OTC 22994

mpact of Marlin on
o Crude
e Oil Expo
ort Operrations
Im
Ge
eorges Bouixx, TOTAL S.A
A.

Copyright 2012, Offshore

e Technology Confere
ence
Thiss paper was prepared
d for presentation at th
he Offshore Technolo
ogy Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA,
U
30 April3 May 2012.
a OTC program com
mmittee following review of information co
ontained in an abstracct submitted by the author(s).
a
Contents of the paper have not been
Thiss paper was selected for presentation by an
revie
ewed by the Offshore
e Technology Confere
ence and are subjectt to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessa
arily reflect any positiion of the Offshore Technology Conferencce, its
officcers, or members. Electronic reproduction
n, distribution, or storage of any part of this
t
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o not more than 300 words; illustrations may
m not be copied. Th
he abstract must contain conspicuous ackn
nowledgment of OTC
C copyright.

bstract
Ab
Th
he risk of an export buoys loading ho
ose being pie
erced by the
e spear of a billfish
b
such as marlin is very real. Su
uch
inc
cidents are p
proving espec
cially frequen
nt on FPSOss offshore An
ngola, where several case
es are record
ded every ye
ear.
Th
he consequences can be
e critical, to the extent of
o halting pro
oduction if sttorage capac
city aboard is insufficientt to
cover the time it takes to re
eplace the da
amaged item
m. This is pre
ecisely what happened on Girassol in
n January 20
010,
res
sulting in sho
ortfalls in the region of 79
90,000 barrels.
Th
he Angolan deep offshore, where most of th
he countryss FPSOs arre concentra
ated, is con
nducive to the
de
evelopment o
of marlin as the
t waters bordering on the continen
ntal plateau stay
s
warm an
nd clear for the
t greater part
p
of the year. In ffact, petroleu
um activities themselves tend to draw
w marlin by attracting
a
the species theyy feed on to the
cations.
loc
Th
he attacks on
o flexibles are not deliiberate, but the collaterral damage, as it were,, of the creatures huntting
excursions. Ass there is no known
k
deterrrent, episodic recurrence
es are to be expected.
e
Th
he best way o
of coping witth these incid
dents is to be prepared for
f them by keeping
k
sparre hoses on site and hav
ving
the
e appropriate
e vessels, prrocedures an
nd personne
el ready to qu
uickly replacce the damag
ged item. Th
he development
of temporary re
epair kits sho
ould also imp
prove the ressponse.

Inttroduction
Ac
ctors in the oil industry are used to ha
aving to acco
ommodate the surprises dealt
d
out by Mother
M
Nature.
Bu
ut it is hard to
t admit, in the
t face of enormous
e
da
amage, that it was not one
o
of the ca
arefully anticcipated disasster
sce
enarios that got the bette
er of us but a mere harm
mless animal. Who would
d boast of lossing hundred
ds of thousan
nds
of barrels and dollars beca
ause of a sin
ngle fish? An
nd yet this happens,
h
reg
gularly, espe
ecially in the Gulf of Guin
nea
and still more ffrequently offfshore Angolla.
nce in a while
e, the floating export hosse of an FPS
SO is found to have been
n punctured by
b a billfish. Usually, the bill
On
bre
eaks off the creatures he
ead and rem
mains stuck in
n the hose. The
T floating line is then no
n longer tig
ght and mustt be
rep
paired. Whe
en stocks on
n board are high, production may need
n
to be cut
c back or even stoppe
ed, with all the
consequences that entails, if the damag
ged hose sec
ction cannot be replaced
d before the next
n
offload.
Pro
oduction of tthe Girassol field on Blocck 17 (Angola
a), for examp
ple, had to be slowed and finally stop
pped in Janu
uary
20
010 to procee
ed with just such
s
a repairr, resulting in
n a productio
on shortfall of
o three quartters of a million barrels. Yet
Y
this was not the first time a marlin bill had
h pierced one
o of the d
double carcasss flexible hose
h
segmen
nts of the FPSO
Girassols floatting export lin
ne.
Infformation on
n such incide
ents is un
nderstandably
y not easy to come by,
b but discrreet probing has turned up
evidence of sim
milar events happening a
all over the world
w
every ye
ear.
he first query is: why do marlin
m
attack the floating hoses? And the second, of course: how
h
can we stop
s
them? This
T
Th
artticle will try to
o provide an answer by presenting
p
th
he view of the
e Total group
p.

