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HOE dry tree semi 'market ready'

Jennifer Pallanich - noemail@houston-offshore.com — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Houston Offshore Engineering's paired column semisubmersible design is market ready now that the firm has wrapped up basin testing. During a basin test demonstration for potential clients at the Offshore Technology Research Center on 22 April 2010, Jun Zou, HOE's manager of naval architecture, stressed the design relies on mature technology.

Houston Offshore Engineering's paired column semi, designed under a RPSEA program seeking ultra-deepwater dry tree platforms, during wave basin model tests. Depicted in the test at the A&M Offshore Technology Research Center is a 1000-year hurricane test for the central Gulf of Mexico. Waves: Hs=65ft, Tp=17.2s, Unidirectional (also called long-crested), JONSWAP Spectrum Irregular Seas. Hs is significant wave height and Tp is peak period. Winds: hourly wind speed at 33ft elevation, 187ft/s. Currents: current surface speed, 7.35ft/s.

The overall design stems from a Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America project aimed at creating a dry tree semi for ultra-deepwater. Eight operators provided design criteria and participated in evaluating the competing concepts, submitted by a number of engineering firms offered designs. RPSEA selected three for continued development: HOE's paired column semi and FloaTEC's E-semi and truss-semi.

'Our philosophy is to stick to the conventional technologies,' Zou said, citing the conventional hull, tensioner and mooring systems. 'My idea is to leave the tensioner exactly the same as on a spar. Nothing new.' The hull design is a bit different, with eight columns rather than the usual four, thus the paired column semi moniker. 'The outside columns take care of the stability,' Zou said. The benefits of the hull structure are multiple, he added, including improved motions, improved deck structure efficiency, improved hull-deck interface, improved motions at the steel catenary riser (SCR) hangoff location, and the decoupling of dependencies between stability requirements and deck support, heave natural period and pontoon width, and pre-service draft constraints.

Further, the paired column semi is more damage-tolerant than a traditional semi design, he said. 'It's not as sensitive to damage,' Zou said. 'We damage one column, we lose one-eighth' compared to losing a quarter with a four-legged semi.

Motions, of course, are key, as HOE is offering the solution for water depths to 8000ft of water. 'We had really good correlations' between predicted reactions and test basin reactions. 'The current configuration we developed for rough sea meets or exceeds the RPSEA criteria.'

Underwater view of HOE's paired column semi during testing at the A&M Offshore Technology Research Center. Four equivalent moorings in model scale represent 14 moorings in prototype. Four equivalent top tensioned risers in model scale represent 12 in prototype.
One equivalent steel catenary riser in model scale represents 11 SCRs and
6 umbilicals in prototype.

On both the 100-year and 1000-year hurricane tests, he said, the model behaved pretty much in line with predicted motions. 'We have pretty good agreement' between simulated and measured movement, Zou said. Further, he added, vortex-induced motions are not expected to be a concern.

'We came out pretty good on our directional seas, added BMT Scientific Marine Services VP Peter Johnson.

The model used tri-linear risers to model continually changing stiffness, Johnson said.

While complicated to set up, Zou said, 'it turned out to be really nice and worth the money.'

The design meets API 2 INT-MET metocean criteria for the central GoM, the region that traditionally receives the most severe hurricane conditions. The design basis has a dozen top tension risers, a 16-slot wellbay, 9000psi shut-in tubing pressure, 11 SCRs, six umbilicals and 14 mooring lines. Displacement is 108,864 short tons. Total operating payload, including deck steel, is 42,000 short tons. The design is scalable up or down, Zou said. It can be wet- or dry-towed. As far as integration goes for the paired column semi with its topsides, that work can happen quayside, during a heavy lift nearshore, or via a floatover onsite.

'People think our concept is just good for a dry tree. That's not true,' Zou said, noting it can work for both dry and wet tree needs.

22-Apr-10 12:00 PM

Paired columns add stability

Phillip Poll - noemail@houston-offshore.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

The hull of a traditional production semisubmersible (many of which exist today) utilizes four vertical columns arranged in a square pattern. Four horizontal pontoons connect the lower portions of the columns. Using the traditional production semisubmersible as a starting point, work by Houston Offshore Engineering revealed that the addition of one additional column per corner, in what amounts to a column pair, would yield significant benefits in the reduction of platform motions. Due to the improved motions, functionality of the platform is expanded to be compatible with dry trees and top-tensioned risers, even for the most severe design wind and wave environments in the central Gulf of Mexico. HOEs John Chianis and Philip Poll take up the story.

