Coupled Tender Mooring For Spar and TLP Designs

The offshore industry must continue to find ways to more efficiently develop deepwater reserves. Dry tree floating production units (DTUs) have now evolved to a point where they are being very cost effectively constructed in 22 months based on standardized detailed designs. Drillmar’s coupled tender mooring solution [1] enables both drilling and production operations to be conducted from these standardized units. This passive mooring system synchronizes the low frequency movements of a semisubmersible vessel to a DTU, maintaining their relative positions to provide an efficient and safe tender operation. This tender strategy decreases the topside payload of the DTU by approximately 6,000 short tons compared to a unit designed for a platform drilling rig. This payload reduction allows standardized production designs to be used at a cost savings of at least 20%, while potentially delivering a project schedule acceleration of 8 to 10 months.