The Foinaven field was first discovered in late 1992. The field will produce oil for the partners BP and SHELL in [996. The owners laid out a commercial strategy in line with the CRINE initiative for the field development. One of the leading ideas in this respect is to utilize Industry standard and knowledge to a greater extent than had previously been common in the offshore oil industry.
When the first oil starts flowing at Foinaven later this year, three and a half challenging years are behind. BP, SHELL, the contracting companies and personal involved, will probably admit that they have been involved in a major frontier project, and have contributed in setting some new milestones and yardsticks for the industry.
The challenges of the project have been encountered within the wide spectrum of disciplines of a large offshore project. The time span of approximately three and a half years testifies to an accelerated timescale as compared with a traditional approach. The Fast Track characteristic is an essential origin for the wide range of challenges that were encountered. Throughout the project, major decisions had to be taken in an environment of ‘continous specification and design development’. This required flexibility and a ‘parallel engineering’ approach.
The field development has been effected within the realm of the Safety Case regulations. We have experienced that the industry still is in the transition zone between the previous regime of prescriptive regulatory requirements and the risk based design approach. Challenges were associated with the task of managingand implementing a common understanding of the regulatory authority expectations, and with work definition and timing resulting in a smooth and rational design and construction process.
The Field will be produced by a Production Ship, hooked up to the subsea production system via flexible risers and umbilicals. The 300,000 barrels storage capacity ship, PETROJARL FOINAVEN, will be turret moored in the field. The technical challenges in the Production Ship design have been closely related to the field location in the Atlantic ocean west of Shetlands. Here the water depth is 500 meters, and the weather is blessed with a climate harsher than the North Sea (e.g. the 100 year wave is some 18 meter significant.)
The ship solution has been designed by Golar-Nor Offshore, and is being built by Astano shipyard, with a McDermott Engineering oil process design. The ship is owned and operatedby Golar-Nor Offshore under a lease agreement with the field operator BP. This presentation will adress aspects of the Production Ship design, being one element at the Foinaven Field development. The other element is the subsea system described in an other paper in this conference.
