Drifting icebergs can threaten navigation and marine operations and are prevalent in a number of regions that have active oil and gas exploration and development. Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is naturally applicable to map and monitor icebergs and sea ice due its ability to capture images day or night, as well as through cloud, fog and various wind conditions. There are several notable examples of its use to support operations, including Grand Banks, Barents Sea, offshore Greenland and Kara Sea. New constellations of satellites and the increasing volume of satellite data becoming available present a new paradigm for ice surveillance, in terms of persistence, reliability and cost. To fully extract the value of the data from these constellations, automation and cloud-based processing must be implemented. This will allow more timely and efficient processing, lowering monitoring costs by at least an order of magnitude. The increase in data persistence and processing capability allows large regions to be monitored daily for ice incursions, thus increasing safety and efficiency during offshore operations in those regions. The process of automating SAR-based iceberg surveillance involves creating a process flow that is robust and requires limited human intervention. The process flow involves land-masking, target detection, target discrimination and product dissemination. Land masking involves the removal of high-clutter land from the imagery to eliminate false detection from these locations. Target detection usually involves an adaptive threshold to separate true targets from the background ocean clutter. A constant false alarm rate (CFAR) is a standard technique used in radar image processing for this purpose. Target discrimination involves an examination of the distinct features of a target to determine if they match the features of icebergs, vessels or other ‘false alarms’ (e.g., marine wildlife, clutter). The final stage is the production of an output surveillance product, which can be a standard iceberg chart (e.g., MANICE) or something that can be ingested into a GIS system (e.g., ESRI shapefile, Google KML). The target discrimination phase is one of the most important phases because it provides feedback to operations about the presence of targets of interest (icebergs and vessels). The authors have used computer vision techniques successfully to train target classifiers. Standard techniques usually result in classifier accuracies of between 85%-95%, depending on the resolution of the SAR (higher resolutions produce more accurate results) and the availability of multiple polarizations. To see if new machine learning techniques could be applied to increase classifier accuracy, a dataset of 5000 ship and iceberg targets were extracted from Sentinel-1 multi-channel data (HH,HV). The images were collected in several regions (Greenland, Grand Banks, and Strait of Gibraltar). Validation either came by way of supporting information from the offshore operations, or was inferred by location. An online machine learning competition was hosted by Kaggle, a company that conducts online competitions on behalf of their clients. The detection data were made available by Kaggle to the broad internet community. Kaggle has a loyal following of data scientists who regularly participate in Kaggle competitions. The competition was hosted over a three-month period; over 3300 teams participated in the competition. The competition produced an improved classifier over standard computer vision techniques; the top three competitors had 4-5 stage classifiers that increased classification accuracy by approximately 5%.

