KMG-PPT-GEDSM05-011

Bonga Pipe in Pipe Lay

4th May 2006

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Contents

 Introduction
 J-Lay Versus S-Lay
 Project Description
 Flowline Design
 Installation
 Analysis & Fatigue
 Pipelay Monitoring
 Conclusions

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Introduction
 J-Lay Versus S-Lay ?

 Outline Background on Design & Installation Features of

West Africa’s first Pipe-In-Pipe Flowline J-Lay on the BONGA
Project

 Challenging Installation with Sensitive Installation Criteria

 Outline Issues related to Control of Operations to limit

incurred fatigue damage at Pipe-In-Pipe Swaged welds

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 J-Lay versus S-Lay

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Why J-Lay Versus S-Lay ?

 J-lay more suitable for deepwater pipelay

 J-Lay generally leads to lower pipe stresses/strains
(Static/Dynamic)
 Top tension hence bottom tension lower in J-lay (reduced risk
of freespan due to residual tension)
 Tighter curves can be laid in J-Lay
 J-Lay welding/production speed < S-Lay due to availability of
only one welding station

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J-Lay versus S-Lay
 S-Lay  J-Lay

1-Offloading 2-Bevelling
3 - Transfer 4-Welding
(GMAW)
5-NDE (AUT)
6 - FJC (HSS+injected resin)
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 Project Description

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Project Description
 BONGA PROJECT - SOUTHERN NIGER DELTA OFFSHORE NIGERIA
 Client SNEPCO (Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Co Ltd)
 90km Gas Export Line - S-Lay
 3 x W.I. Lines 4km,5km,15km (Polymer lined) J-lay
 10 x Pipe-in-Pipe Production Flowlines (6x10” +4x12”) 35km Total
Length J-Lay
 5000 Individual PIP components
 > 1000m Water Depth
 Flowlines connected via SCR to BONGA FPSO (300,000 Te Hull,
17,000 Te Topsides)
 J-Lay performed by SEAWAY POLARIS - J-Lay Tower
 Installation of 20 Flowline Termination (FTA) & In-line Tee
Assemblies (ITA)
 Clad pipeline sections for SCR TDP zones

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Field Layout

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FPSO

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 Flowline Design

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Flowline Design
 Doris Engineering - Flowline Design Sub-contractor
 Pipe-in-pipe Chosen to Satisfy Thermal Requirement (U Value )
 Itp Pipe-in-pipe Concept Chosen
 Fabrication Eupec
 Inner Pipe - Burst Pressure
 Outer Pipe - Collapse Pressure
 Design Data
 U Value = 1.0 [W/m2 K] or less
 Design Pressure = 31.7 Mpa
 Ops Temp Range = 4 deg C to 80 deg C
 Design Temp Range = -15 deg to 93 deg C
 Design Code API RP 1111
 Inner Pipe Corrosion Allowance = 6 mm
 External Coating Outer Pipe = FBE
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Pipe In Pipe Field Joint

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Pipe In Pipe Solution

CAPABILITIES LIMITATIONS

 Mechanical Properties  Pre-fabrication Work

 High Potential in OHTC U-  Installation duration

value  Longitudinal Stability
 Good Ageing of dry  Lateral Stability
Insulation  Potential for Cool-down at J-lay
 Fitting of Anodes easier collar

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 Installation

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Installation

 First Pipe-In-Pipe J-Lay Installation in West Africa

 First End Initiation of Flowlines with large Connected structures
 Structures need to be tied back to pre-installed chain on suction
pile
 Very strict Pipeline allowable strain criteria and Fatigue budget
for Installation
 Accurate positioning required for some lines to avoid pockmarks
 Novel Laydown method with drill string

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Seaway Polaris

1- Offloading
2- Bevelling
3- Transfer
4- Welding (GMAW)
5- NDE (AUT)
6- FJC (HSS + injected resin)

