Because the oil and gas industry has an increasing interest in the hydrocarbon exploration and development in the Arctic regions, it becomes important to design exploration and production facilities that suit the cold and harsh operating conditions. In addition to well-established minimum class requirements for hull strengthening, winterization should be considered as a priority measure early in the design spiral for vessels operating in the Arctic environments. The development of winterization strategies is a challenging task, which requires a robust decision support approach. This article proposes a risk-based approach for the selection of winterization technologies and determination of winterization levels or requirements on a case-by-case basis. Temperature data are collected from climatology stations located in the Arctic regions. Loading scenarios are defined by statistical analysis of the temperature data to obtain probabilistic distributions for the loadings. Risk values are calculated under different loading scenarios. Based on the risk values, appropriate winterization strategies can be determined. A case study is used to demonstrate how the proposed approach can be applied to the identification of heating requirements for gangways.
Semi-submersible drilling platforms are typically moved off site given any threat of pack ice incursion. Operations in icy waters requires considerations of, amongst others, ice interations with the facility. The offshore industry will benefit from a standardized methodology to evaluate the capability of semi-submersibles in ice during drilling operations. Operators and drilling contractors are particularly interested in understanding how the drilling season may be extended into the shoulder season. This requires an understanding of variability in site-specific ice conditions throughout the year. Ice load analysis is needed for semi-submersible rigs operating in ice prone regions to determine ice strengthening requirements. Ship-based ice class rules can be considered for the design loads of the pontoons in transit conditions, but there is no standardized methodology for determining ice loads for the operational conditions. This paper focusses on the operational phase, where loads act on the vertical-faced columns. ISO 19906 (2010) offers a framework for determining sea ice loads in the form of a deterministic equation that has been established for fixed structures mainly operating on a year-round basis. The results will generally be quite conservative for seasonal operations. Consideration of ice exposure, to account for the limited drilling season, is permitted by ISO 19906 using probabilistic approaches, though no specific guidance is provided. Seasonal operations can be planned to avoid the most severe winter conditions, allowing for a reduction of the design level ice conditions. This reduction in the severity of sea ice that impacts semi-submersible columns should be accounted for in determining design ice loads. This paper demonstrates application of an analytical approach to include exposure considerations to estimate extreme ice loads for various drilling season extensions. An approach is demonstrated here for determining design sea ice loads to evaluate the capability of a semi-submersible in pack ice conditions. The approach considers the possibility of extended season drilling operations, rather than year-round operations, and may permit more efficient exploration in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in the future. A study case is presented for a semi- submersible operating in the early ice season at a selected location in the Labrador Sea. The approach can be easily adopted for operations in other regions and other structure types, but is dependent on the availability of reliable data on ice conditions.
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