ABSTRACT

Deepwater offshore structures am now quite common however a deep water development project still requires significant capital investment on the part of the operator. Corrosion failure is not acceptable. This paper presents a common sense approach to cathodic protection design on deep-water projects. Some practical tips for avoiding pitfalls are presented as well as the role of ROV?S in maintenance and monitoring of these structures.

INTRODUCTION

Development of deep water oil and gas prospects world-wide, has resulted in the emergence of many alternative schemes and structures designed to produce the oil and gas cost effectively. Early developments used large fixed jacket structures such as the Shell Cognac and Bullwinkle platforms, which are located in water depths of 1000 feet and 1350 feet respectively in the Gulf of Mexico. A drilling moved to even greater depths, these fixed structures were no longer eat effective and new structure designs emerged such as Tension Leg Platforms (TLP?s), Floating Production Systems (ITS?s) and SPAR designs. AU of these structures have process facilities located on the surface above subsea wellheads. The completion of remote subsea wells connected by flow lines and control umbilicals to a surface production facility is now common. This is a cost effective method to develop smaller reservoirs. These remote wells are often several miles from the production facility. It is not uncommon for several subsea wells to be connected to a subsea manifold structure, this is in turn connected by pipelines to a production or storage facility on the surface some distance away. These wells, manifold% flowlines, jumpers and umbilicals are the main focus of this paper.

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