The cruise industry is seeking new markets and products to trigger a growing customer base around the world. As the more traditional cruise ships have become bigger and more geared towards mass tourism in typical locations like the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, there has also emerged a need for smaller niche type of cruises, typically higher end and more exclusive. Exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic is exotic and is seen as the next step after the popular cruises to places like Alaska has become mainstream. To enable the cruise industry to conquer Polar region a new generation of cruise ships is entering the market. A common feature for all of these is that they are smaller ships with more luxurious accommodation. Strong focus on safety, customer comfort along with sustainability and low environmental footprint are also all key drivers in this market. To achieve these objectives some of latest technology in terms of propulsion, power generation and distribution, navigation and digital solutions is critical. As per today more than 25 such expedition cruise ships are on order, most of which have been contracted in 2017. Ensuring the safety, comfort and satisfaction of 100s if not 1000s of passengers and crew in such inhospitable regions is no mean feat. Through the experience and innovation in hip power management and propulsion systems some companies have become the leader in providing these type of solutions to the cruise industry. The past 25 years the leading companies have worked closely with ship owners, operators, designers and shipyards to develop the technical that is now setting the standard in the cruise industry. Historically, naval architects have tackled these issues independently, working within rules developed by individual classification societies. However, the exhaustive harmonization work done in developing the IMO's new Polar Code has delivered a type of equivalence in structural and machinery specifications, as set out in the International Association of Class Societies Unified Requirements for Polar Class (PC) ships, which come into force on 1 January 2017. Podded propulsion systems offer major safety benefits for ice-going vessels and has built a strong track-record across the sector, as demonstrated by the fact that it already satisfies IMO's Polar Code requirements and is available with PC notations suitable for a range of ice conditions. This level of confidence stems from past performance, with more than 60 vessels now in operation or ordered working in icy waters, including Pechora Sea, Kara Sea, Ob Bay, and Yenisei River. In addition to ice-going ships, today, around 100 cruise ships are fitted with podded propulsion, including the world's largest such vessels - Royal Caribbean's Oasis class. In fact, due to better vessel maneuverability, improved passenger and crew safety, greater fuel efficiency and lower total cost of ownership, podded propulsion have largely superseded conventional shaftline propulsion in combination with rudder steering across the cruise market. Given the strength demonstrated by podded propulsion in these distinct markets, it came as little surprise that PC6 classed Podded propulsion was selected for polar discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse-the world's first passenger vessel to be constructed explicitly to Polar Code standards-and for three Endeavor class ships which will be the world's largest expedition yachts with ice class. Before the end of 2017 Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. signed an agreement with Norwegian shipbuilder and ship designer Ulstein to build a new ice class expedition ship relying on podded propulsion system. According to recent news VARD Holdings Ltd. will build unique state-of-the-art LNG dual fuel electric hybrid icebreaker expedition vessel with the second highest icebreaking class Polar Class 2. When delivered, this ship equipped with pod propulsion will be revolutionary in its class. Taking all this into account, it is fair to consider the modern propulsion technology as the natural starting point for new generation cruise ships crossing polar and sub polar waters.

This paper presents a novel electrical propulsion method, and a decentralized control system implementation, inclusive of hardware and software (algorithm), for LNG-fueled ice-breakers. The customer value of the method is the avoidance of switch-over of the prime movers on-board from LNG to Diesel on propeller stall-out due to heavy ice-breaking conditions. The paper describes an implementation running on the ice-breaking LNG carriers Christophe de Margerie and Eduard Toll. In addition to previous published work, this paper presents analyses of the installation of energy storage for the absorption and peak-shaving of generation-side over-production of electrical power in the event of intermittent propeller stall-outs when ice-milling.

Remote Sensing Imagery and the derived ancillary products improved the efficiency and safety of upstream oil and gas operations on the North Slope of Alaska. These Arctic regions are remote, very difficult to access in general and sometimes only seasonably accessible. Our prudent and responsible Arctic Operations require regional-reconnaissance exploration, diligent monitoring of environment such as current state of vegetation, temporal changes of terrain, water drainage system and lakes. Finally, we also need very detailed logistical-planning of field operations. Remote sensing imagery and its derived ancillary products demonstrably improved all these aspects of our Arctic Operations. For Arctic Operations, remote sensing data consisted of optical satellite and aerial imagery at various spectral and spatial resolutions, high resolution LIDAR data for digital elevation and digital surface models and synthetic aperture radar imagery (SAR). A combination of in-house and commercial software was used to ingest and process these data. The optical imagery was processed and enhanced using various spectral combinations and high pass filtering to generate the highest possible spatial-resolution for each sensor. Classic neural networks analysis was used to classify the optical imagery for vegetation. The SAR imagery was calibrated (for all polarizations) and geometrically corrected to remove layover effects. The processed optical and SAR imagery, LIDAR and ancillary products were co-registered and imported into a GIS system for final analysis and applications. The optical imagery provided information about surface feature such as lake outlines, general drainage, active channels in Colville River, general lake ice conditions, classification of vegetation types etc. The LIDAR data were used to generate slope maps (for arctic vehicles), general topographic conditions and field operations. The SAR imagery was used to monitor surface conditions when optical imagery was not available during the Arctic night conditions. SAR imagery was also used to calculate the ice thickness proxy maps for eventual field operations. All of these products contributed directly to our environmental baseline studies, improved our field operation efficiency and general safety of our Arctic Operations. For a practicing engineer (individual or team) The remote sensing data and derived products for Arctic Operations were made available via GIS system. This allowed easy integration with other data layers as well as a common background for all different disciplines to monitor progress and to contribute their learnings and ideas to the entire team.

