Abstract
Movement towards deeper waters and harsher environmental conditions has, and will, require the continuous development of new technologies. Especially the design and operation of remote tooling to complete subsea field developments.
One of the principal problems faced during both the design and operational phases of a project is the definition of methods and systems to perform the tie-in of production lines to subsea facilities. This, in fact, influences some critical decisions such as:
Type of lines (rigid/flexible);
Structure layout (tie-in porches and interfaces);
Installation method (first- or second-end connections).
Sonsub International has developed different systems to perform remote connections of either flexible or rigid lines.
Among these, special attention was paid to rigid line connections since this is the preferred option of the industry because of both technical and economic reasons. This has led to the development of a dedicated set of tooling able to perform tie-ins of rigid lines using standard spool pieces and bolted flanges.
Sonsub simultaneously investigated the concept of vertical jumper installation in deep water as part of a larger development study.
This paper presents a comprehensive comparison between the horizontal (spool piece) tie-in versus the vertical jumper method.
The evaluation will include an overview of the systems considered and will outline advantages and drawbacks, both technical and financial, of the two solutions.