OTC 22
2994

De
escription off the installa
ations
Blo
ock17, opera
ated by Tota
al E&P Ango
ola, lies off th
he coast of Angola.
A
It en
ncompasses around fifte
een fields wh
hich
tog
gether repre
esent a dailyy output of the order of
o 600,000 barrels
b
via three Floatin
ng Productio
on Storage and
a
Offfloading unitts (FPSO): Girassol
G
(2001), Dalia (2006) and Pazflor (2011).

L
of Block
B
17
Fig.1: Location

he FPSO Gira
assol is moo
ored around 200
2 km offsh
hore in waterrs 1,400 m de
eep. Its facilities include:
Th
- 37 sub
bsea produce
ers, 23 waterr injectors an
nd 2 gas injecctors
- 180 km
m of subsea flowlines
f
- A spre
ead-moored new-build
n
FP
PSO measuring 310 m x 60 m x 31 m
- Two su
ubsea exportt lines 16 in diameter
- An exp
port buoy loc
cated 1 NM frrom the FPS
SO
- One flo
oating hose string
s
for con
nnecting to offloading
o
tan
nkers

Fig. 2: Artists im
mpression of the Girassol field

OT
TC 22994

Fig. 3: FPSO Girrassol

Wh
hat happene
ed on Girass
sol on 25 Ja
anuary 2010
0?
Th
hat morning, the M/T Satturn Glory wa
as scheduled
d to make a lift operation
n. The crude
e oil tanker finished moorring
on the export b
buoy at 10:06
6 and the floa
ating flexible
e was conneccted at 11:12
2.
nt, the Total marine
m
conne
ection operattors noticed a slight iridescence on th
he surface off the water. The
T
At that momen
div
ving team wa
as sent out to
o inspect the
e floating hos
se and soon discovered damage to the
t third secttion of hose out
fro
om the exporrt buoy. It did
d not take lon
ng to establissh the tie witth a marlin attack,
a
as thiss was not the
a
e first case and
the
e damage wa
as typical of a fish bill spiiking a flexible.

ating hose co
onnected to the export bu
uoy
Fig. 4: The floa

Fig. 5:
5 Remains of
o the spear seen
s
from ou
utside the ho
ose

ng was called at the affilliates head offices in Lu

uanda, as crrude storage levels on board the FPSO
A crisis meetin
already high.
Girassol were a
w decided to attempt a makeshift repair
r
so that tanker load
ding could prroceed, and to
t arrange fo
or the damag
ged
It was
ho
ose section to
o be replaced
d immediately afterwardss.
A strip of textiile was there
efore preparred, installed
d around the
e hose by th
he divers an
nd held in place with cargo
unately, the pressure
p
testt was not entirely conclusive and, at 19:30, it was
s decided to
o disconnect the
strraps. Unfortu
tan
nker and put it on stand-b
by in the waiting area while the puncttured flexible
e was replace
ed.
Me
eanwhile, the
e surface irid
descence had
d dispersed, as only arou
und 50 liters of oil had ac
ctually leaked
d out.
Th
he repair ope
erations
Ra
ather than replace just the
e damaged section,
s
the choice
c
was made
m
to chan
nge out the first
f
three segments, i.e. the
Firrst Off Buoy and the two
o submarine hoses follow
wing it, because this mad
de no differe
ence to the total
t
duration
n of
the
e repair operration. As the
e lines comp
ponents have
e a limited sservice life, th
he whole of the
t buoy end
d of the load
ding
line
e would then
n, in theory, be
b set to lastt a further thrree years witthout servicin
ng.