The Drake pipeline is located offshore Melville Island, in the Canadian High Arctic. It was built on-site in 1977-78 and connected to a natural gas production well, which operated for only a few months. The well was plugged in 1995 and the pipeline was abandoned. The pipeline extends from the shoreline to the wellhead located about one kilometer offshore to a water depth of 55 meters. It is buried at the shoreline crossing, to a target depth of 1.5 meters below sea bottom. A system to generate a frozen soil shield was also devised for further protection against drifting ice. Also, a berm made from ice and gravel was built at the water line. Field investigations could prove highly instructive to assess the state of the structure, and provide guidelines for design of future pipelines in high risks areas. However, significant technical and logistical challenges would face that venture, namely a ‘no physical contact’ (with the pipeline) restriction from the property owner, which leads to difficulty in understanding what has occurred to the pipeline beneath the soil, and a propensity for the region to be covered with a very thick ice cover.

The objective of this paper is to present an update of various research activities of a multi-year research and development project aiming at developing dynamic positioning (DP) system technologies specifically for ice-rich environments. Since the beginning of the project in 2014, significant progress has been made in various activities that aimed at achieving the primary project objective of improving the safety and efficiency of oil and gas operations in ice infested environments through the enhancement of existing DP system technologies for efficient operations and training of DP operators in simulated realistic ice environments by providing necessary exposure to DP operations in ice. Prototypes of multiple vessel models, ice force models, and other environmental force models have been developed and are being validated. A modularized simulation and validation platform has been developed for the integration, validation, testing of all these prototypes. The research team at the National Research Council's Ocean Coastal and River Engineering (NRC-OCRE) is on the verge of delivering the complete package of the simulation platform to the project lead, the Centre for Marine Simulation (CMS) at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University of Newfoundland, for comprehensive checking and testing of the platform by the project commercial partner Kongsberg Digital Simulation (KDS) Ltd. In this article, an update on various activities regarding the physical model testing, numerical modeling and development of simulation platform is presented. Various modules of the prototype validation platform and their integration are discussed along with their current development status. A brief discussion on various components of the ice force modeling approach, the algorithms and implementation strategies is provided. Finally, the initial results of a number of DP in ice simulation cases and comparison with validation data is presented. A brief outline of the work remaining to be completed for achieving the project objectives, along with the associated limitations are also provided.

The IMO Polar Code requires operators to consider the hazards associated with the specific environment of operation in Polar waters. Various sources of climate and environmental data are publicly available to quantify environmental hazards. This study considers an example Ice Class IB ship, that is not intended to operate in low air temperature (as defined in the Polar Code), and not intended to operate in marine icing conditions. Considering these hazard limitations in concert with analysis of historical data, a theoretical operational envelope for the ship is established. The methodology presented in this paper can be expanded to include more hazards as appropriate. Proposals are provided on future enhancements.

