Technology

Assessment of Riser System Selection

Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) system has been used widely in the offshore oil and gas industries worldwide. In recent years, FPSO concept has been deployed in deep and ultra-deepwater field development including West of Africa, Offshore Brazil, Far East and Gulf of Mexico. Compared to other types of deepwater floaters (e.g. Spar, TLP, and Semisubmersible) the severe motion characteristics of an FPSO make the riser concept selection and design much more challenging. Other constraints imposed by field reservoir properties (e.g. high temperature\high pressure), disconnection requirements for early production FPSO system and significant increase in water depth even exclude some riser concepts. This paper presents detailed assessment of potential deepwater riser concepts applicable for an FPSO. Among the deepwater concepts, steel catenary risers (SCR), flexible risers, free standing hybrid risers and lazy wave SCR have been successfully deployed to FPSO application. In addition, there are also other viable riser concepts for FPSO application including Tension Leg Riser (TLR), Hybrid Catenary Riser (HCR), and more to come. The evaluation of deepwater riser concepts for FPSO application is conducted in terms of technical feasibility, design constraints, track records, fabrication, offshore construction and cost with focus on the existing and field proven riser concepts. Technical challenges and technology gaps are highlighted. The technical feasibility of some of the riser concepts for certain FPSO application has been demonstrated through analysis and calculation. Novel ideas have been generated for particular requirements. Particular attention is paid to the discussion with the application to deepwater development in Asia. This paper shows the steel riser and hybrid riser are the most viable ones for deep and ultra-deepwater FPSO. Flexible riser is also the preferred solution for FPSO.
For relative shallow water (e.g. water depth less than 500 meters), FPSO is probably one of the most widely used floater concepts. Regardless of a floater concept for a deepwater field development, there is always a need of riser system connecting the floater at surface and subsea facility on the seabed. Riser system is one of the more complex aspects of deepwater developments. It became evident that riser system plays bigger and bigger role as part of the offshore infrastructures. There are different ways to group deepwater risers. The most widely used and field proven deepwater riser concepts include SCRs, hybrid risers with a single line or bundled multi-lines, flexible risers with different configurations, and top tension risers (TTR) as shown in Figure 1.

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n recent years, exploration and production activities have increased dramatically in deepwater nearly doubling the water depth compared to the activities a couple of years ago. The offshore industry is building systems today for even deeper waters, progressively using new technology and significantly extending existing technologies. The targeted water depths for oil and gas developments in areas such as Gulf of Mexico (GoM), West of Africa (WoA), Brazil, Asia, and North Sea are increasing every year. In view of the floater concepts that have been successfully deployed for deepwater development, FPSO has been adopted nearly worldwide in particular Offshore Brazil, WoA, and Asia as compared with TLP, Spar and Semisubmersible, as shown in Figure 1 below.

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ible riser and hybrid risers are the most viable ones for deep and ultra-deepwater FPSO.

FPSO Motion Response

Compared to other types of deepwater floaters such as TLP, SPAR, and semisubmersible which have been in service worldwide FPSO is in general less riser-friendly floater. A typical FPSOs pitch, roll and heave motion natural periods are closer to wave peak periods of storm condition, e.g. hurricane or typhoon. This generates sever FPSO motion response characteristics, as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 1. Illustration of Deepwater Floater and Riser Concepts

Comparing the motion characteristics of FPSO with other type deepwater floaters (e.g. Spar, TLP, and Semisubmersible) its severe motions in particular for heave and pitch makes the riser concept selection and design much more challenging. Other constraints imposed by field reservoir properties (e.g. high temperature\high pressure), disconnection requirements for early production FPSO system, and significant increase in water depth even exclude some riser concepts. This paper presents detailed assessment of potential deepwater riser concepts applicable for an FPSO. Among the deepwater concepts, steel catenary risers (SCR), flexible risers, hybrid risers, and lazy wave SCR have been successfully deployed to FPSO application. In addition, there are also other viable riser concepts for FPSO application including Tension Leg Riser (TLR), Hybrid Catenary Riser (HCR), and more to come. The assessment of deepwater riser concepts for FPSO application is conducted in terms of technical feasibility, design constraints, track records, fabrication, offshore construction, and cost with focus on the existing and field proven riser concepts. Technical challenges and technology gaps are highlighted. The technical feasibility of some of the riser concepts for certain FPSO application has been demonstrated through analysis and calculation. Novel ideas have been generated for particular requirements. Sufficient analysis is performed to demonstrate the governing design issues. Particular attention is paid to the detailed discussion with the application to offshore Asia. This paper shows the steel catenary riser, flex-

