Potential Floating and Fixed Concepts for Shallow Water Arctic Drilling

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce various offshore platform concepts that can be employed in ice infested waters, particularly shallow waters, depths varying from 65 ft to 500 ft. The paper illustrates five innovative platform concepts that for arctic drilling. The proposed platform concepts would have ability to withstand extreme ice, wind, wave and temperature conditions to extend the drilling seasons either near to winter sever storm or for round the year operation. The platforms are designed to operate in different water depths in different part of the arctic by accommodating the drilling structures and equipment on the deck. The emphasis is on the efficient of breaking, moving ice sheets around the structure and withholding the topside loads. Some of the platform concepts are fixed and others are developed from the floating solution and the technical details are presented in this paper.