Towing icebergs in support of exploration drilling and production facilities has minimized ice related downtime and contributed to safety when operating in harsh environments. Iceberg management operations have been conducted off Newfoundland and Labrador for over 30 years. Results of these towing operations are contained in The Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD) Comprehensive Iceberg Management Database, which holds detailed information on over 1500 iceberg management operations. Among the data contained in this publicly available database, are the tow forces (bollard pull) used on past operations dating as far back as 1973. Using the PERD database, this paper will investigate whether the there is an optimum amount of bollard pull for towing an iceberg based on past experiences. The paper concludes with the ideal bollard pull criterion to be considered by offshore oil and gas operations when determining the primary towing vessel for iceberg management operations.

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