V

PREFACE
Due to the rapid growth of the offshore field, particularly in the exploration and develop-
ment of offshore oil and gas fields in deep waters of the oceans, the science and engineering
in this area is seeing a phenomenal advancement. This advanced knowledge is not readily
available for use by the practitioners in the field in a single reference.
Tremendous strides have been made in the last decades in the advancement of offshore
exploration and production of minerals. This has given rise to developments of new
concepts and structures and material for application in the deep oceans. This has generated
an obvious need of a reference book providing the state-of-the art in offshore engineering.
This handbook is an attempt to fill this gap. It covers the important aspects of offshore
structure design, installation and operation. The book covers the basic background
material and its application in offshore engineering. Particular emphasis is placed in the
application of the theory to practical problems. It includes the practical aspects of the
offshore structures with handy design guides, simple description of the various components
of the offshore engineering and their functions.
One of the unique strengths of the book is the impressive and encompassing presen-
tation of current functional and operational offshore development for all those involved
with offshore structures. It is tailored as a reference book for the practicing engineers,
and should serve as a handy reference book for the design engineers and consultant
involved with offshore engineering and the design of offshore structures. This book
emphasizes the practical aspects rather than the theoretical treatments needed in the
research in the field of offshore engineering. In particular, it describes the dos and donts
of all aspects of offshore structures. Much hands-on experience has been incorporated in
the write up and contents of the book. Simple formulas and guidelines are provided
throughout the book. Detailed design calculations, discussion of software development,
and the background mathematics has been purposely left out. The book is not intended
to provide detailed design methods, which should be used in conjunction with the
knowledge and guidelines included in the book. This does not mean that they are not
necessary for the design of offshore structures. Typically, the advanced formulations are
handled by specialized software. The primary purpose of the book is to provide the
important practical aspects of offshore engineering without going into the nitty gritty of
the actual detailed design. Long derivations or mathematical treatments are avoided.
Where necessary, formulas are stated in simple terms for easy calculations. Illustrations
are provided in these cases. Information is provided in handy reference tables and design
charts. Examples are provided to show how the theory outlined in the book is applied in
the design of structures. Many examples are borrowed from the deep-water offshore
structures of interest today including their components, and material that completes the
system.
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Contents of the handbook include the following chapters:

Historical Development of Offshore Structures
Novel and Marginal Field Offshore Structures
Ocean Environment
Loads and Responses
Probabilistic Design of Offshore Structure
Fixed Offshore Platform Design
Floating Offshore Platform Design
Mooring Systems
Drilling and Production Risers
Topside Facilities Layout Development
Design and Construction of Offshore Pipelines
Design for Reliability: Human and Organisational Factors
Physical Modelling of Offshore Structures
Offshore Installation
Materials for Offshore Applications
Geophysical and Geotechnical Design
The book is a collective effort of many technical specialists. Each chapter is written by
one or more invited world-renowned experts on the basis of their long-time practical
experience in the offshore field. The sixteen chapters, contributed by internationally
recognized offshore experts provide invaluable insights on the recent advances and present
state-of-knowledge on offshore developments. Attempts were made to choose the people,
who have been in the trenches, to write these chapters. They know what it takes to get
a structure from the drawing board to the site doing its job for which it is designed. They
work everyday on these structures with the design engineers, operations engineers and
construction people and make sure that the job is done right.
Chapter 1 introduces the historical development of offshore structures in the exploration
and production of petroleum reservoirs below the seafloor. It covers both the earlier
offshore structures that have been installed in shallow and intermediate water depths as
well as those for deep-water development and proposed as ultra-deep water structures.
A short description of these structures and their applications are discussed.
Chapter 2 describes novel structures and their process of development to meet certain
requirements of an offshore field. Several examples given for these structures are operating
in offshore fields today. A few others are concepts in various stages of their developments.
The main purpose of this chapter is to lay down a logical step that one should follow in
developing a structural concept for a particular need and a set of prescribed requirements.
The ocean environment is the subject of chapter 3. It describes the environment that may
be expected in various parts of the world and their properties. Formulas in describing their
magnitudes are provided where appropriate so that the effect of these environments on the
structure may be evaluated. The magnitudes of environment in various parts of the world
are discussed. They should help the designer in choosing the appropriate metocean
conditions that should be used for the structure development.
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Chapter 4 provides a generic description of how to compute loads on an offshore struc-

