Natural Gas is today recognized as the energy of the future and therefore a cost-effective means to transport the produced gas from the producers (e.g. Australia, Indonesia) to the users (e.g. Japan, China) is a prerequisite for the world economic development and environmental protection.
One such initiative is the recent development of Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) units which requires a lot of cold sea water to increase gas liquefaction process efficiency.
At 160m below sea surface, the water temperature is 10°C lower than at surface and up to 16°C lower at some 320m water depth. These would be the required lengths for the water intake risers to enable the LNG process.
The paper starts with a detailed description of the Trelleborg bonded flexible hoses with large internal diameter (i.e. up to 1m ID) and its main particulars (e.g. embedded flange connectors, variable integrated bending stiffener) to suit with the conditions of use and in particular the "cyclonic" environmental conditions.
Different riser configurations will be presented, e.g. distributed risers along the ship side(s) or bundled together at a dedicated topside deck location, with its pros & cons, as well as the outline installation procedures with typical marine spread vessels.
The paper will include the riser design methodology with references to industry codes & standards, recommended practices, etc. Typical functional loads and "Asia" environmental load case matrix will be presented.
