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Technology
Assessment & Research (TA&R) Program
| Project Number |
418 |
| Date of Summary |
October
12, 2004 |
| Subject |
Comparative Risk Analysis of Spar-Based FPSO’s |
| Performing Activity |
Texas A&M University,
Offshore Technology Research Center (OTRC) |
| Principal Investigator |
Gilbert
and Ward |
| Contracting Agency |
Minerals Management Service |
| Estimated Completion |
October
2004 |
| Description |
Project was a comparison of risks for a
Spar-based FPSO with other deepwater production systems studied in the
Comparative Risk Analysis of Deepwater Production Systems in the Gulf of
Mexico. Those systems were a tanker-based FPSO with wet trees, a
conventional Spar with dry trees, a TLP with dry trees, and a shallow water
jacket serving as a hub and host for deepwater production. The spar-based
FPSO configuration studied was a spar with wet-oil storage, dry trees, oil
export by shuttle tanker and a gas export by pipeline. In order to assess
the risks associated with this type of oil storage, data were compiled and
analyzed from the North Sea where both spars (Brent) and gravity-based
structures have used wet-oil storage. Information on oil spills was obtained
directly, and information on the volume stored and the number of offloading
events was inferred. Oil spill risks were measured as the average value for
the total volume of oil spilled during the operational lifetime for a fleet
of systems, as before in the original CRA project. |
| Progress |
Results indicated that oil spill risks for a spar-based FPSO with wet-oil
storage are comparable to those for dry-oil storage in a tanker-based FPSO.
In both cases, the major contribution to the oil-spill risk is related to
shuttle-tanker offloading and transportation. Oil-spill risks for the
spar-based FPSO were also compared to the conventional spar with an oil
pipeline. A concerted effort was made to better understand the practical
consequences of uncertainty in the estimated oil spill volumes and to
evaluate how much future information would be required to meaningfully
reduce this uncertainty. The results show that the average value for the
total volume spilled is still dominated by the possibility of large but rare
occurring spills. A final report has been received.
The project has been completed. |
| Report |
|
AA
(160
pages) |
E.
Chemadurov, R.B. Gilbert, and E.G. Ward, Comparative Risk Analysis of
Spar-Based FPSO’s, Final Report, August 2003. |
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