Ice management is an important consideration for any offshore petroleum operation conducted in an area that could encounter sea ice. Ice management could be performed for a number of reasons: to reduce global ice loads on the installation, to avoid ice interaction with underwater components such as risers or turrets, or to allow for close proximity operations such as loading / offloading, manning / de-manning, or evacuation in the case of an emergency event. The purpose of this project is to provide baseline information relating to ice clearing operations conducted in pack ice conditions. This information includes outcomes of different ice clearing operations in terms of loads on a GBS structure and ice concentration upstream of the GBS structure. It also includes loads measured on the support vessel that is conducting the ice clearing operations for a subset of the clearing techniques considered. To investigate this problem, model testing experiments were conducted in NRC-OCRE's ice tank located in St. John's NL, Canada. These experiments involved systematic testing involving various pack ice conditions representative of the Grand Banks area and two models: a support vessel and a GBS structure. The environmental conditions included: two ice concentrations, two ice piece sizes, and two ice piece drift speeds. Four ice clearing techniques were tested in each condition. The ice clearing techniques included two fixed position tests; where the support vessel was held in place upstream of the GBS using flexible mooring lines and two free running tests; where the support vessel was remotely controlled and maneuvered upstream of the GBS. Results are provided in terms of loads measured on the GBS model with clearing support, loads measured on the support vessel during the fixed ice clearing operations, ice free zones created upstream of the GBS and aft of the support vessel during ice clearing tests, reductions in GBS loads due to ice clearing operations, reductions in ice concentration upstream of the GBS due to ice clearing operations, and a summary of ice events that led to large pack ice loads. The significant factors that influenced each result were also identified. These results complement existing literature relating to physical ice clearing operations by providing the outcomes of systematic testing in different ice conditions which is available in public domain. These results could be used as benchmark values for design or numerical model validation. In addition, they could provide insight to operators, regulators and academia to support informed decision making regarding the level of ice management support required in different operating environments. All dimensions and test results in this paper are provided at full scale value.

Ships transporting different liquids have been around for as long as there has been the need to trade between countries and nations. The first liquid transport happened in drums loaded into the ships like any cargo. During the last 120 years as ships have been built of steel/iron it has been possible to transport liquids in tanks built in to the structure of the ships. During the 20 th century cargo ships sailing in ice were assisted seasonally mostly by icebreakers. Most of the liquid transport did not really need any assistance in ice conditions as there was hardly any winter traffic. The continuous need for utilizing oil lead to new territories and the oil discovered in Alaska in the late 1960ies brought up the crude oil transport in ice conditions and Esso started the Manhattan project. This unfortunately did not start the arctic tanker transport. This paper discusses the development history of the propulsion of tankers working in ice conditions. In the early 1970ies the winter traffic in Finland exploded as the Finnish government decided to keep all the major ports open year-round. This started serious development of ships capable of more independent ice operation. The first propulsion solutions were modifications of well proven technology. We had fixed pitch and controllable pitch propellers connected directly to low speed diesel engines or through a gearbox. In some applications the propeller was equipped with a nozzle. In the 1970ies and 1980ies we were already drafting different tankers with electric propulsion with huge power. However, it was needed a decade more and the development of the propulsion devices from direct shaft lines to azimuth devices to get the propulsion revolution going at full speed. Today we have available and most commonly used; traditional fixed pitch propellers with conventional shaft lines, mechanical Z-drives and podded propulsors driven by electric motors. The operational profile and mission of the vessel will dictate how the tanker will be furbished. Most of the new concepts have been tested and developed in conjunction of icebreaker development, where tankers have been closely following. Recently there have been delivered and designed new icebreakers, icebreaking shuttle tankers and LNG carriers. Many of these vessel concepts are relying on podded propulsion system. AZIPOD propulsion has been selected to many of these vessels as it provides excellent ice performance for the vessel, good torque characteristics for the propeller and there already exists proven track record of ice operations. This paper will introduce some outstanding full-scale experience from the revolutionary icebreaking LNG carrier Christopher de Margerie.

