Offshore Platforms Installation by Drilling Rigs as a Cost-Effective Installation Methodology-Project Case Study Available to Purchase

Rig installed platform concept has been widely used recently as a cost-effective solution for development of marginal fields especially in shallow water depths taking the advantage of low rates of the drilling rig units compared to Heavy Lift Vessels and the availability to include the drilling operation within the project time schedule allowing early production. This paper addresses a real case project where this concept was adopted driven by limited budget available for development in one of wellhead platforms located in Gulf of Suez in a very challenging water depth (64.0m), the platform was engineered to suite the nominated drilling rig capabilities, the author involvement in all project phases starting from conceptual study and ending with successful installation gives him a chance to deeply analyse this installation concept and stand on its cost benefits, challenges and limitations furtherly benchmark that with conventional jacket system installed by HLV, the paper addresses also a cost & schedule comparisons with respect to construction between the rig installed system and conventional jacket system installed by HLV utilizing the actual cost records and past experience of many conventional jackets installed in the same area. The addressed Pros & Cons along with the comparison made showed that although the rig installed platform has some additional offshore activities compared to conventional jacket system that makes this methodology is relatively much more time consuming, it was found by experience to have a cost saving as well as shorter overall project schedule when compared to conventional jacket system and has also a potential market share especially with consideration of some improvements concluded from lessons learnt in this project. This paper is providing a guidance for any feasibility study involving this installation concept and introducing some areas of improvement for maximum utilization of its cost and schedule benefits.