The paired-column geometry of this new hull form allows for optimization of hydrodynamic force cancellation and an associated minimization of platform motions. Surge, heave and pitch motion RAOs of the Paired-Column Semisubmersible, with and without top-tensioned risers, are compared to a traditional Gulf of Mexico semisubmersible in the accompanying plots. All are superimposed over a typical Gulf of Mexico 100-year hurricane wave spectrum.

Surge motion is very important for steel catenary riser support. For extreme event waves with periods in the range of 14-17 seconds, surge motions of the Paired- Column Semisubmersible are approximately 35% lower than a traditional Gulf of Mexico semisubmersible. In operating sea states with periods in the range of 6-10 seconds, the reduction in surge motions is approximately 50%. Respectively, steel catenary riser strength design and fatigue life are greatly enhanced.

The Paired-Column Semisubmersible also shows very desirable heave motions, which are important for top-tension risers and dry trees. The heave natural period is shifted more than 4 seconds longer thereby avoiding dominant wave energy associated with an extreme event. In the extreme event region, heave is reduced approximately by two-thirds and half for no top-tensioned risers and all top-tensioned risers respectively. For the all top-tensioned riser case, riser stroke is reduced to less than 25ft making off-the-shelf riser tensioner technology available.

The paired-column cancellation effects are very obvious for pitch motions. Throughout the entire range of wave periods, from operating conditions to the extreme event, the Paired-Column Semisubmersible exhibits greatly improved motions over the traditional Gulf of Mexico semisubmersible.

The Paired-Column Semisubmersible uses traditional hull components and mooring system and can be fully integrated at quayside to minimize the risks associated with offshore construction and installation. Upon leaving the integration facility, the Paired-Column Semisubmersible is immediately ready for hook up to its moorings and risers, and the start of production.

The benefit of the paired column arrangement is clear for platform motions. Additional benefits further improve the concept in comparison to a traditional semisubmersible. The additional benefits are in the areas of lightweight deck structure, increased robustness and protection of hydrocarbon piping systems.

The inner columns of the Paired-Column Semisubmersible provide excellent support and minimal span for the topsides, resulting in a lightweight deck structure. Reducing the deck span is especially important for a dry tree system which must resist significant loads from the drilling rig and the toptensioned risers.

Increased robustness comes from the protection the outer columns provide to the rest of the hull for such incidents as boat collisions. The entire hull is designed to control flooding due to boat impact according to usual class rules and regulatory requirements. However, the outer columns greatly reduce the risk of impact to the outer surface of the inter columns. The paired-column geometry provides additional protection against collisions and increased stability during flooded compartment scenarios. The paired-column geometry also provides flexibility for locating riser piping on the hull away from potential impact locations.

In summary, a simple modification to a traditional production semisubmersible provides a long list of advantages for offshore oil and gas production. Most importantly, the paired-column arrangement enables dry tree production in deep and ultra deepwater locations in the Gulf of Mexico using a platform that can be fully assembled quayside prior to installation offshore.OE

About the authors
John Chianis is president of Houston Offshore Engineering and has 30 years of experience in the development and design of deepwater oil and gas facilities. Philip Poll is manager of projects at Houston Offshore Engineering and has extensive experience in engineering execution and the development and design for deepwater projects. His specialty is structural engineering and he actively participates in the development of design codes and methods for stiffened plate structures.

Issue: October 2009

13-Oct-09 12:00 PM

Keeping deepwater economics afloat

Jennifer Pllanich - noemail@houston-offshore.com — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

As the main visible component of a producing deepwater field and a costly one the floating facility may eventually give way to a wholly subsea production solution. Until the industry is ready for that, though, floating facility design firms are looking at economic ways to meet operator needs in ultra-deepwater. Jennifer Pallanich discusses solutions, challenges and trends with some industry leaders.

Putting all production elements subsea appeals for a variety of reasons, but two primary goals are to protect the environment and eliminate both the topsides equipment and associated personnel.

