Topside Facilities Design for Hutton TLP

The Hutton North Sea field is to be developed using the world's first commercial Tension Leg Platform (TLP). This paper explains how the choice of a TLP, with its dynamic behaviour and structural configuration, affected the design of the topside facilities. The problems faced by facilities engineers are described as are the methods used to resolve them. The nature of the problems described are general to TLPs, consequently the material presented is applicable to designs of the future.