Figure 2. Natural Periods of Floaters vs. Wave Period

In some cases, the risers are connected to the turret of which the vertical motion in particular vertical acceleration is amplified due to FPSO pitch motion. The relative larger vertical motion at riser top termination location makes the riser engineering more challenging. There are some ways to mitigate FPSO motion including bilge keels, dynamic positioning (DP) system [Ref. 4]. The vortex shedding and viscous damping from the bilge keels of FPSO can significantly reduce its roll motion. The combined environmental forces cause the FPSO hull to form an oblique angle to the wave. It will significantly increase the wave frequency horizontal and vertical motions, which is the main driver behind the excessive compression and fatigue damage in particular to SCRs. The FPSO with DP can align the vessel with wave direction to reduce the wave frequency motion. In addition to mitigate the FPSO motion response, another efficient way is to develop riser concept that can

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decouple FPSO motion and riser response. This is why hybrid riser is also a kind of popular concept for FPSO application, e.g. in WoA and GoM.

Potential Riser Concepts for FPSO Application

Riser concept selection and system design is one of the most important tasks accomplished during a FPSO project. The number one challenge of selecting and designing a riser for FPSO is the sever FPSO motion response that impose significant dynamic response of the riser causing motion fatigue damage. Among 6 DOF motion of an FPSO, pitch, roll and heave are the most critical to the riser response. For environmental conditions in GoM, FPSO will freely weathervane or rotate around turret. Risers will also be terminated at the turret. Deepwater riser impose relative high top tension loads on the turret bearing, which need to be taken into account during the bearing capacity design. Alternatively, different riser concept can be explored to minimize the top tension loads imposed on the turret bearing.

turret is located, the higher the first order excitation experienced by the riser will be. Therefore, bringing the turret closer to mid ship section is a desired option. When the turret is located at midship section or near it, bow and/or stern thrusters are usually installed in order to keep the FPSOs heading conveniently oriented. On the other hand, it has been recently shown that directional stability with respect to current and waves can be assured by means of special stabilizers of the ruddertype, for a wide range of turret installation positions. Obviously, in the case of a FPSO turret configuration, the riser positioning problem is actually restricted to the problem of determining the optimum turret position along the ships centerline. This is not, however, a simple task. The best turret position depends upon a balance between the ship heading stability with respect to current loading and the wave induced vertical motions on the turret point.

Factors Affecting FPSO Riser Selection Different riser concepts have been implemented or are being studied for FPSO application. The following major factors need to be taken into account for FPSO riser selection: Water depth Riser dimensions FPSO motion Metocean data Riser termination location and method Field layout and footprints Thermal performance requirement Installability Schedule Cost Turret Configuration vs. Riser Response Unless in a very benign environment (WoA, offshore Indonesia) or an environment with high directionality (Campos Basin), an FPSO has to be turret moored to allow weathervaning. If the turret is positioned far from the mid-ship section, pitch angle response of the FPSO is of outmost importance. The closer to the bow the

Feasible Riser Concepts With respect to deepwater application, FPSOs have been widely used in offshore Brazil and West of Africa. For relatively shallow water applications, FPSOs are mostly used in the North Sea, in particular Norwegian Sector, and offshore China. In view of riser concepts have been applied to FPSO, brief summary is given in Table 1.