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General Arrangement 1

Tower
HIAB crane

ERECTOR

WS1

STINGER

PES

WS2

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General Arrangement 2

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Pipelay Specifics

 Offshore welding :
 GMAW 2G
 AUT process
 Field Joint Coating :
 Anticorrosion coating : HSS
 Thermal protection : Insulated sleeve + injected resin
 Laying tension
 10” Production flowline
 235 mt (empty) / 280 mt (wet)
 12” Production flowline
 250 mt (empty) / 310 mt (wet)

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Working Station 1

jacks

Centralizer
+ welding table

bushing

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Stinger
WS1

Gimballing
jacks

Centralizer stinger
(guillotine)

Rollers
level1
level2

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Working Station 2

Jack + jaws
to clamp
onto pipe

gangway
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Pipe Passing Through Rollers

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Pipe In Pipe
 Design applicable : ITP
 sleeve to cover field joint (750kg
approx.)
 injection of resin solid PU
 External pipe is swaged
 Izoflex is injected into intertubular
space
 sliding sleeve (itself in PiP - izoflex)
 FJC operation carried out in WS2

+ curing time < 1’

very heavy (10/14” PiP - 240 tons
- tension)

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Pipe in Pipe

Electrical hoist (1T) + chain to

hold the sleeve

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AUT
ring

Calibration block
Scanning
machine
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Flowline Initiation

 The initiation performed using the J-lay tower of the Polaris

 The flowlines are initiated with a first end sled (FTA), including
mud mats
 The lines are permanently anchored on a suction anchor by a
chain
 These suction anchors and chains are used for the initiation of the
flowlines.
 The sled, with one DJ, is inserted under the J-lay tower.
 Temporary buoyancy is connected to the sled so its weight in
water is zero

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Flowline Initiation ctd.

 The chain is tensioned during the initiation

 The initiation chain must be pre-tensioned during installation to
form an inverse catenary in the soil
 Tensions required vary from 32 to 46.5 tonnes
 Anchor point displacement is approx. 10m
 During pulling the tower angle is increased to 8 or 10°
 During pulling, there is no DJ welding on the line

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Initiation Steps
 Insertion of PFTA in tower
 Connection of Initiation chain to PFTA
 Connection of Temporary Buoyancy Modules on PFTA
 Lowering of PFTA
 Connection of the chain to the suction anchor
 Deployment of pipe to form catenary
 Tower angle changes
 Pre-tension of Chain moving Vessel
 Set Tower Angle for normal pipelay
 Landing of the PFTA on Seabed
 Normal Flowline Lay
 Buoyancy Removal

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PFTA Details

PFTA characteristics :
 PFTA weight : 20.3t or 21.2t
 DJ weight : 5.4 to 7 t
 Initiation chain : 58mm or 87mm
 25m initiation chain connected during lift : 1.8t or 4t
 Total lift weight : 27.4 to 32.7t
 Total initiation chain length : 77 to 108m
 Temporary buoyancy : 22.5t approx.
 Extreme tension in chain during field life : 88 to 286t

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FTA - Flowline Termination Assembly

25.8m
10m

6.4m

3.5m

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Initiation - Production Sled

Initiation chain

Stay system
+ clamp
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Insertion of PFTA in Tower

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Initiation - Production Sled

Stay system

scaffolding

connector
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Lowering of PFTA with Buoyancy

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Temporary Buoyancy

PFTA initiation + 20T temp

buoy

PFTA : production flowline

termination assembly
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Initiation Schematic

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Flowline Lay & Laydown

 Normal Pipelay performed with 6 deg and 7 deg Tower angle for
10” and 12” lines respectively.
 Tower can be rotated (gimballed) about its own axis to aid
positioning
 8 temporary laydowns at interface with SCR’s - Lines later
recovered for addition of RBGL structures
 2 permanent laydowns for 2 in-field lines with FTA’s
 Laydown load exceeded capacity of A/R winch
(180 Te) Pipeline laid down with drill string fed through J-Lay
system
 Laydown FTA’s installed also with Temporary Buoyancy modules
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RBGL
Riser Base Gas Lift 6 reasons to never to it again:

