SEMINAR REPORT ON TOPIC:

“OFFSHORE PLATFORMS”.

SUBMITTED TO: MISS BONDITA ROBI DAS

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DUIET
SUBMITTED BY:

HARJYOTI KALITA (PE-11/14)

JASHBANT LODH (PE-12/14)

MANJIT KUMAR BRAHMA (PE-13/14)

NIRAJ DUBEY (PE-14/14)

DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

DIBRUGARH UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,DU

PREFACE
This discussion is done on “OFFSHORE PLATFORMS”. Here we have tried to make
a simple, detailed and elaborate report on the topic. All the major points have
been highlighted in the discussion.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are really grateful as we are able to manage my discussion of “OFFSHORE
PLATFORMS”. We would like to thank Miss Bondita Robi Das for extending her
constant support and also for sharing the necessary knowledge with me which
was required to complete our report.

Once again we would like to thank all the people solely from the core of our heart
who had encouraged and helped us in doing this task for our seminar and has
extended as much understanding and support as they are capable of. Hope that
you are satisfied with the work.
 Introduction
Offshore engineering predominantly concerns methods for the recovery of
hydrocarbon resources from d e e p beneath the seabed, the installation of fixed
platform structures, the operation of mobile and floating platforms as well as fixed
platforms, and the laying of pipelines and associated oil/gas transport systems.
Other offshore engineering work includes the use of wave, current and wind
energy, and the recovery of minerals from the seabed in shallow or deep water.
Whatever the work, equipment must be designed, built, installed and operated so
that it can work reliably, safely and efficiently for perhaps long periods of time
without maintenance, and with limited supervision. This is the challenge of
offshore engineering!
History of Offshore Drilling
The offshore oil industry began off the coast of California in the late 1890s, in a
few feet of water. In1910, an oil well was drilled in Ferry Lake, Louisiana.
Internationally, the first wells were drilled in Lake Maricaibo, Venezuela in 1929.
Marine drilling in the Gulf of Mexico began in the 1930s.The Arabian (Persian)
Gulf and the North Sea experienced oil finds and subsequent offshore platform
development starting in 1960. Development in the 1970s was explosive, and
offshore platforms and drilling advanced into deeper water at a rapid rate.

In 1973, the North Sea was the site of the first concrete gravity platform which is a
concrete structure built on land, floated to the site, and sunk to the bottom. In 1978,
Shell placed their Cognac platform in 312.5m of water in the Gulf of Mexico. In
1984, Conoco placed the first tension leg platform (the Hutton) in the North Sea in
147.9m of water. In 1988, Shell installed the Bullwinkle fixed platform in 548.8m,
and five years later (1993), Shell installed the Auger tension leg platform in a
water depth of 852m in the Gulf of Mexico. The 1990s experienced the push to
deeper waters (>600m) with the installation of tension leg platforms, and floating
production systems to produce ail in marginal fields (2-6 years production life).
New platform concepts continue to be proposed with the goal to reduce the cost of
production and to be able to work in greater and greater water depths since large
oil reserves have been found in very deep water depths (>1800m).
WHAT IS OFFSHORE PLATFORM?
A large structure at sea used to house crew and machinery for exploration and/ or
production of natural resources such as fossil fuels from under the ocean bed.
CHARACTERISTICS
 Normally located in the continental shelf , but could be in deeper waters.
 Could be fixed to sea bed or floating.
 Could be dumb or mobile.
CRITERIA DURING DESIGN
 WATER DEPTH
 WEATHER CONDITIONS
 RESERVOIR SIZE
 PRODUCTION LEVEL
 ECONOMIC FACTOR
 BOTTOM CONDITION

TYPE OF OFFSHORE STRUCTURES

The use of offshore structures for the exploration and production of offshore
petroleum and natural gas reserves has been conducted in most continental shelf
areas of the world. As new technologies arose, a move towards deeper waters
followed. There are different types of offshore structures in use today. These are
classified here according to whether they are fixed with respect to the sea bed,
compliant (with a degree of mobility providing a means to alleviate destructive
loads), or floating.
Fixed (Bottom Founded) Structures
These are structures that are fixed to the sea bed and they are probably the most
popular offshore structures used for oil and gas production, in terms of number of
units installed. For such structures, the weight is much larger than the buoyancy
(W>>B).
Self-Elevating Jack-Up Structure