This paper presents operational experience and ice measurement results from Finnish Icebreaker Polaris propulsion system. Icebreaker Polaris applies a novel three propulsion unit concept. During the shipbuilding period an extensive ice load measurement system was installed on two of the Azipod units. The paper will present key findings from the measurements from the winter periods 2017-2018. The target of the ice load measurement campaign is to increase the designer knowledge of propulsor ice loads in different ship operations. The purpose is to understand in more detail the load distribution for component life estimations and clarify differences between bow and stern propulsor ice loads and frequencies. Due to non-linear load distribution in propulsor at extreme loads, strain gauges were installed at two levels in propulsor hull. This paper will highlight some measurement results of propulsion system behavior during the ice trials and long term measurements from the winters 2017 and 2018. The full-scale ice operation data collected in the Baltic Sea ice conditions can be further utilized in a development vessel and its propulsion system of heavy polar icebreaker type. The measurement campaign onboard the Polaris is planned to continue during coming winters. The aim is to collect statistical ice load data to improve the understanding of the fatigue and ultimate design loads. One of the goals is also to clarify how much load the bow mounted propulsion unit will experience compared to the stern units. Based on the measurement results so far, we can conclude that icebreaker with bow mounted Azipod propulsor can be operated without limitations in all ice conditions, just like all the other icebreakers in the Baltic.

The benefits of using satellite imagery in arctic maritime operations are well known. Synthetic Aperture Radar and optical imagery from polar orbiting satellites can provide valuable information about sea ice and presence of icebergs both on a local and regional scale. The sea ice information extracted from satellite imagery is used together with weather data for vessel navigation in or near the ice or for increased safety and reduced risk during critical operations. Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) has ordering, downlink and processing capabilities for all the commercial and free SAR satellites in orbit today. SAR satellite imagery from these sources can, in addition to be used for detection and monitoring of sea ice, also be used for large scale environmental monitoring (oil spill detection) and increased maritime domain awareness (vessel detection). StormGeo is a leading weather risk provider for operations in Arctic, and has a strong focus on delivering weather decision support to marine operations. For the end-user performing ice analysis, satellite imagery can be used in addition to information such as local weather forecasts and ice information extracted from external sources. For efficient ordering of satellite imagery in ice management operations, it is important that the end-user have access to satellite tasking information such as potential temporal and spatial coverage, tasking deadlines and order status. In addition, the end-user must be able to access the relevant data as fast as possible after satellite acquisition. KSAT and StormGeo have in cooperation with Viking Supply Ships developed an end-to-end service integrating relevant ice-information and interfaces for satellite ordering, imagery access and weather information. The service is accessed through the StormGeo GUI, "Vortex," which serves as a robust and powerful tool for information access and ice management analysis. The service development has been done in the MULDIARCOS (Multi-mission Data and Information Services for Arctic Operations) project, which has been partly funded by ESA under the Integrated Application Promotion program.

Currently, iceberg risk mitigation at production facilities in shallower waters (80 to 120 m) on the Grand Banks off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is accomplished using iceberg surveillance, towing, water cannons and, in the case of floating facilities, disconnection. Future developments in deeper waters such as the Flemish Pass or the Orphan Basin may be able to utilize compliant mooring and riser systems to allow a floating facility to simply move out of the path of an approaching iceberg without disconnecting. The analysis described here shows that, using simple extrapolation of the observed iceberg trajectory, the risk mitigation provided by facility side-tracking is comparable to existing physical management techniques (iceberg towing and water cannons). Improved short-term iceberg drift forecasting would allow further risk mitigation.

