Hurricane Ivan-Pipeline Damage, Integrity Assessment, and On-Bottom Stability Observations

摘要

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM), one of the largest sources of oil and gas production was dealt a major blow in 2004 due to hurricanes. Over the last decade it has become evident that hurricanes in the offshore GoM adversely affect life, environment and property. In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan became the ninth named storm, and the strongest hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Its extreme winds and waves exceeded the 100-year storm design criteria of offshore facilities in the storm path and approximately 10,000 miles of pipelines were in the direct path of Hurricane Ivan.A series of studies was commissioned by the Minerals Management Service of the Department of Interior (MMS) related to hurricanes and the damage to offshore oil and gas facilities. Study projects were assigned to assess the damage and to look for possible ways to mitigate such damage and associated downtime during future storm events. The focus areas of the studies are illustrated in Figure 1.The study focuses on the cause of the failures of the pipelines The results are presented in the form of types of failure. By analyzing the environmental conditions in the regions where the failure occurred, the impact on the design procedures are considered.Stability analysis is performed for a few cases to correlate the actual displacement of pipelines with theoretical simulations.