Fig. (1) jack-up rig (work-over for existing platform)

The self-elevating jack-up platform (Figure 1) is one of the earliest types of
platforms. It is mainly used for exploratory drilling operations to drill wells for
permanent platforms but a number have been constructed as accommodation
support vessels to provide assistance to fixed installations during construction,
modification or repair. The majority of jack-ups is used for exploration (wildcat
drilling) purposes and work-over. It consists of a triangular shaped (sometimes
rectangular), box-section barge fitted with three (sometimes four) moveable
elevator legs which enable the vessel to stand on the sea bed in water depths of up
to approximately 140 meters. The drilling derrick is fitted to rails so that it can be
cantilevered into a position which provides direct access to the wellhead area

Such platforms are typically towed like a barge to the drilling site (over short
distances) with the legs elevated vertically above the barge deck. At the site, the
legs are jacked down through the water column and into the sea floor, while using
thruster units to position the platform. Before jacking, favorable weather
conditions of sufficient duration, i.e. suitable weather window must be ensured. As
the legs engage the sea floor, the drilling deck is raised out of the water and into
the air. The base of each leg is fitted with a spud can which consists of a plate or
dish designed to spread the load and prevent over penetration of the leg into the sea
bed. High pressure jets of water or compressed air may be used to remove loose
debris in the vicinity of the spud cans while the legs are maneuvered into position,
this process being referred to as spudding in. The legs are raised and lowered by
means of a rack and pinion arrangement, the racks being attached to the chords of
each leg, running from top to bottom while the pinions are driven by electric
motors via reduction gearboxes, typically 12 motors for each leg. The hull of the
jack-up must be raised and lowered on an even keel.
Deck space provides room for drilling equipment, supplies and crew
accommodation. Helicopters and supply boats ferry workers and equipment to the
platform. The drilling deck must be well above the height of the highest expected
waves. After the drilling is complete, the procedure is reversed and the drilling
deck is lowered to the water and the legs are jacked up above the drill deck. A
tugboat is then used to move the platform to another location. To undertake long
sea passages, the jack-up is transported on the deck of a submersible heavy lift
ship. This is both quicker and safer.

Advantages of jack-up platforms:

 When elevated, the jack-up is a stable platform since it does not experience
any rigid body motions in the elevated position.
 Economical due to low initial cost and operating costs.
 High mobility.
 Large deck area.
 Good safety record.

Disadvantages of jack-up platforms:

 Limited to shallow waters (140 meters).
 Before transporting, raising and lowering; suitable weather conditions must
be ensured. Therefore, jack-ups are dependent on weather window.
  Problems have occurred due to insufficient leg penetration resulting from
seafloor scour caused by high intensity sub-sea currents.
 If uncontrolled blow-out occurs during drilling, the platform may plunge to
the seafloor as the soil loosens (fluidization), resulting in total platform loss.

Fixed Steel (Jacket) Structure

A fixed jacket structure (Figure 2) consists of a steel framed tubular structure that
is attached to the sea bottom by piles. These piles are driven into the sea floor
through pile guides (sleeves) on the outer members of the jacket.
The topside structure consists of drilling equipment, production equipment, crew
quarters, gas flare stacks, revolving pedestal cranes, and a helicopter pad (Heli-
deck). The helicopter pad and crew quarters must be situated as far from the
hydrocarbon processing facilities as possible. Drilling and production pipes are
brought up to topside through conductor guides within the jacket framing, and the
crude oil and gas travel from the reservoir through the production conductor to
topside for processing. The produced oil and gas are transported to shore through
subsea export pipelines.
The detailed design of the frame varies widely and depends on the requirements of
strength, fatigue, and launch procedure. The maximum water depth is 500m. The
platform phases include: design, construction, load-out, launch, installation, piling,
and hook-up before it begins producing. The design life of the structure is typically
10-25 years. This is followed by the requirement to remove and dispose of the
platform once the reservoir(s) is (are) depleted. Since these structures are made of
steel, the effects of corrosion must be considered due to exposure to the ocean
environment. Sacrificial anodes are installed to protect the structure against
corrosion.
 Figure (2). 4-legs steel jacket platform