The Polar Class Module Carriers AUDAX and PUGNAX were built for a unique service; year-round transportation of ultra-heavy construction modules for the Yamal LNG plant which is located near Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula, 4 degrees north of the Arctic Circle. The average- and winter conditions in the Russian Arctic, especially the Ob Bay area, are extremely harsh. Dedicated Vessels were essential to provide the Client the required year-round module transportation service in these challenging conditions. The unique design of the sister vessels AUDAX and PUGNAX is jointly developed by Aker Arctic Technology and RED BOX Energy Services. A special custom/one-off hull shape has been engineered to ensure the Vessels can perform reliable module transportation in Arctic conditions within a limited timeframe. The requirement for stern-to loadout and discharge operations made a conventional hull shape or double acting ships (sailing a-stern in ice) design impossible. With the aid of CFD calculations and model testing at Aker Arctic's own test basin, the unique hull shape for the Vessels was developed. With the CFD analysis a new ice bow was designed specifying icebreaking capacities to 1.5 meters of level ice. Results of the performed tests demonstrated the Vessels design exceed the minimum required performance. Furthermore, in close cooperation with DNV-GL the Vessels obtained Polar Class 3 (PC-3) approval. In addition, two special studies were done by DNV-GL and the CNIIMF to proof compliance with ARC-7 Class, the Russian equivalence of PC-3. The bow design of the 43 meter (141 foot) wide Vessels enables them to break ice up to 1.5 meters (5 foot) thick, independently. AUDAX and PUGNAX can cope with temperatures of -50°C (-58°F) and still navigate safe and reliable during the 9-months ice coverage period in the Arctic, including the challenging polar nights which last for two months annually. Both Vessels were delivered early 2016 and have, since then, profoundly navigated around the clock; AUDAX and PUGNAX delivered 48 modules at the Yamal Peninsula while safe navigating 30.000 mile through ice covered waters. In March 2017, Aker Arctic and RED BOX jointly assessed the performance of AUDAX, when the Vessel sailed from the Yamal Peninsula to Zeebrugge (Belgium). The overall performance of the AUDAX was impressive, performing well-above its specifications in both ice breaking conditions as well as in modules loading- and discharge operations. AUDAX and PUGNAX are one of the largest icebreaking Vessels in the world. Combining these icebreaking capabilities with a unique module transportation approach, RED BOX created an extraordinary Logistic Service to serve large-scale Energy Infrastructure projects in Arctic Regions. The additional special features of the Vessels which includes deck heating and internal ballast transfer make efficient transportation and cargo operations in extreme harsh environments feasible.

Objectives/Scope Arctic hydrocarbons were written off when oil prices dropped. Yet, the Arctic is diverse, and there are some fields with attractive economics. Since circumpolar littoral states do not subsidize hydrocarbon resource developments, operators must confirm fields’ financial viability in a global trading context, that is if governments let them. The objective of this paper is to assess to what extent circumpolar governments facilitate hydrocarbon exploitation in their Arctic areas. Method, Procedure, Process The paper will assess governments’ facilitation by making a qualitative comparison along two axes: (i) ease of use of safety regulations (ii) general investment friendliness. There is some debate about maritime activities in the Arctic; yet why is the debate about hydrocarbon resources much more heated? Maritime activities apparently have an implicit license to operate. Not so for hydrocarbon developments. Such resource development is firmly anchored inside the national regulatory remit. Some countries have a liberal, permissive approach to resource developments, while other countries are more restrictive and precautionary. What is the overall regulatory situation today? Russia – controlling the largest share of prospective Arctic resource territories, has a relatively liberal, investment friendly view on activities, yet still has a young, immature offshore safety regulatory approach. Norway –has an open operator policy, with many competing players. The political mood has, however changed, as the activities have moved North. Environmental and climate concerns are cited. Operators today are therefore not so sure about Norway's future license policies. Greenland – is investment friendly, yet also the country hit hardest by typical Arctic challenges of remoteness and high cost of operations. Greenland is positive to performance-based, forward-looking regulations, but regulatory experience is limited. Canada's resources are located so that Arctic cold climate industry activities are something "normal", and not exotic. The regulatory system is performance based, which allows for new technologies. Up until recently Canada therefore was a country where the government is ready for Arctic hydrocarbon developments. The 2017 Arctic offshore development moratorium changed that overall position. In the US – state decisions are relatively strong vis-à-vis the federal government. Since most offshore developments are inside the federal remit, Alaska is in a situation where strong state support may conflict with the electoral changes taking place in Washington DC. Does the US now have a prescriptive or a risk-based (performance-based) approach to safety? Norway took a 180 degree move from prescriptive to performance-based regulations after Piper Alfa (1988). It does not appear that the US has made this turn after Macondo. Results, Observations, Conclusions Safety regulatory developments are moving ahead, expecting further resource developments. Political discussions in different countries may still lead to different investment climates in each country. Novel/Additive Information Where companies should invest is not part of this presentation. Arctic resource developments take place in all the countries addressed in this paper, so Arctic hydrocarbons indeed have a place in today's energy markets. All countries assessed could still improve further – to a greater or lesser degree – their respective investment climate for such resource developments.

