The Hibernia offshore 011 platform IS the first major platform for the development of hydrocarbon reserves on the Grand Banks off the East Coast of Canada. The platform, a concrete gravity base structure supporting 60,000 tones of topsides, Will be In 80 m of water and IS designed to resist Iceberg collisions The paper describes the platform, environment and Iceberg loads, geotechnical considerations and the structural analysis being performed. The platform IS currently under construction (Winter 1993) and Will be completed In 1996.
The Hibernia 011 Field IS located 315 km east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (Fig. 1) It was discovered In 1979 Recoverable reserves are contained In two reservoirs and are estimated at 615 million barrels. Partners In the Hibernia Field are Mobil 011 Canada, Chevron, PetroCanada, Murphy 011 and the Canadian Government. The project IS being conducted on behalf of the Partners by a specially formed operating company, the Hibernia Management and Development Company (HMDC). The platform selected to develop the Hibernia reserves IS a concrete gravity base structure (GBS) which Will be located on the Grand Banks In 80 m of water. The Hlberf1la GBS (Fig. 2) IS the first large offshore concrete platform to be built In North America although many small concrete platforms have been built In the Gulf of Mexico since the early 1950's (1) This paper concentrates on the gravity base portion of the platform. Reference to the Topsides is added for clarity. The information presented represents the status of the platform as of the beginning of 1994. The Hibernia gravity base structure (GBS) IS essentially a cylindrical concrete caisson that extends from the seabed to 5 m above the waterline (Fig 3).