It is clearly shown that more versatile riser concepts have been applied to FPSO, which facilitate more widespread use of FPSO, offering improved production and export capacity for larger developments, and reducing cost. Basically, three riser concepts have been actually implemented in FPSO based field development, namely hybrid riser, flexible riser and steel cat-

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Figure 3. Cascade & Chinook FPSO Free Standing Hybrid Riser

define what are musts and preferred. Quite often riser assessment criteria definitions are not well thought out in particular at early development phase. A must is more or less a threshold that must be mandatorily achieved. An example of this would be the OHTC requirement for the riser system. It is a must to achieve the minimum thermal performance requirement. It is a preferred to lower the OHTC, but not mandatory. In general, the following are regarded as musts for a specific field development: Water depth Pressure and Temperature Conveyed fluids Size of each riser Number of risers OHTC requirement Riser top payload impact on hull termination location Constructability The following are regarded as preferred: Functionality Operability Safety Schedule Cost including CAPEX and OPEX

Figure 4. Gendalo FPSO Steel Catenary Riser

enary riser (SCR). In addition, there are also other types of riser concepts are in the development that could be applied to FPSO. It includes tension leg riser (TLR) and hybrid catenary riser (HCR). Selectively SCR and hybrid riser concepts for FPSO application are illustrated in the Figures 3 and 4. In addition to the above riser concepts that have been implemented in actual field application, other concepts suitable for FPSO application are also available including hybrid catenary riser (HCR).

Assessment of FPSO Risers Tower / Hybrid Riser Basically, this riser adopts some principles of flowline bundle technology and it is a kind of hybrid riser system consisting of rigid and flexible risers. Concept The main section of the hybrid riser consists of a central structural tubular, around which syntactic foam buoyancy modules are attached. Peripheral production and export lines run through the buoyancy modules and are free to slide axially in order to accommodate thermal and pressure induced expansion. The central structural member is connected to the riser base by way of a hydraulic connector and tapered stress joint. The peripheral lines are attached to the rigid flowline jumper on the base, which provides connection to the flowlines. On top of the riser, the peripheral lines are terminated in goosenecks. Flexible jumpers are used to connect the goosenecks and the surface FPSO, provid-

Technical Assessment of FPSO Risers

Assessment Criteria One of the most important issues associated with the definition of the deepwater riser concept is the clear definition of the criteria of selection. It is necessary to

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ing the flow path to the host platform whilst accommodating decoupling between the vessel motion and the platform.

vidual riser within the tower. This can be addressed by inclusion of spares.

Functionality The capacity or cross section of the tower riser is predefined during the engineering phase. Any future expansion requirement must be built into the riser tower design. Extra expandability cannot be accommodated once the design is completed. Key tower riser design parameters are buoyancy capacity and soil foundation capacity to carry the up-thrust tension loading. Fabrication Fabrication and testing of tower riser is performed onshore at lower average unit cost compared with regular offshore construction. Some risk and security issues associated with the onshore fabrication sites in areas of political instability, e.g. WoA. Installation Field layout and construction sequence affect the riser tower location relative to FPSO. Tower riser requires diverless subsea tie-in between riser base and flowline. Flexible construction sequence. Low cost marine spreads (tugs) can be used for towing. High risk operation during towing and upending. A single tower riser scenario offers no contingency. Operation Monitoring system needs to be in place for the sake of assistance, assurance and verification. Potential for heat up and return lines via dedicated lines. Pigging challenge for the product risers. Compact field layout with FPSO. Low load transfer to the FPSO through the riser porch. Maintenance Very difficult to inspect individual riser externally. Very difficult to maintain or repair a single indi-

Safety and Risk Gas line and production line bundled together would increase operating risk. Riser base connection using flex joint, roto-latch or other type of connector should be designed to be well within the capability of the component. Secondary restraint could be considered as redundancy. The whole system may be closely tied to a few single component with no redundancy. No future expandability once the tower riser is fabricated. To summarize the tower riser concept, Table 2 lists the pros and cons.