ture and how the structure responds to these loads. Basic formulas have been stated for
easy references whenever specific needs arise throughout this handbook. Therefore, this
chapter may be consulted during the review of specific structures covered in the handbook.
References are made regarding the design guidelines of various certifying agencies.
Chapter 5 deals with a statistical design approach incorporating the random nature of
environment. Three design approaches are described that include the design wave, design
storm and long-term design. Several examples have been given to explain these approaches.
The design of fixed offshore structures is described in Chapter 6. The procedure follows a
design cycle for the fixed structure and include different types of structure design including
tubular joints and fatigue design.
Chapter 7 discusses the design of floating structures, in particular those used in offshore oil
drilling and production. Both permanent and mobile platforms have been discussed. The
design areas of floaters include weight control and stability and dynamic loads on as well as
fatigue for equipment, risers, mooring and the hull itself. The effect of large currents in the
deepwater Gulf of Mexico, high seas and strong currents in the North Atlantic, and long
period swells in West Africa are considered in the design development. Installation of the
platforms, mooring and decks in deep water present new challenges.
Floating offshore vessels have fit-for-purpose mooring systems. The mooring system
selection, and design are the subject of Chapter 8. The mooring system consists of freely
hanging lines connecting the surface platform to anchors, or piles, on the seabed,
positioned some distance from the platform.
Chapter 9 provides a description of the analysis procedures used to support the operation
of drilling and production risers in floating vessels. The offshore industry depends on these
procedures to assure the integrity of drilling and production risers. The description,
selection and design of these risers are described in the chapter.
The specific considerations that should be given in the design of a deck structure is
described in Chapter 10. The areas and equipment required for deck and the spacing
are discussed. The effect of the environment on the deck design is addressed. The control
and safety requirements, including fuel and ignition sources, firewall and fire equipment
are given.
The objective of chapter 11 is to guide the offshore pipeline engineer during the design
process. The aspects of offshore pipeline design that are discussed include a design basis,
route selection, sizing the pipe diameter, and wall thickness, on-bottom pipeline stability,
bottom roughness analysis, external corrosion protection, crossing design and construction
feasibility.
Chapter 12 is focused on people and their organizations and how to design offshore
structures to achieve desirable reliability in these aspects. The objective of this chapter is to
provide engineers design-oriented guidelines to help develop success in design of offshore
structures. Application of these guidelines are illustrated with a couple of practical examples.
The scale model testing is the subject of Chapter 13. This chapter describes the need,
the modeling background and the method of physical testing of offshore structures in a
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small-scale model. The physical modeling involves design and construction of scale model,
generation of environment in an appropriate facility, measuring responses of the model
subjected to the scaled environment and scaling up of the measured responses to the design
values. These aspects are discussed here.
Installation, foundation, load-out and transportation are covered in Chapter 14. Installa-
tion methods of the following sub-structures are covered: Jackets; Jack-ups; Compliant
towers and Gravity base structures. Different types of foundations and their unique methods
of installation are discussed. The phase of transferring the completed structure onto
the deck of a cargo vessel and its journey to the site, referred to as the load-out and
transportation operation, and their types are described.
Chapter 15 reviews the important materials for offshore application and their corrosion
issues. It discusses the key factors that affect materials selection and design. The chapter
includes performance data and specifications for materials commonly used for offshore
developments. These materials include carbon steel, corrosion resistant alloys, elastomers
and composites. In addition the chapter discusses key design issues such as fracture,
fatigue, corrosion control and welding.
Chapter 16 provides an overview of the geophysical and geotechnical techniques and
solutions available for investigating the soils and rocks that lay beneath the seabed.
A projects successful outcome depends on securing the services of highly competent
contractors and technical advisors. What is achievable is governed by a combination of
factors, such as geology, water depth, environment and vessel capabilities. The discussions
are transcribed without recourse to complex science, mathematics or lengthy descriptions
of complicated procedures.
Because of the practical nature of the examples used in the handbook, many of which came
from past experiences in different offshore locations of the world, it was not possible to
use a consistent set of engineering units. Therefore, the English and metric units are
interchangeably used throughout the book. Dual units are included as far as practical,
especially in the beginning chapters. A conversion table is included in the handbook for
those who are more familiar with and prefer to use one or the other unit system.
This handbook should have wide applications in offshore engineering. People in the follow-
ing disciplines will be benefited from this book: Offshore Structure designers and
fabricators; Offshore Field Engineers; Operators of rigs and offshore structures; Consulting
Engineers; Undergraduate & Graduate Students; Faculty Members in Ocean/Offshore
Eng. & Naval Architectural Depts.; University libraries; Offshore industry personnel;
Design firm personnel.

Subrata Chakrabarti
Technical Editor