OTC 22
2994

Th
he different stteps in the re
epair operation proceede
ed as follows:
- Releasse from the Luanda
L
store
es of 3 new hose
h
elementts (First Off Buoy
B
+ 2 sub
bmarine hose
es)
- Shipment of the ele
ements to the site
- Mobilizzation of one
e of the sitess tugs to flush
h out the floa
ating hose wiith seawater
- Preparration of the new hose se
egments on the
t deck of a supply boatt (installation
n of the 24" valve,
v
spool
piecess, floaters)
- Discon
nnection of th
he floating ho
ose from the buoy by the
e divers
- Winching of the ho
oses buoy exxtremity to th
he deck of the
e supply vesssel
- Discon
nnection of th
he first three segments and replacem
ment by the th
hree new one
es
- Installa
ation of the fiittings (Samsson buoys)
- Reconnection of th
he refurbished floating ho
ose to the buo
oy by the divvers
- Pressu
ure testing
- Oil circculation in the export lines to minimize
e the quantitty of water in
n the export system
s
(but no
n oil flushing
g
of the ffloating line).
Th
he change-ou
ut operations
s were finallyy completed late on Janua
ary 30.
Th
he conseque
ences
Th
he Girassol ffield produce
es around 260,000
2
barrrels/day, corrresponding to a 1-millio
on-barrel offload every four
f
da
ays.
As
s night berthing is not allo
owed, the tan
nker was nott re-called to moor until th
he morning of
o January 31
1, six days after
the
e incident wa
as discovered
d.
Altthough produ
uction had been reduced
d to the minim
mum to main
ntain the tem
mperature in the
t subsea lines, there was
w
no
o alternative other than complete
c
shu
utdown and preservation
n of the prod
duction loopss (methanol injection at the
we
ellhead and into the jump
pers and circu
ulation of dea
ad oil to avert the hydrate
e risk).
By
y the time production wa
as graduallyy ramped up
p again to th
he level befo
ore the incid
dent, the tota
al shortfall was
w
estimated at 79
90,000 barre
els, equivalen
nt to three da
ays production.
Ma
arlin attacks
s on Block 17
1
Th
he damaged section was inspected, and
a a spear was found buried
b
in the 24"-ID hose, confirming a marlin as the
cause.

Fig.6:
F
The sp
pear caught in the flexible
e in 2010

Fig.7
7: The spear cut out of th
he flexible in 2010

Ye
et this is not the
t first time such an inciident has occcurred on Girassol.
Th
he records sh
how two sim
milar cases since the FPS
SO went into
o service in December
D
20
001; fortunattely neither had
h
any incidence o
on productio
on, as the damaged itemss were replacced before stocks aboard
d reached the
e high level.
Th
he first case dates back to
t February 14, 2004 wh
hen one of th
he two 16 ta
ail lines, at th
he tanker en
nd of the 360
0-m
lon
ng floating lin
ne was found
d punctured.
At the time, th
he first hypotthesis that came
c
to min
nd was that the splinter had come from the de
eck of a sup
pply
c
with the results of an inspection of the ve
essels. This,, plus the ro
oughness of the
vessel. But this failed to concur
d without flame and sme
elled of burn
nt horn, led investigators to incrimate
e a spear-billled
splinter, which also burned

OT
TC 22994

fish. The circu

ular section of
o the spearr pinpointed the marlin family
f
as the
e culprit, as swordfish bills
b
are oval in
section.

8: The recon
nstituted spea
ar from 2004
4
Fig. 8

Fig. 9: Reconstitution of the hose puncture

p
by
ear in 2004
marlin spe

he second ca
ase was obse
erved on Gira
assol on Octtober 15, 200
07 on the eig
ghth 20" segm
ment from th
he tanker end
d of
Th
the
e floating ho
ose. As in the
t
2004 an
nd 2010 incidents, the regular
r
inspe
ections of th
he floating flexible
f
the day
d
pre
eceding the tanker lift had revealed neither leak
ks nor exterrnal damage. It was not until the ho
ose came to be
ma
anipulated and, in particu
ular, lifted byy the crane that faint irid
descence ap
ppeared on th
he water. Th
he spear in fact
f
acts as a plug and the diffferent layerss of the flexib
bles rubber wall maintain a seal aro
ound it when no pressure
e is
engaged.

