Sakhalin–1: Technology Development for Frontier Arctic Projects

Abstract

As the oil and gas industry pushes into frontier Arctic areas, new technologies and design criteria will be required to ensure safety and cost effectiveness of increasingly challenging developments. Sakhalin-1 provides a good example of a development in a frontier sub-arctic area where location-specific design criteria had to be developed and innovative technology solutions were required to deal with demanding environmental conditions including sea ice, large breaking waves and earthquakes. This paper provides an overview of the extensive work undertaken to develop project specific design criteria, including development of a Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis, basin testing of breaking-wave slamming forces, multi-season on-ice measurements, remote sensing of sea ice floes and keels, and measurements of sea-bottom ice gouge depth distributions. Some of the unique technology solutions employed included retro-fit of a 20+ year old Arctic offshore platform with wave deflectors, escape, evacuation and rescue (EER) system for ice environment, conical-shaped tanker mooring platform for offloading in ice, and special burial depth criteria for offshore pipelines in areas of ice gouge and erosive seabed sediments. Other advanced technologies employed to deal with the seismicity included plastic strain-based criteria for buried pipelines and use of a tuned mass damper on the drilling derrick to dampen earthquake vibrations. The extensive preparation and innovative engineering were key to managing cost and schedule for facilities facing uniquely harsh environmental challenges.