F(P)SO Offloading Concepts, their Nautical Feasibility and Safety Assessment

For the development of offshore deepwater oil or gas re-sources more often F(P)SOs, Floating (Production) Storage Offloading units are applied. For the export of oil (or gas) from the FPSO tankers are used. In the design of a FPSO various options are available for offloading: tandem from a turret moored or spread moored FPSO, tandem from a Single-Point-mooring (SPM) or side by side from a turret moored FPSO. The technical design, but also the nautical operations are highly affected by the choice of the offloading system.

Aspects that are affected are:

• Weather downtime, which effects the overall economic performance of the FPSO;
• Safety of day-to-day operations, which requires clear procedures, trained personnel and the right type of equipment; Controllability and response in case of emergencies;
• The overall safety of the operations, the probability of a collision and the related collision energy. All these aspects play a role from day one of the design of an offloading facility until the facility becomes operational. In this paper we will show how various tools, together with experience and common sense can help to take decisions and to prepare people for the offloading job ahead.

The paper can be divided in the following main sections:

• Nautical considerations in the design of an offloading facility;
• Fast-time manoeuvring simulations: operational limits and procedures;
• QRA, Quantitative Risk Assessment;
• Real time simulations and training.

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For this specific paper see: www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/OTC-14296-MS.