ured flexible
Fig. 10:: View of the 2007 punctu

s
extractted after the 2007 inciden
nt
Fig. 11: The spear

he puzzling q
question wass why the atttacks occurred on Girasssol and not on
o Dalia, wh
hich lies bare
ely 10 km aw
way
Th
and has practiccally the sam
me configurattion (FPSO/e
export lines/b
buoy/floating hose).
Th
he answer w
was obtained as this articcle was in th
he making, in
n October 20
011, when th
he floating liine of the Da
alia
export buoy wa
as dismantle
ed on suspiccion of leakag
ge, to reveal a spear stu
uck in the eig
ghth 24 seg
gment, this tiime
de. The leak had not bee
en spotted by
y the divers, as it was exttremely sligh
ht and there was
w no obvio
ous
on the buoy sid
ge.
external damag

OTC 22
2994

Fig
g. 12: Extern
nal view of the flexible punctured in 20
011

Fig. 13:
1 Internal view
v
of the fle
exible punctu
ured in 2011

An
nd outside Block
B
17?
Th
hese recurrin
ng incidents, and above all the prod
duction loss in January 2010, prom
mpted Total E&P Angola
a to
pursue investig
gation of marrlin attacks a
and find out iff they were the only operrator to have experienced
d them.
Infformation on the subject was
w not easyy to come byy, as this type
e of incident is rarely pub
blicized by op
perators.
owever, base
ed on informa
ation gathere
ed from vario
ous industry sources, it turns out thatt marlin attaccks on crude
e-oil
Ho
export hoses are
a not as ex
xceptional ass one might imagine and
d actually oc
ccur all over the South Atlantic
A
(Ango
ola,
quatorial Guin
nea, Nigeria, Mauritania, Brazil).
Eq
Ne
evertheless, the frequency of inciden
nts is unusu
ually high in the Gulf of Guinea and
d most particcularly offshore
An
ngola where records poin
nt to almost tw
wenty cases, at a rhythm
m of at least tw
wo incidentss per year.
Wh
hy do marlin
ns attack flo
oating hoses
s?
In an endeavorr to answer this
t
question, we contacte
ed specialistts:
- In natu
ural history museums
m
- In scie
entific researc
ch institutes
- From g
government organizations dedicated to halieutic resources
r
ma
anagement
- In big g
game fishing
g companies
- From o
other oil com
mpanies
- Workin
ng with equip
pment vendo
ors (e.g. of fle
exible hoses))
a) Regard
ding the pressence of marrlin in oil prod
ducing areass
Ma
arlin are offsshore migratory fish thatt live in warm
m (22 to 31
1C), very clear waters (blue
(
waters). The Ango
olan
offfshore has exceptional characteristtics owing to
t its geogrraphy, to the cold Benguela current which flo
ows
no
orthward alon
ng the coast from the sou
uth, and to th
he laden watters of the Riiver Congo to the north. So, for much
h of
the
e year, Ango
ola has an arrea attractive
e to marlins stretching
s
we
est of the co
ontinental pla
ateau from Lobito to Soyyo
pre
ecisely the deep offshore
e area that iss home to mo
ost of the cou
untrys FPSO
Os.
It is worth remiinding that an FPSO in th
he open sea represents a perfect spo
ot for the dev
velopment off intense marrine
life
e. Marine gro
owth soon ap
ppears on the
e vessels hu
ull, giving rise
e to a food chain
c
with sm
mall fish which, together with
w
kitcchen refuse,, contribute to
t enticing shoals
s
of bigger fish. You
u have only to lean overr the ships rails
r
to obse
erve
do
olphinfish, tun
na (yellowfin, bigeye, skip
pjack tuna) or
o wahoos, sttaple foods on
o the marlin
ns menu.
La
astly, marlin a
are interested in anything
g out of the ordinary;
o
floa
ating objects,, noise and moving
m
shipss do not frigh
hten
the
em but tend rather to draw them.
Th
he FPSOs offfshore Ango
ola may therrefore be saiid to lie in a zone condu
ucive to the developmen
nt of marlin and
a
even, simply byy their prese
ence, to contrribute to attra
acting them.