'Of course, the long-term vision is to put everything on the seafloor, but we're not there yet', says Michael Ming, president of Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA). 'The long-term goal is surface host elimination.'

For now, the leading edge of the industry is working to produce discoveries in water depths of a mile and a half and deeper. And in the Gulf of Mexico, where there's plenty of distance stretching out between ultra-deepwater finds, that means a tieback will not work for all finds. 'If you can't put a floating facility on it, then you've got to put in a long tie-back', Ming says. The industry is, and will continue to, push tieback limits, Ming notes. Simultaneously, he says, the industry has focused on making deepwater production facilities more economic. One element of that is a drytree solution for ultra-deepwater.

'Direct vertical access is a real key issue', says John Chianis, president of Houston Offshore Engineering (HOE). 'Having that captive drill rig on the platform lets [operators] maintain their wells so much better.'

To that end, RPSEA manages a consortium of over 145 organizations and universities participating in a $50 million per year, decade-long program funded by the US Department of Energy aimed at increasing the amount of the countrys reserves that are produced. Of that money, RPSEA earmarked $1 million to promote the development of a deep draft dry tree semisubmersible solution as an alternative to the spar, which supports a dry tree but is uneconomic beyond a certain water depth, depending on the metocean conditions of the region.

'The advantages of a dry tree are obvious. What the operators want is a way to gain those advantages in the ultradeepwater economically,' explains HOE's manager of projects, Philip Poll. 'If we can give them a semi that can handle dry trees, then they would just love it.'

The research program, Ming says, is part of an integrated approach. RPSEA is involved in a host of other research efforts, all intended to make hydrocarbon discovery and recovery more efficient and less costly.

Eight operators participated in RPSEA's Ultra Deepwater (UDW) Program by providing design criteria and evaluation of the three competing concepts. The three structural designs were selected from FloaTEC and Houston Offshore Engineering. 'All three designs, once matured, met the performance requirements that were specified,' Ming says. 'The primary difference between the concepts came down to offshore construction. While the FloaTEC E-Semi and Truss Semi solutions were feasible, practical and had some advantages over the HOE design,' Ming says, the operators committee selected HOE's Paired-Column Dry Tree Semi (see Paired columns add stability), which leaves the quayside complete, to move into the next design stage and model testing.

HOE is expected to complete front end engineering this fall, and the solution should be project-ready when thats complete. Poll says experts the operators who need floating dry tree units in the ultra-deepwater specified the problem they needed solved, and through the RPSEA program HOE was able to devise a solution. 'If you have the dry tree solution, youre going to get more oil,' he says, because of the ease of interventions on a dry tree. As part of the final work on the Paired Column Semi design, a wind test began in September and a wave test is scheduled for January 2010. Once those are complete, Poll says, it's simply a matter of convincing the industry that its ready for prime time. 'To us, a huge part of commercialization is the testing,' Poll says.

With memories of hurricanes Katrina and Rita still looming large, a dry tree semi with motions equivalent to a spar is a must. 'Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico the past few years have really shown to be a very critical issue,' Chianis says. 'In the 2004/05 season, we saw a few hurricanes that exceeded the design criteria that we were using.' As a result of these fierce storms, the industry modified its wind and wave criteria. 'That has had a significant effect on our new designs,' Chianis says. 'It's the combination of wind and wave that gives rise to one of the key areas of concern these days, which we call air gap,' he says. The wind and waves create 'a whole series of increased forces on the platform that [the industry] had not expected,' Chianis says. Model testing had become routine, he notes, but with the new criteria, theres now more emphasis on testing, especially for the verification of air gap.

While the HOE design is the only one that moved forward in the RPSEA program, other engineering firms have been progressing their own solutions without the benefit of the RPSEA funding.

Exmar is moving forward with its on-spec OPTI-EX (OE April). The firms deep-draft floating production semi has gone through final commissioning and is in Ingleside, Texas, awaiting a contract. Samsung built the hull in Korea and Kiewit built the deck in Ingleside. The mating was performed at Kiewit in May. The OPTI-EX has come in on-budget and on-time, says Harris Knecht, president of Exmar Offshore. We had the luxury of the management allowing us good engineering time, he adds.

