Polarled pipeline design solutions presented

Polarled pipeline design solutions presented

Mar 14, 2016  | Energy 

Polarled pipeline design solutions presented
(Photo by: Ramboll)

The current challenges in the oil and gas industry demand lower costs for future field developments, and Ramboll has just presented examples on this subject at a major conference in Amsterdam.

The Polarled is the world's first pipeline of its size to be built at water depths down to almost 1300 meters. This obviously creates some challenges but they can be overcome.

That was the message from Ramboll to the oil and gas industry at the Offshore Pipeline Technology (OPT) conference on 24-25 February in Amsterdam. The main theme for the OPT conference was the current major challenges in the oil industry which demand lower costs for future field developments.  

Lars Eriksen, project manager in Ramboll department for Offshore Pipelines, presented the design challenges for the Polarled project. The presentation focused on the major cost savings obtained, due to the high attention to cost optimisations and the cost effective design solutions implemented, as part of the detailed design performed by Ramboll. He explains:

“The main challenge for the Polarled project has been the extreme uneven seabed where design optimisation of the seabed intervention has resulted in substantial cost savings. The detailed design performed by our project team sets a new standard for how cost effective design solutions should be implemented in future pipeline projects”.

Design solutions in a technical paper

The subject of Lars’ presentation at OPT is largely explained in the technical paper “Design Challenges for the 36” Polarled Pipeline: The First Pipeline crossing the Arctic Circle”, which he co-authored with Morten Aamodt. Throughout the paper the authors describe the main challenges encountered during the Polarled project together with the engineering solutions that enabled those involved to design the 482 km pipeline for a very uneven seabed at the impressive water depth of 1265 meters.

Thanks to seabed interventions, static and fatigue analyses, and geotechnical surveys for the foundation design, cost effective technical solutions were implemented successfully. This was also possible thanks to an advanced front end engineering design (FEED) phase that allowed an early involvement of the installation contractor which, in turn, made it possible for adjustments in the design to be performed when necessary:

“We definitely believe that sound engineering solutions and close collaboration have resulted in a cost efficient solution without jeopardising quality or our client’s expectations, and that’s because innovation stems from an open mind-set and cooperation between the people involved”, adds Lars Eriksen.

Special session dedicated to the Polarled project

Five different presentations were given in a special Polarled session on the first day of the conference. The Polarled project session at OPT also included presentations from Alfred Øijord - Project Manager, Polarled Pipeline Project Statoil, George Morrison - Senior Pipeline Engineer Norske Shell, Ståle Størkersen – Advisor, Pipeline Technology Statoil and Saman Dabighi - Assistant Project Manager Allseas Engineering BV.

Despite the current challenges in the oil and gas market, the OPT conference gathered 150 pipeline professionals from the world’s leading oil and gas companies, pipeline operators and contractor community.

Via Ramboll
Image,video ©: Ramboll