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.

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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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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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.

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

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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.

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

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).

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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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

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-

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

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-

vidual riser within the tower. This can be addressed

by inclusion of spares.

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.

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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
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-

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

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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