 27 tons in air
 10m x 5.5m x 3.5m
 Stability issue
 center of gravity 1m
above the pipe
 structure not symmetrical
 5T of permanent buoy
 24T of temporary buoy
 ABB design
without consideration of
installation constraints

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VIV Strake

VIV: Vortex Induced Vibration

strake

Inconel banding

WS2 jack opened

working station not secured
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 Flexjoint Installation

Straightener

Extension pipe

Flexjoint

Last pipe 8m

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Pull-in Head Rigging Connection

nose

Pull-in
head

Flexjoint

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SCR Hand Over

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 Analysis and Fatigue

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Analysis & Fatigue
 Static Analysis – Determination of limiting vessel translational
movements.
 Dynamic Analysis – Considering All Environmental Loads & Vessel
motions to determine allowable lay seastates with the limits being
set based on pipe strains and roller reactions. General dynamic
analyses were performed for different seastates with the seastates
being defined by a Jonswap spectrum for periods Tp of 9-12sec.
 Fatigue Analysis - Considering critical flowline locations in the
tower and at pipe/structure interface – the objective being to
determine allowable standby durations for an assumed seastate
based on limiting fatigue damage to 0.01.

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 Criteria
The Installation criteria for the J-lay installation using the
POLARIS were as follows :
 The total strain in the outer pipe shall not exceed 0.15% all
along the pipeline.
The total horizontal reaction on tower rollers shall not exceed
16 tonnes.
 Installation Fatigue damage should be limited to 0.01. i.e.
Installation fatigue damage limited to 10% of the total 0.10
damage allowed during Installation and operation phases.
 The tension at the tower bushing point location shall not
exceed 500 tons. This was always the case for the Bonga
flowlines.
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FTA in Splashzone - Orcaflex
OrcaFlex : init-splas h-11-(1).dat (modified 08:24 on 20/05/03) (azimuth=225; elev ation=15) Res et

8m Z
Y X
y
x
z

y
x
z y
z z

yx x xy

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Modelling

 ORACFLEX SOFTWARE 3D Non linear time domain

 All Hydrodynamic loads
 Vessel Motions via Response Amplitude Operators (RAO’s)
 FTA’s modelled using 6D lumped Buoy
 Temporary Buoyancy Modelled using 3D lumped Buoy
connected to the FTA using individual slings
 Flowline modelled as equivalent Pipe
 Flowline Held in Vessel Bushing 29m from sea level
 Rollers in Polaris Tower modelled as cylindrical shapes
 Good hydrodynamic and structural similitude
 Buoyancy block compression at depth considered

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Fatigue
 In-place Fatigue Analysis based on 1000 complete thermal shut-
downs
 Damage Incurred during Installation to be limited to 0.01 i.e. 10
% of total fatigue budget (Operation + Installation) of 0.1.
 Swaged weld detail fatigue sensitive
 Fatigue damage assessment for the pipeline during installation is
carried out using a deterministic fatigue analysis approach.
 Damage Accumulation based on MINERS RULE
 Wave Occurrences based on RAYLEIGH DISTRIBUTION
 BUSHING LOCATION : API X’ Curve SCF = 1.64 based on TWI
Fatigue tests
 ROLLER LOCATION S : R1 F1 Curve SCF 1.3 Top 1.0 Btm

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Fatigue Locations in Stinger

Bushing

Guillotine

Rollers R1

Rollers R2

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View on Bottom Stinger Rollers

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Typical Fatigue Results

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 Pipelay Monitoring

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Pipelay Monitoring

 Monitoring Principle
 Limiting Vessel Motions
 Limiting Seastates
 Limiting Standby Durations

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Monitoring Principle

 FTA target box critical (jumper geometry)

 Chain tensioning
 Pipe tension at Bushing
 FTA followed by ROV

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Roller Status

Operation Guillotine 1st Roller 2nd Roller

Payout of DJ’s Fully Open Fully Open Open

Initiation/laydown (passage of sleeve/anode) (passage of (100mmgap around pipe)
sleeve/anode)

Welding/ Standby Closed Closed Open with 100mm gap

for first phase of standby
and closed for second
phase
Payout of drill Closed Closed Open
String during (100mmgap around pipe)
Laydown

Notes: Roller fully open means the roller is fully retracted out of the way . Roller closed means
the roller is closed on the pipeline but practically a 10-15mm is left due to the pipeline out of
roundness.
It is also recommended that the second roller is closed as the FTA is being fitted up in the tower
and roller hydraulic system should be operated at full pressure.