This paper will study the latest development of the expedition cruise market from lower ice class to latest heavy icebreaker class cruise ships. Expedition cruise industry is growing at the moment quite fast. New designs coming in to the market. Ice classes varies from PC6 to PC2. The paper will describe current order book for expedition cruise vessels. Aker Arctic developed concept design together with Ponant and Stirling Design International for completely new type of expedition cruise vessel. The Ponant Icebreaker is a heavy PC2 class icebreaking cruise vessel designed to be a world's first truly luxury icebreaking cruise vessel capable to taking passenger to the North Pole. In the paper we will describe what kind of methods were used when selecting the design criteria when operating in extremely harsh environment. When jumping from PC6 class to PC2 class it is a whole different game, several things must be taking in to account. Environmental impact is also important when designing vessels for fragile Polar environment and selecting the right systems in design phase is important. Passenger safety and comfort is very important. Taking the rules like of the Polar Code and Safe Return to Port rule causes some challenges when designing vessel for high Polar waters. Novel/Additive Information: Designing new type of vessel, which doesn't exist in the market is challenging. New ideas and solutions needs to be evaluated carefully. Selecting the best solutions is an utmost important.

In the autumn of 2015, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) performed a research cruise, named the "Oden Arctic Technology Research Cruise 2015" (OATRC2015) involving the two Swedish icebreakers Oden and Frej in the international waters north of Svalbard. The ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company supported and participated in OATRC2015. The overall objective of OATRC2015 was to perform a safe cruise collecting valuable and important scientific data and to conduct full-scale field trials for testing of key technologies. The scientific scope of OATRC2015 included three major fields of studies, namely: 1) collection of full-scale data necessary to build, calibrate and validate numerical models for floaters in ice, 2) collection of full-scale data necessary to build, calibrate and validate numerical models for Ice Management operations, and 3) collection of data for health, safety and environmental research. This paper presents OATRC2015, including the objectives of the expedition, and provides an overview of the performed research and the major findings. Several companion ATC 2016 papers are complementary to this paper.

This paper presents an overview of a five year research and development project aiming to develop dynamic positioning (DP) system technologies specifically for ice-rich environments. It has been initiated by the Centre for Marine Simulation (CMS) at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University of Newfoundland, with its technical partner National Research Council’s Ocean Coastal and River Engineering (OCRE-NRC) and commercial partner Kongsberg Maritime Simulation Ltd. (KMS). The primary objective of the project is to develop solutions for some of the critical challenges related to safe Arctic offshore operations by dynamic positioning. More specifically, the objective is to improve the safety and efficiency of oil and gas operations in ice infested environments through the enhancement of existing DP system technologies and training of DP operators in simulated realistic ice environments for ship operations. The project is envisioned to achieve its objective through developing a modularized simulation platform for prototype integration, validation, testing and operational studies/training. Prototypes of a DP control system, a vessel model, an ice force model, and other environmental force models will be developed. The project commenced in 2013 and is set to complete in late 2018. In this first article of the project, a discussion on the contextual aspects and formation of the project, its planning and status to-date is presented. A synopsis of the scientific and engineering research performed to-date within the project scope, with a justification of their relevance to the safe DP operations in ice is given. The high level system design of the validation platform and the deployment strategies of its major components are presented. An introductory discussion on the novel ice force modeling approach is provided. Finally, an overview of the model test program of a fully DP controlled vessel in managed ice conditions, which was completed to provide a database for building and validating the ice force model, is also offered.

