Development of a Methodology for the Design of an Offshore Oil Production Platform on the Alaskan Arctic Continental Shelf. Volume 1

摘要

Hydrocarbon extraction from the oceans has been going on for the past three decades. Beginning in shallow water regions of the coastal areas, the offshore oil exploration and production process has moved successfully into the more hostile deep ocean area. More recently, the Arctic Ocean has been the frontier in the oil exploration field. Prospects of finding large reserves of gas and oil in the Beaufort Sea have initiated large exploration projects. The exploration in a few instances has led to discovery of commercially viable oil and gas reservoirs. Present lease sales in the Alaskan sector of the Beaufort Sea have opened for exploration zones in water depths as great as 300 feet. These areas lie in the Stamukhi shear zones of the polar ice pack, where the ice action on the structures is highly dynamic. Thus, if oil is to be explored and produced safely from these areas, specially designed platforms will have to be utilized. The methodology as presented is non-site specific and is intended to provide the designer as well as the evaluator with an aid to carry out the design (or evaluation) in a logical manner. The emphasis in this study has been on technical rather than socioeconomic and environmental aspects of design.