OT
TC 22994

b) Regard
ding the attacks
Firrst of all, how
wever aggresssive marlin are reputed to be, they do
d not make
e a habit of spiking their prey
p
or of ussing
the
eir bill in defe
ense, rather only to stun
n. There are practically no examples of a marlin caught
c
by lin
ne fishing go
oing
on to charge th
he boat and deliberately
d
p
punching
a hole
h
in it with
h its spear.
Wh
hat we view as an attackk is actually ju
ust the fallou
ut of the marlins hunting method.
On
ne hypothesis put forward
d is that the color of the hose,
h
its und
dulations in th
he water and
d the lapping
g noise it makkes
cause it to rese
emble a sho
oal of fish. Bu
ut this is not very plausib
ble, as marlin
n have excelllent eyesigh
ht and only hunt
h
in the daytime.
owever, its p
powerful bod
dy endows th
he marlin wiith exception
nal speed an
nd accelerattion, which readily
r
excee
eds
Ho
10
00 km/h desp
pite its weigh
ht of several hundred kilo
ograms. Thiss explains how it manag
ges to slice tthrough floatting
ho
ose made of sseveral layers of metal set
s in armore
ed-textile rubber. It also accounts
a
for the
t marlin acctually breakking
its spear, beca
ause no marrlins body ha
as ever been recovered after such incidents (as
s fishermen have
h
observved,
e marlin can live perfectlyy well withou
ut its spear).
the
he most likelyy explanatio
on is thereforre that the in
ncident is the inadverten
nt result of the fishs hun
nting and no
ot a
Th
de
eliberate fightting tactic. The
T pursued prey tends to seek refug
ge near an obstacle
o
such
h as the floatting hose strring
and the marlin,, engrossed in its full-spe
eed pursuit, cannot
c
alwayys avoid the obstacle.
Co
orroboration of this come
es from obse
ervations of marlins
m
jump
ping over the floating hos
se. It would also
a
explain the
ab
bsence of oth
her traces on
n the line testifying to a series
s
of assa
aults and the
e rare but pa
articularly pow
werful nature
e of
the
e charge.

Fig. 14: Blue ma

arlin
Ho
ow can such
h damage be
e prevented
d?
a) The firrst idea that comes
c
to min
nd is to drive
e marlin awayy from oil & gas
g installatio
ons.
his is difficult for several reasons:
r
Th
- Marlin are at the to
op of the food
d chain and have
h
no natu
ural predatorss
w studies on
n the subjectt (on the con
ntrary, most are concern
ned with attrracting them for
- There are very few
fishing)
are very stron
ng fish that d
do not get frig
ghtened easily
- They a
- It is no
ot conceivablle to fence th
he area whic
ch is located in the open sea, a long way off the coast and frrom
the sea
a floor.
h
of re
epellent syste
ems do actua
ally exist but they are inte
ended for:
A handful
- Small freshwater
f
fish, to save them
t
from be
eing sucked into nuclear power plant cooling syste
ems (acousttic)
- Mamm
mals, to prote
ect fish farmss without disturbing the fissh being reared (acousticc)
- Or carrefully targetted fish spe
ecies such as
a sharks, based
b
on their physiolog
gical feature
es, which differ
significcantly from th
hose of marliins (acousticc, electrical fields, based on scent etc
c.)