In order to be economically viable, Arctic floating drilling in high concentration pack ice requires very high confidence that ice interaction does not lead to costly, unanticipated emergency disconnections of the rig from the well. One of the foremost near-field ice management challenges is to maintain the station-keeping drilling rig within the managed ice channel throughout periods of complex changes in ice drift direction and speed. This entails precise, continuous re-positioning of the ice management fleet, which may be located up to several kilometers up-drift of the station-keeping drilling rig, in response to changing drift. While it may seem plausible to position up-drift ice management operations based on ice drift forecasts, forecasting unfortunately has insufficient precision to achieve the necessary level of reliability. To remedy this problem, ExxonMobil has developed systematic ice management command and control tactics that maintain the station-keeping drilling rig within the managed ice channel with high confidence. The tactics are based solely on the recent drift time history, and therefore eliminate any need for ice drift forecasting for near-field ice management operations. The tactics were proven in a series of near-field ice management tests conducted during the Oden Arctic Technology Research Cruise (OATRC 2015). OATRC2015 was performed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in cooperation with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and support and participation by ExxonMobil. Over a period of ten days during September, 2015, in which there were many complex Coriolis-driven ice drift loops and cusps and rapid drift direction changes, the methodology was able to successfully manage ice ahead of a fixed way point such that the point remained well within the managed ice channel at all times. The key features of the approach are described herein and include the use of variable length "arched racetrack" icebreaking patterns and an algorithm for continuously adjusting the position and size of the racetracks based on the measured ice drift speed and direction.

As a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Macondo well blowout, the Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) identified the need to establish Special Oversight Measures for deepwater wells. The Special Oversight Measures were implemented in response to the heightened concerns regarding offshore drilling risks, and to have extra visibility of Operator efforts in applying the lessons learned from the incident to prevent similar occurrences in the C-NLOPB jurisdiction. The application of the C-NLOPB's Special Oversight Measures has since evolved to include higher risk drilling programs such as high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) wells, ultra-deepwater wells, and harsh environment drilling where there is increased potential for a well control incident to occur. The C-NLOPB's Special Oversight Measures are an initiative that has significantly increased the rigour with which drilling in extreme offshore conditions is regulated in Eastern Canada. The Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) has also adopted these special measures to aid in their oversight of deepwater drilling programs. These initiatives have also been presented to North Sea regulatory working groups to communicate success and advancement in this area. There are a tremendous number of parallels between drilling in the harsh environment of offshore Newfoundland and Labrador and arctic regions worldwide. The C-NLOPB's Special Oversight Measures are being shared with the aim of collaboratively establishing a heightened regulatory expectation on the stringent application of best practices for high risk drilling campaigns in Canada and worldwide.

Oil and gas exploitation continue in two key harsh environment regions: Grand Banks, Newfoundland and Barents Sea, Norway. Although these regions have different challenges in terms of ice, cold temperatures, and winter storms; one common obstacle is short offshore installation windows. Mitigating a short installation window is a key motivator in considering the use of Pipeline Bundle technology. Within the UK North Sea, Pipeline Bundles has been a key technology for Subsea 7 in many offshore field developments and expansions over the past 35 years. With the unique ability to be utilised in a number of applications, including: congested lay-down corridors, challenging seabed conditions, and the efficient incorporation of subsea processing elements; the technology offers a flexible design for any subsea field. To export this key technology differentiator from the UK North Sea, Subsea 7 has conducted a feasibility study to investigate the use of Pipeline Bundles in the Grand Banks region. This paper discusses the various design considerations and installation options needed for the area as well as the technical readiness of the components of the Pipeline Bundle when matched against these requirements. A way forward is then presented regarding the necessary Pipeline Bundle design and installation option for use in the Grand Banks.