Fixed jacket structures represent the vast majority of offshore production

platforms. They vary considerably in size due to location, water depth, weather
conditions and whether they are intended for gas or oil production.

Advantages of fixed jacket platform:

 Supports large deck loads.
  May be constructed in sections and transported.
 Large field, long term production (supports a large number of wells).
 Piles result in good stability.
 Little effect from seafloor scour.

Disadvantages of fixed jacket platform:

 Costs increase exponentially with depth.
 High initial and maintenance costs.
 Not re-usable.
 Steel structural members subject to corrosion.

Concrete Gravity Base Structure (GBS)

It has a base manufactured from reinforced concrete. The first concrete structure
was installed in the North Sea by the Norwegians in 1973. The void spaces in the
design of a GBS provide valuable storage space for crude oil prior to discharge
into oil tankers via a single buoy mooring (SBM). The columns are used for
drilling and oil production conductors.
 Figure 3 Gravity base concrete platform

Figure 3 shows a typical GBS. The construction of a concrete installation base

normally starts in a drydock. The design of the base includes caissons (void
spaces) suitably dimensioned to provide the structure with a natural buoyancy to
enable it to be floated clear of the drydock for finishing off before towing to its
final destination.
Once on location the void spaces are flooded to position the base on the sea bed.
The topside modules are then lifted into place. The void spaces may be pumped
dry and used as storage compartments for crude oil or filled with sand or iron ore
ballast. There is no need to install foundation piles because of the very big weight.
Advantages of concrete gravity base platforms:
 Ability to store crude oil.
 Construction and testing may be completed before floating the structure and
towing it to an offshore location.
 More tolerant to overloading and degradation due to exposure to sea water
than steel structures.
 Ability to withstand impact from icebergs.
 Lower maintenance.
 Higher deck payload.
 Possible re-use.

Disadvantages of concrete gravity base platforms:

 Greater cost than for similar steel structure.
 More steel is sometimes required for reinforcing the concrete than required
for an equivalent steel jacketed structure.
 Foundation settlement is expected over the life of the structure, reducing the
clearance between the mean water level and the underside of the deck
structure.
 Subject to seafloor scour.

Compliant Structures

Compliant structures move with the applied environmental forces from wind,
current and waves. These structures are much lighter and cost considerably less.
The following compliant structures will be discussed: articulated loading platform
(ALP) or tower (ALT), guyed tower, tension leg platform (TLP), and spar
platform.
Articulated (Loading) Tower

It is used mainly for the development of small reservoirs in water depths of up to

about 200m. The weight slightly exceeds the buoyancy (W≈B) to keep the
universal joint on the sea bed, see Figure 4 (a&b). Crude oil is moved up the
articulated tower and transferred to the tethered tanker for processing and storage.

Figure 4- Example articulated loading tower

Advantages of ALT:
 Low cost.
 Large restoring moments due to high center of buoyancy.
  Risers are protected by tower.

Disadvantages of ALT:
 Shallow water only – greater oscillations as depth increases.
 Cannot operate in bad weather.
 Limited to small fields.
 Fatigue of universal joint.
 Figure 4-b Example articulated loading tower

Guyed Tower

The guyed tower is shown in Figure 5. It is a slender truss-like structure supported

on the sea floor (W>B) by a spud-can or pile foundation and held upright by
multiple wire or chain guy lines which are held in place by clump weights and
anchor lines.
Water depth varies from 200 to 600m.
The guy lines connect to anchor piles and are equipped with heavy clump weights
between the anchor and tower. The guy wires restrain the platform motion during
typical operating weather conditions without lifting the clump weights off the
bottom.
During more extreme weather conditions, the guy wires lift the clump weights off
the bottom, and the clump weights create a larger restoring force to resist the larger
wave forces. The cost of this type of structure is considerably less than a fixed steel
jacket structure.
 Figure 5. Example guyed tower platform

Advantages of guyed tower:

 Low cost.
 Good stability – guy lines and clump weights give added restoring
force.
 Possible re-use.