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Limiting Vessel Motions

Barge Pitch Motion (+/- deg)

Roll motion
(+/- deg)
1.9 2.1 2.4 2.5
0 ok ok ok ok
2.0 ok ok ok ok
2.5 ok ok ok ok

Table 3.1 Limiting Motions- FTA Surface to Chain Connection

Roll motion Barge Pitch Motion (+/- deg)
(+/- deg)
0.5 1.0 1.5
0 ok ok ok
1.0 ok ok ok
1.5 ok ok ok

Table 3.3 Limiting Motions – Pre-tensioning of Chain

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Limiting Seastates
Location
FTA Location Limiting Limiting Limiting of Comments
Roll Pitch Maximum
Hs (m) (Deg) (Deg) Strain
In Air 2.0 2.5 2.5 FTA Strain ok at higher approx
Hs but fatigue damage
Combined 2.0 Deg should be limited due to
roll and pitch movement in tower.
Splashzone 2.0 ditto ditto FTA
Submerged 2.5 ditto ditto FTA Lowering surface to chain
connection
Chain 2.0 ditto ditto FTA Approx Seastate should be
connection to limited to Hs=2m to limit
movements prior to ROV
Suction Pile connection
Sagbend 2.0 2.0 2.3 Sagbend Including tower angle
changes
Combined 2.0deg
roll and pitch
Chain 2.0 1.5 1.5 Tower Caution must be
Pretensioning (1.0) (0.4) (1.0) excercised
Values shown in brackets
are values applicable if
pre-tension is performed
at 8deg tower angle
instead of 10deg
Final FTA 2.0 2.0 2.3 Sagbend
positioning on
seabed

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Limiting Standby Duration
 Barge orientated +/- 20 deg from swell direction
 2 phase standby considered 1) Leave Normal Pipe payout
configuration i.e. 100mm gap at lower rollers and fatigue
damage is concentrated at upper rollers 2) close lower rollers
and fatigue point now shifts to this location and essentially the
clock is re-set.
 During typical initiation certain critical long duration operations .
 Values in hours not days due to stringent project requirements.

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Typical Standby Durations Initiation
Minimum allowable stand-by for
PIP Step 0.01 damage in the tower
20° Swell

All except pre-tension >12 hours

10 inch
Pre-tension 6 hours
In Air >12
Splashzone 2
Sagbend No Buoy >12
Sagbend Buoy >12
Sagbend >12
12 inch Chain Connection 8
Tower at 2° 2
Tower at 4° 8
Tower at 6° 4
Tower at 8° 1.5
Pre-Tension 2
Note: The results for 0° Swell incidence are better than those shown for 20° and the results,
fatigue damage increase significantly for a swell incidence of 45° therefor the vessel must be
orientated in the 0° to 20° incidence sector.

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Polaris
Standby Decision

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Operational Observations

 Vessel speed Vs Lowering speed relationship critical

 Crane usage had negative impact due to vessel roll

 Vessel easily maintained +/-20deg from swell

 Positioning accuracy +/-5m

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 Conclusion

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Conclusion

 Bonga Technically Rich and Complex

 Successful Installation shows flowlines can be laid in
deepwater with suitable control of equipment and analytical
back-up
 Flowline Stability Issues led to Holdback requirement
requiring extreme caution during Initiation and potential for
long standby

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Conclusion

 Allowable Standby Duration doubled with suitable

manipulation of stinger rollers with swage welds being
protected in the process.
 Barge orientation ability and tower gimballing system crucial
in limiting fatigue damage
 Pipelay positioning accuracy +/- 5m achieved.

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