction stages of an offshore structure

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Classifications of Oil Platforms

Fixed platforms

Manned and Unmanned platforms

Monopod and Tripod platforms

Jack-up

Semi-submersible

Compliant towers

Guyed towers

Tension-leg platforms

Floating production systems

Gravity-based structure

Spar platforms
Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Fixed Platforms
Built on concrete or steel legs or both.
Anchored directly onto the seabed
Designed for long term use

Installed in water depths up to 1700ft

Handles production up to 50,000Bbl/d
Types include:

Steel jackets: vertical sections consist of tubular steel components usually piled into the seabed

Concrete caissons: In-built storage tanks used as a floatation capability

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

VIDEO SHOW

JACKET LAUNCHING

&
OFFSHORE PLATFORMS

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Manned platform

Unmanned platform (Toadstools)

Small platforms designed to be remotely operated

Shallow waters
Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Monopod oil platform

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Tripod oil platforms

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Jack-up rigs
Self-elevating unit capable of raising its hull
above sea (water) level
Design to move from one place to another
Legs are deployed to the seabed using a
rack and pinion gear system on each leg to
anchor
Typically used in water depths up to 500ft

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Jack-up rigs

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

VIDEO SHOW

JACK-UP RIGS

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Semi-submersible platforms
They have hulls (columns and pontoons)
of sufficient buoyancy to cause the
structure to flow, and sufficient weight
to keep it upright
Partially submerged and movable
Can be ballasted up or down (i.e.

buoyancy tanks)

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Semi-submersible platforms (Cont.)
Anchored by combinations of chain, wire
rope or polyester rope, or both.
Stabilized by anchoring and ballasting
Can also be positioned by using dynamic
positioning
Water Depth: 200 10,000ft

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Compliant (Guyed) Towers
Based on compliancy principle (Non-rigid)
Similar to fixed platforms (Tower-wise)
Consist of a narrow flexible tower attached
to a (pile) foundation on the seafloor
Able to absorb effect of high cyclic wave
force
Designed for deep-water
Depth: 1,200 - 3,000ft

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Compliant (Tension-leg) Towers
Also based on compliancy principle.

Tethered to the seabed to eliminate

vertical movement of the structure
Conventional 4-column design looks
similar to a semi-submersible
Depth: up to 7000ft
Proprietary versions(Seastar and MOSES
mini TLPs) are cheaper and used in water
depth between 600-4,300ft
Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

VIDEO SHOW

TENSION-LEG PLATFORMS

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Floating production systems
Large ships of varying offshore

operations applications: FSU, FSO,

FPSO
FPSOs consist of large monohull

structures equipped with processing

facilities
They are moored to a location for

long duration
Water depth: 650 6,500ft
Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

VIDEO SHOW

FPSO FUNDAMENTALS

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Gravity-based structure

GBS can be steel or concrete anchored directly onto the

seabed

Installed by pulling off the yard, by either wet-tow and/or drytow, and self-installing by controlled ballasting of the
compartments with sea water

Concrete gravity structures can handle production up to

200,000Bbl/D

Largest GBS (Hibernia) has storage capacity of 1.3MMBbls

Steel GPSs are used when there is limited availability of crane

barges to install a conventional fixed offshore platform

Water depth limitation around 700ft

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Spar platforms
Moored to the seabed like TLPs
While a TLP has vertical tension tethers, a spar
has more conventional mooring lines
More stable than the TLPs
There are three (3) design configurations:
Conventional spar
Truss spar
Cell spar

Water depth: Floats in depth up to 8,000ft

Worlds deepest platform built at a cost of
$3billion

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

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Spar platforms (Cont.)

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

VIDEO SHOW

1]

INTRODUCTION TO SPARS

2]

SPART TRANSPORTATION AND INSTALLATION

&
3]

SPAR OPERATION

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Integrated Development Systems
System design covers all aspects of:
Topsides (structures and process)
Hull
Mooring system
Riser system
Subsea components
Expensive anywhere from $300M to $2B
Design must cover all aspects of system life including installation and decommissioning

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

OFFSHORE STRUCTURES
Primary Drivers for Deep-water FPUs
Water depth
Payload
Production Characteristics Well Access Requirements
Availability of Infrastructure & Market location
Platform drilling, predrilling vs. post drilling
Gas Disposal Requirements
Local Content Requirements
Field Life
Metocean (meteorology & oceanography) Conditions.
Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

Questions?

THANK YOU

Dr Aliyu Adebayo Sulaimon

THANK YOU
2012 INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PETRONAS SDN BHD
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