While not an ultra-deepwater dry tree solution, FloaTEC began promoting its Blue Ocean project last year. The Blue Ocean is a spec-designed TLP intended to shave off up to 18 months from design. 'We could go into construction mode in about six months,' says Chris Barton, FloaTEC director of business acquisition. That will be important, he says, as operators look for a shortened cycle time. With Blue Ocean, he notes, 'You've got an 80% solution in three years versus a 100% solution in five years.' The solution is more aimed at the independents, he says. 'We've got some good bites, but nobody's willing to pull the trigger.'

One solution that many talk about but dont often take up, Poll says is early production systems (EPS). 'Early production is a great idea, but I think the execution, the right implementation, has not come along to make everybody happy,' Poll says, adding, 'at least not in the Gulf of Mexico.' Poll suggests one of the hold-backs operators experience is that EPS must be economically justified. There's also, he notes, the need to process different types of hydrocarbons from different types of reservoirs.

Deeper water
'We're going into deeper water,' Poll says. 'More importantly, we're going into deepwater regions where the industry is less mature.'

In deepwater regions outside the Gulf of Mexico, that means less pipeline infrastructure. By default, the production solution often becomes an FPSO. 'We just haven't been in deepwater that long as an industry, but there are FPSOs worldwide,' Chianis points out. 'But we don't have any yet in the Gulf of Mexico, and that's because of the potential for hurricane conditions.'

The US Gulf of Mexico's first FPSO, the disconnectable FPSO Pioneer, is slated to begin producing Petrobras' deepwater Cascade and Chinook fields in Walker Ridge block 205 in 8200ft of water in mid- 2010. 'Every day were asked to go into deeper and deeper water,' Chianis says. 'Risk seems to be multiplied many times when youre in deepwater.' When it comes to deepwater facilities, he says, the industry is still learning.

Knecht agrees, adding: 'We don't always need a lot of science [above ground]. We don't always need a lot of technology. We know we can do what we have to do. [We can] drill and produce in deepwater if we want to. It's a matter of making the economics work.'

Part of it, Knecht says, will come from improving what the industry already has. He traces the history of drilling from jackups to moored rigs to floating drilling with dynamic positioning. 'Production is undergoing the same history as drilling,' Knecht says. 'As drilling goes into deeper water, production goes into deeper water, and you need step changes.'

The need for an economically sound project is more apparent than ever with the spate of smaller fields the industry has found but has yet to produce.

'If the industry is to be successful in deepwater, we've got to come up with a way to exploit smaller reserves,' Barton says. He cites the example of the 150 million barrel fields that are not being produced. 'What [operators] tell me is they can't develop them because its too expensive.' The solution Barton envisions is fit-for-purpose. 'That could be smaller spars, smaller TLPs.'

Barton notes Petrobras recently called for a new round of bids on its Papa Terra project offshore Brazil after the initial bids came in well over budget. After refining the project specs from a full drilling TLP tied to an FPSO similar to the Kizomba approach offshore Angola, a new request for proposals asked for bids on a smaller facility that relied on tender assist drilling, similar to the Okume field offshore Equatorial Guinea (OE October 2006).

'We're just trying to reduce the cost of this thing to make the field economic,' Barton says. 'They're going to have to come up with innovative ways to reduce the size of these platforms.' Some solutions may lie in the form of tender assist, leasing rather than purchasing, and refraining from overdesigning facilities, he says. No matter how many dollars facilities engineers can trim from their budgets, drilling and completion still take up the lions share of any field development budget, he adds. 'The facility cost is a very small percentage of the total development cost.'

Barton says FloaTEC is currently focused on optimizing hull forms, such as angling columns on semis to improve hydrodynamics and reducing size and complexity. Another effort, he says, is to make designs more construction friendly. 'Constructability is a big part of it,' Barton says. 'We're looking at installability. We're looking at constructability. We're looking at design. All three.'

One worry Barton voices is about the continued delay or postponement of projects. 'Gulf of Mexico yards are empty. Installation equipment is idle, and engineering companies are struggling,' he says, noting that development spending had been fairly high for the last five to seven years. 'Oil companies have created what I call a portfolio gap' because now they are focused more on exploration and appraisal spending, rather than a more balanced approach, Barton says. 'It's created this gap. There's a lot of spare capacity in the industry right now.'

