FLNG and what it means for the Subsea Industry

UVS staff joined with a large and engaged audience attending the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) meeting in Perth on October 15 to hear from excellent speakers on the topic, “FLNG is coming…What does this mean for the Subsea Industry?

Ben Holland, Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Fugro AG emphasised the need for high quality MetOcean data to drive the survivability case for the FLNG vessels with an intended deployment life at 25-40 years. Of the proposed global deployment of FLNG platforms over 40% are located in the Australian/Asian region where there would be “no running away” from storms and severe weather events, said Ben. The world’s first development of FLNG is Shell’s Au$12bn Prelude project located 200 kilometres offshore of Western Australia in “cyclone alley” where category 4/5 cyclones regularly track through the region.

MetOcean data including wind, wave and sea level data will be initially required to feed into anchor design models. Continuous monitoring will support fatigue studies through the life of the project and enable best development of offloading models.

Jon Gould, Senior Technical Consultant, Peritus International Ltd, noted that continuous monitoring (including monitoring of METOC data) would be key to building and understanding of operations including systems to support side-by-side offloading.

UVS Perth General Manager, Mark Musarra said that UVS could offer many products to support current and future monitoring requirements. Accurate current measurements at the seabed (as provided by Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler technology) will be key to predicting scouring around anchor points and subsea structures. Wind and wave conditions will produce complex loading conditions on the FLNG vessel and systems such as the Wave Glider Autonomous Surface Vehicles was one way that continuous and pervasive monitoring of METOC conditions could be provided in the FLNG project area. “Wave Gliders could provide an “early warning” system of changing METOC conditions supporting safe and efficient operation of FLNG project”, said Mark.