Flexible Riser Riser for catenary moored FPSO are generally designed using flexible pipe such examples include most of the FPSOs in offshore Brazil, some in WoA (e.g. Dalia, Agbami). Flexible riser is more or less the only concept for shallow water FPSOs since the flexible riser arrangement can be more compliant. This is normally achieved by lazy wave configuration, steep wave configurations, or compliant wave configuration. Functionality Brazil has vast experience of flexible risers attached to deepwater FPSOs. Technip and Wellstream offer flexible pipe design suitable for deepwater application with some limitations.

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 Significant track record with compliant systems for interfacing with FPSOs in shallow water (< 500m). Flexible riser configuration can be optimized to minimize cost and interface loads, but provide flexibility to accommodate FPSO motion.

Fabrication Deepwater flexible risers are proprietary design from three suppliers (Technip, Wellstream, NKT) only. Intermediate connection might be needed for the longer lines due to manufacturing reel limitation or design considerations. Installation Relatively simple installation from hydraulically powered reel. May require subsea tie-in / pull-in with flowline. For ultra deepwater, availability of installation vessel to handle the tensions and collapse capacity is questionable, in particular if it is coupled with sweet and sour service requirements. Operation Flexible thermal insulation requirement for flexible riser is a challenge since it can only provide limited insulation which may not be capable of meeting operating criteria. Maintenance Pigging normally not needed as riser is a composite structure. External ROV inspection may be needed focusing on critical areas such as TDP, connections, and bend stiffener. Safety and Risk: Gas egress through the membrane. ESDV requirements and its location. Technical risk since the Cascade will push the existing flexible technology further in terms of water depth, temperature, pressure and size. Schedule risk due to qualification and fabrication requirements. Commercial risk due to only one or two suppliers capable of this job.

Steel Catenary Riser SCR concept has been widely used in the recent years in various kinds of floaters especially for TLP, Spar, and Semi. For FPSO application, it is mainly used for WoA and Campos Basin, e.g. Erha, Bonga, AKPO. As the result of FPSO motion, the SCR is susceptible to compression in the sag bend area. As a minimum, the following factors need to be evaluated when considering SCR for an FPSO: SCR dimension Geotechnical data FPSO motion Internal turret location and configuration Metocean data SCR cross section design More detailed discussion of deepwater SCR technology can be found in Ref. 4.

Lazy Wave SCR

Lazy wave SCR is basically a modified configuration of a free hanging SCR by introducing buoyancy modulus for a certain length of the suspended SCR. The introduced buoyancy will absorb most of the dynamic motion imposed by FPSO motion so that the SCR touch down point (TDP) could land on the seabed softly hence reduce the frequent contact with the seabed significantly. This will improve the SCR fatigue life at touch down area and make the concept technically feasible. BC 10 field in Campos Basin is the first lazy wave SCR for FPSO in the world.

Conclusions

This paper presents the unique challenges for deepwater riser engineering for an FPSO application. Feasible and field proven riser concepts have been

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reviewed. Detailed assessment of each riser concept has been conducted with pros and cons outlined. In addition to SCR, flexible riser and hybrid riser concepts, other viable riser concept has been discussed briefly. Based on the technical assessment and qualitative review it can be concluded that SCR, hybrid riser and flexible riser are popular concepts for FPSO application.

Reference

ceedings of OMAE 2002 - 28376 4. Song, R., Stanton, P.: Advances in Deepwater Steel Catenary Riser Technology, Part I Design, Proceedings of OMAE 2007 - 29329 5. Song, R., and P. Streit,: Design of the Worlds Deepest Hybrid Riser System for the Cascade & Chinook Development, Proceedings of OTC 2011, OTC Paper PP # 21338

1. API RP 2RD: Design of Risers for Floating Production Systems (FPSs) and Tension-Leg Platforms (TLPs), 1998. 2. DNV OS-F201: Dynamic Risers, Det Norske Veritas 3. Zimmermann, C., Petruska, D., Duggal A. Effective riser solution for a deepwater FPSO, Pro-

This publication thanks Ruxin Song and Kalyan Uppu, Riser Engineering Department, Genesis Oil and Gas, Houston, USA, for providing this paper, which was presented by Kalyan Uppu at Deepwater Technology Asia 2012, which was held in Jakarta on the 19th and 20th March 2012.

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