Scribd
Upload
348 views3 pages

Offshore Structures-Historical Development

The document discusses the historical development of offshore structures used for oil and gas exploration. It begins by explaining that as exploration has moved to deeper waters, new types of offshore structures have been necessary. Early wells were drilled from piers into shallow waters, but the first successful offshore well was in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, over 10,000 platforms of various types have been installed worldwide. Common types of offshore structures discussed include fixed platforms, floating platforms, jackets, tension leg platforms, semi-submersibles, and spar platforms.

Uploaded by

Agung Sudrajatt
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
348 views3 pages

Offshore Structures-Historical Development

The document discusses the historical development of offshore structures used for oil and gas exploration. It begins by explaining that as exploration has moved to deeper waters, new types of offshore structures have been necessary. Early wells were drilled from piers into shallow waters, but the first successful offshore well was in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, over 10,000 platforms of various types have been installed worldwide. Common types of offshore structures discussed include fixed platforms, floating platforms, jackets, tension leg platforms, semi-submersibles, and spar platforms.

Uploaded by

Agung Sudrajatt
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Oshore Structures - Historical Development

Agung Sudrajat Supriatna, S.T.


Komp. Griya Caraka A-27, Bandung 40293. As we know today that Oil & Gas Source go deeper and deeper, oshore exploration and production of minerals is advancing at a fast pace. Many deepwater structures have already been installed worldwide. New oil/gas elds are being discovered in ultra-deep water. The purpose of this writing is to introduce the historical development of oshore structures in the exploration of petroleum reservoirs below the seaoor.

Part I. Denition of Oshore Structures


Since an oshore structure has no xed access to dry land, it may be required to stay in all weather conditions. Oshore structures may be xed to the seabed or may be oating. Floating structures may be moored to the seabed, dynamically positioned by thrusters or may be allowed to drift freely. We do not discuss engineering structures mainly used for the transportation of goods and people, or for construction, such as marine and commercial ships, multi-service vessels (MSVs) and heavy-lift crane vessels (HLCVs) used to support eld development operations as well as barges and tugs.

The rst Oil Wells


The rst oil wells were drilled from extended piers into the waters of Pacic Ocean, oshore Summerlands, California in the 1890s (and oshore Baku, Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea). However, the birth of the oshore industry is commonly considered as in 1947 when Kerr-McGee completed the rst successful oshore well in the Gulf of Mexico in 15 ft (4.6 m) of water o Lousiana1 . Since 1947, more than 10 000 oshore platforms of various types and sizes have been constructed and installed worldwide. As of 1995, 0.3 of the worlds production of crude came from oshore. Recently, new discoveries have been made in increasingly deeper waters.

Selection of Deepwater Production Concepts


We have to consider the most appropriate structures to explore the oil. The types of production concepts available for deepwater production are illustrated in 2. Most oating production systems, and virtually all of the semi-submersible, FPSs and FPSOs, produce oil and gas from wells on the seabed, called subsea wells. Unlike wells on xed platforms and on land, subsea wells do not allow operators to have direct access to the wells for maintenance, or for re-completion (drilling into new reservoirs from an existing well).

Oshore Structure Congurations


Oshore structures may be dened as being either bottom-supported or oating. Bottom supported structures are either xed such as jackets and gravity base structures, or compliant such as guyed tower and the compliant tower. Floating structures are compliant by nature. They can be viewed either as neutrally buoyant, such as the semi-submersible-based FPSs, ship-shaped FPSOs and monocolumn Spars, or positively buoyant, such as the Tension Leg Platforms.
1

Burleson, 1999

Fig. 1: Progression of xed platforms in the GOM - depths in meters (Courtesy Shell)

Fig. 2: Deepwater system types [Oshore Magazine, 2002]

Fig. 3: Fulmar jacket platform

Jacket Structures
The jacket, or template, structures are currently still the most common oshore structures used for drilling and production. Some structures contain enlarged legs, which are suitable for self-buoyancy during its installation at the site. Fixed jacket structures consist of tubular members interconnected to form a three-dimensional space frame. These structures usually have four to eight legs battered to achieve stability against toppling in waves. Main piles, which are tubular, are usually carried with the jackets and driven through the jacket legs into the seaoor. The term jacket structure has evolved from the concept of providing an enclosure (jacket) for the well conductors. (This writing is taken by modication from Handbook of Oshore Engineering (Chakrabarti))

You might also like