OTC 22994

Lastly, professional fishing crews offer no guarantee that marlin will not come hunting in the vicinity of the loading
line, as they are solitary migratory fish.
b) Another way of preventing damage would be to offer better protection for the floating hose.
This is no easy matter either because:
- The floating hoses used are already reinforced by two metal carcasses (double or dual carcass design)
and several layers of armored-textile rubber. Additional Kevlar-based protection, like that used for bulletproof vests, does not exist at present and would render their cost prohibitive.
- It might be feasible to add a skirt onto the lower axis, to make the floating hose more visible and steer prey
further afield, but this would cause handling problems and change the behavior of the tail line.
- To tackle the problem from a different angle, transferring crude oil out of the water would require ship-toship or tandem tanker-mooring configurations unsuited to spread-moored FPSOs and their commercial
conditions (opportunity tankers).
In the end, it seems that the most effective way to preserve the offloading capacity would be to double the floating
hose and have two loading lines from the buoy. This would have to be planned for from the design stage of the
buoy because it is extremely difficult to change this subsequently on site. It is also unsuitable for tandem offloads.
In short:
- Marlin attacks are part of their hunting activity.
- No repellent means are available to steer them elsewhere.
- There are no reasonable means of protecting the floating hose, other than to double it.
- Attacks will therefore continue to occur in the Angolan deep offshore.
How is Total preparing to cope with future attacks?
First and foremost by being ready to take action fast.
This means:
a) Keeping a stock of spare hoses on site to replace damaged segments
The three FPSOs on Block 17 are now all equipped with similar floating lines 1x24" + 1x20" from the same
supplier. This way, it is possible to keep backup flexible stocks on site to the minimum by limiting them to one item
of each particular segment. This brings a time gain of 24 hours compared with dispatch from an onshore storage
site.
b) Being able to mobilize appropriate naval vessels for the replacement operations
The main functions required on at least one of the ships on site are:
- On-deck winching capability to accommodate and secure the free end of the flexible
- Easy connection to the ships firewater network to be able to flush out the hose
- Lateral doors for rapid access to a hose segment a long way from the extremities (the hose has an overall
length of nearly 360 m)
- A working zone for safely disconnecting and reconnecting the segments (attachment and lifting)
- Drip recovery (drainage and storage).
A supply vessel offering all the above functions is due to arrive on Block 17 in 2012.
c) Having up-to-date procedures
Each change-out operation must be debriefed and analyzed afterwards to reassess the legitimacy of the current
procedures and update them where necessary.
d) Mobilizing experienced personnel
Offloading operations on Block 17s three FPSOs are conducted by a fifteen-strong team of pilots, berthing
masters, divers and seamen on site at all times. They are perfectly familiar with the equipment as it is they who
inspect the hoses before each lift, who handle and service them.

OTC 22994

Under these conditions, it should be possible to change out a damaged hose segment in 24 hours.
Should 24 hours prove still too long to avoid a production cut-back, studies are currently under way with the hose
supplier to develop a temporary puncture repair kit. This involves ensuring a sealing means so the crude oil can
be successfully offlifted to the tanker and replacement of the damaged segment can be postponed until the tanker
has left the perimeter.
Simply bandaging the hose is not a satisfactory solution, as the incident on January 25, 2010 established.
Indeed, the crude oil spreads into the buoyancy foam and destroys it, preventing any makeshift repair from being
kept tightly bound. Ongoing developments by the hose supplier are based on withdrawal of the buoyancy foam as
far as the carcass of the flexible in order to fix a reinforced rubber plate directly on it.
In conclusion, anticipation and fast response are the key factors for successfully avoiding production shortfall in the
event of a marlin attack.
General conclusion
An export buoys loading hose punctured by a billfish such as marlin is a not so unusual type of incident, and even
particularly frequent offshore Angola, where several occurrences are recorded every year.
Their consequences may be critical, to the extent of halting production if storage capacity on board the FPSO is
insufficient to cover the time it takes to replace the damaged item. This is precisely what happened on Girassol in
January 2010, resulting in shortfalls in the region of 790,000 barrels.
The Angolan deep offshore, where most of the countrys FPSOs are concentrated, is conducive to the
development of marlin as the waters bordering on the continental plateau stay warm and clear for the greater part
of the year. In fact, petroleum activities themselves tend to draw marlin by attracting the species they feed on to the
locations.
The attacks on flexibles are not deliberate, but the collateral damage, as it were, of the creatures hunting
excursions. As there is no known deterrent, episodic recurrences are to be expected.
The best way of coping with these incidents is to be prepared for them by keeping spare hoses on site and having
the appropriate vessels, procedures and personnel ready to quickly replace the damaged item. The development
of temporary repair kits should also improve the response.

Acknowledgement
The Block 17 assets are operated by Total E&P Angola under a Production Sharing Agreement between Sonangol
and the Block 17 Contractor Group including Total E&P Angola, Statoil Angola Block 17, Esso Exploration Angola
Block 17 and BP Exploration Angola.
Total would like to thank Sonangol and its Partners for their support in publishing this paper.