At the concept select stage and certainly at the FEED stage of deepwater subsea projects the focus is often exclusively on optimisation of functionality during operation. For deepwater and particularly in the current market climate, however, the 'best' field development may need to satisfy other drivers. The 'best' solution does require knowledge and definition of what is considered of most value to the project whilst managing CAPEX and lowering risk. Given that, for a Greenfield subsea development, approximately one third of the CAPEX is associated with the SURF (subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines) package, and around one half of this cost is attributable to the offshore installation phase. Along with all the risk, there are strong commercial reasons alone for focusing on installability during all phases of the development cycle. Layering on top of this the shortage of capable vessels and their tight availability, the development scenario that provides a greater number of suitable vessels for offshore construction offers a more competitive bid phase, additional schedule benefits and lower risk as the subsea systems are that much more installable by design. This paper illustrates how an installation-driven (or installation-focused) development process provides the necessary operational functionality for deepwater subsea projects by leveraging recent experience on a variety of projects from around the world.
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