Abstract
The paper describes two minimum-cost, self-erecting, platform designs and one caisson structure design that can be installed in Cook Inlet, Alaska without the need for heavy lifting equipment. The Cook Inlet environment is characterized by thirty-foot tides and during the winter months by fast moving ice floes. The area is remote from other offshore operating areas and there is no heavy lifting equipment. One of the designs has been built and platform Osprey was installed in Cook Inlet in 2000. The paper will describe how it was designed, constructed and installed. A, second, different design concept allows platform installation in deeper water, again without the need for heavy lifting equipment. The third design concept is an outrigger caisson design that can be installed with a jack-up drilling unit. It would have application as a satellite platform structure.
Use of these minimum-cost platform and caisson designs would enable development of marginal fields in Cook Inlet that heretofore could not be developed because the high cost of mobilizing and demobilizing heavy lifting equipment to and from Cook Inlet would make development uneconomic.