Disadvantages of guyed tower:

 High maintenance cost.
 2-Small fields only.
 Cost increases exponentially with depth.
 Difficult mooring.
TENSION LEG PLATFORM

HISTORY:
TLPs have been in use since the early 1980s. The first tension leg platform was
built for Conoco's Hutton field in the North Sea in the early 1980s. The hull was
built in the dry-dock at Highland Fabricator's Nigg yard in the north of Scotland,
with the deck section built nearby at McDermott's yard at Ardersier. The two parts
were mated in the Moray Firth in 1984.
The Hutton TLP was originally designed for a service life of 25 years in Nord Sea
depth of 100 to 1000 metres. It had 16 tension legs. Its weight varied between
46,500 and 55,000 tons when moored to the seabed, but up to 61,580 tons when
floating freely. The total area of its living quarters was about 3,500 square metres
and accommodated over a 100 cabins though only 40 people were necessary to
maintain the structure in place.
The hull of the Hutton TLP has been separated from the topsides. Topsides have
been redeployed to the Prirazlomnoye field in the Barents Sea, while the hull was
reportedly sold to a project in the Gulf of Mexico (although the hull has been
moored in Cromarty Firth since 2009).
Larger TLPs will normally have a full drilling rig on the platform with which to
drill and intervene on the wells. The smaller TLPs may have a workover rig, or in a
few cases no production wellheads located on the platform at all.
DEFINITION:
A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a
vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of
oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metres (about
1000 ft) and less than 1500 metres (about 4900 ft).
 Figure: Tension Leg Platform
Use of tension-leg platforms has also been proposed for wind turbines.The
platform is permanently moored by means of tethers or tendons grouped at each of
the structure's corners. A group of tethers is called a tension leg. A feature of the
design of the tethers is that they have relatively high axial stiffness (low elasticity),
such that virtually all vertical motion of the platform is eliminated. This allows the
platform to have the production wellheads on deck (connected directly to the
subsea wells by rigid risers), instead of on the seafloor. This allows a simpler well
completion and gives better control over the production from the oil or gas
reservoir, and easier access for downhole intervention operations.

SEMI-SUB PLATFORM
A semi-submersible platform is a specialized marine vessel used in a number of
specific offshore roles such as offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production
platforms, and heavy lift cranes. They are designed with good stability
and seakeeping characteristics. Other terms include semi-submersible, semi-sub, or
simply semi.
 Figure: Semi-sub Platform

CHARACTERISTICS:
Offshore drilling in water depth greater than around 520 meters requires that
operations be carried out from a floating vessel, as fixed structures are not
practical. Initially in the early 1950s monohull ships such as CUSS I were used,
but these were found to have significant heave, pitch and yaw motions in large
waves, and the industry needed more stable drilling platforms.
A semi-submersible obtains most of its buoyancy from ballasted, watertight
pontoons located below the ocean surface and wave action. Structural columns
connect the pontoons and operating deck. The operating deck can be located high
above the sea level owing to the good stability of the design, and therefore is kept
well away from the waves.
With its hull structure submerged at a deep draft, the semi-submersible is less
affected by wave loadings than a normal ship. With a small water-plane area,
however, the semi-submersible is sensitive to load changes, and therefore must be
carefully trimmed to maintain stability. Unlike a submersible, a semi-submersible
vessel is not supported by resting on the seabed.
Semi-submersible vessels are able to transform from a deep to a shallow draft by
deballasting (removing ballast water from the hull), thereby becoming surface
vessels. Usually they are moved from location to location in this configuration.
The heavy lift vessels use this capability to submerge the majority of their
structure, locate beneath another floating vessel, and then deballast to pick up the
other vessel as a cargo.
SPAR PLATFORM
A spar is a type of floating oil platform typically used in very deep waters, and is
named for logs used as buoys in shipping that are moored in place vertically. Spar
production platforms have been developed as an alternative to conventional
platforms.[1] The deep draft design of spars makes them less affected by wind,
wave and currents and allows for both dry tree and subsea production. Spars are
most prevalent in the US Gulf of Mexico; however, there are also spars located
offshore Malaysia and Norway.
A spar platform consists of a large-diameter, single vertical cylinder supporting a
deck. The cylinder is weighted at the bottom by a chamber filled with a material
that is denser than water (to lower the center of gravity of the platform and provide
stability) Additionally, the spar hull is encircled by helical strakes to mitigate the
effects of vortex-induced motion. Spars are permanently anchored to the seabed by
way of a spread mooring system composed of either a chain-wire-chain or chain-
polyester-chain configuration.

