Efficiency of Detachable Platforms in the Arctic

Abstract

Design forces from iceberg impact have been established for detachable oil production platforms at two locations in the Davis Strait offshore western Greenland. Because of the large icebergs in the area, it is not feasible to design for the largest iceberg impact force expected in the lifetime of an oil production platform. Further, the larger icebergs are too large to be towed away. With a detachable platform, if an impact is expected to yield a force larger than the chosen design force, the platform is disconnected and moved out of the way. This article describes how the design forces can be chosen for two platforms in the Davis Strait and what the consequences are in terms of number of disconnections. It shows that downtime due to disconnection can be moderate. The force calculation methods applied in this article are rather simple, because the intention is to focus on the efficiency in terms of disconnection rate and downtime.