Figure: Spar Platform

TYPES OF SPAR:
There are three primary types of spars
1) The classic spar
2) Truss spar, and
3) Cell spar.
CLASSIC SPAR: The classic spar consists of the cylindrical hull noted above,
with heavy ballast tanks located at the bottom of the cylinder.

TRUSS SPAR: A truss spar has a shorter cylindrical "hard tank" than a classic
spar and has a truss structure connected to the bottom of the hard tank. This truss
structure consists of four large orthogonal "leg" members with X-braces between
each of the legs and heave plates at intermediate depths to provide damping. At the
bottom of the truss structure, there is a relatively small keel, or soft tank, that
houses the heavy ballasting material. Soft tanks are typically rectangular in shape
but have also been round to accommodate specific construction concerns.The
majority of spars are of this type.

CELL SPAR: The cell spar, has a large central cylinder surrounded by smaller
cylinders of alternating lengths. At the bottom of the longer cylinders is the soft
tank housing the heavy ballasting material, similar to a truss spar.

OFFSHORE PLATFORM PARTS

1) TOPSIDE:
On an offshore oil platform, topsides refers to the upper half of the structure, above
the sea level, outside the splash zone, on which equipment is installed. This
includes the oil production plant, the accommodation block and the drilling rig.

Figure: Offshore Platform parts (topside)

Facilities are tailored to achieve weight and space saving. Some of the incorporate
process and utility equipment are-
a. Drilling rig
b. Injection compressors
c. Gas compressors
d. Gas turbine generators
e. Piping
f. Crane for equipment handling
g. Helipad

2) MOORING AND ANCHORS:

A mooring refers to any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured.
Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys.
A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water.
An anchor mooring fixes a vessel's position relative to a point on the bottom of a
waterway without connecting the vessel to shore. As a verb, mooring refers to the
act of attaching a vessel to a mooring.

Figure: Offshore Platform parts (mooring and anchoring)

Basically it is used to tie platform in place. Some of the materials are:

a. Steel chain
b. Steel wire rope
c. Synthetic fibre rope

3) RISER:
A riser is a pipe that connects an offshore Floating Production Structure or a
Drilling Rig to a sub-sea system either for production purposes such as drilling,
production, injection and export, or for drilling, completion and workover
purposes.Risers are considered to be the most critical product in an offshore
pipeline development taking into account the dynamic loads and sour service
conditions they need to withstand.

Figure: Offshore Platform parts (riser)

REFERENCE
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_construction
 https://www.elsevier.com/books/offshore-structures/el-reedy/978-0-12-
385475-9
 https://www.bentley.com/en/solutions/offshore-structural-design-and-
analysis
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_platform
 https://www.marineinsight.com/offshore/different-types-of-offshore-oil-and-
gas-production-structures/
 https://www.strukts.com/2012/05/types-of-offshore-platforms/
 https://www.essie.ufl.edu/~sheppard/OCE3016/Offshore%20Structures.pdf