Knecht says some of the reason for the slowdown on orders 'the shipbuilding industry got overheated,' he adds is tied to cost. 'The trend has to go back to be consistent with the oil price,' he says.

A trend Knecht says has caught his eye is floating liquefaction for LNG. 'The foray into floating liquefaction is the logical next step for us to work on,' he says. Exmar is working on a solution with Excelerate and is participating in pre-conceptual and pre-FEEDs for various applications, he says. Where we jump off depends on finding a gas molecule owner who wants to pursue this.'

While it has some similarities to floating oil, the cryogenic environment complicates the picture. 'Putting a cryogenic hose in the water hasn't been solved yet,' Knecht says. The industry, he adds, hasnt figured out how to handle the low temperatures in the water while floating at the same time. 'Everybody wants to make LNG look like oil, so that's the holy grail, so any tanker can come up and offload it.'

Knecht figures it's a goal achievable in about two decades unless the industry decides to turn its investment dollars toward finding a solution. Until then, he says, offloading will have to be side-by-side. The topsides for floating liquefaction are not more complicated than the topsides for oil, he says, just different. 'We don't see any technology or production hurdles in producing these.' There is no floating liquefaction yet, he says, but for a change, 'everybody wants to be the first'. OE

Issue: October 2009
by: Jennifer Pallanich

1-Oct-09 12:00 PM

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noemail@houston-offshore.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:30:56 GMT

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H.T. Chen

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:56:46 GMT

H.T. Chen

Senior Principal Naval Architect

Over 30 years project experience with Tension Leg Platforms, Semi- submersibles, Spars, FPSOs, Barges, & other production systems.

Ronald Vrijland

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:55:48 GMT

Ronald Vrijland

Principal Structural Engineer

Fifteen years of international experience in Structural Engineering, hull scantling design, and 3-D Design.

Chuck Brown

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:54:51 GMT

Chuck Brown

Senior Principal Piping Designer

35 years of diversified domestic & international experience in platform layout/ arrangement, Piping design, & project management.

Shan Shi

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:53:52 GMT

Shan Shi

Manager of Riser Systems

Specialized in complex top-tensioned and flexible riser system design/analysis. Expertise in coupled dynamic analysis for offshore deep-water systems.

Peter A. Kitchen

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:49:41 GMT

Peter A. Kitchen

Manager of Marine Systems

Twenty years of diverse domestic and international experience in marine and offshore engineering.

When-Yen Tein

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:48:37 GMT

When-Yen Tein

Sr. Principal Structural Engineer

Over 18 years structural analysis & design experience in offshore & onshore engineering; Deck Structural Lead of major deepwater projects.

Joey E Lopez

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:47:22 GMT

Joey E Lopez

Manager of Design

Thirty years experience, design projects include TLPs, FPSOs, Spars, Semisubmersibles, jack-up drilling rigs, pipe laying barges & fixed platforms.

Jun Zou

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:45:49 GMT

Jun Zou

Manager of Naval Architecture

Over ten years as a Principal/Senior Naval Architect, five years as a Research Assistant, & five years as a Project Engineer.

Philip B Poll

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:44:46 GMT

Philip B Poll

Manager of Projects

Sixteen years experience in offshore engineering and engineering management.

Ngok W Lai

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:43:22 GMT

Ngok W Lai
Manager of Operations

Over thirty years of extensive experience in areas of engineering management, and marine/offshore structural engineering.

Jun Zou

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:35:52 GMT

Jun Zou, PhD

Manager of Naval Architecture

Over fifteen years work experience as a Principal/Senior Naval Architect, five years part-time work experience as a Research Assistant at TAMU, and five years design and field experience as a Project Engineer in a large shipyard in China. Projects include Tension Leg Platforms, SPARS (classic and truss), Semisubmersibles, FPSO, R&D projects, and new dry tree unit concept developments. Specific areas of competence are global performance analysis of TLP, Spar, Semisubmersible, FPSO in frequency domain and time domain (de-coupled and coupled), mooring/tendon design and analyses, wind and wave basin model testing, software development, new concept developments, concept evaluation and ranking, and field measured data analysis.

John W Chianis

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:29:33 GMT

John W Chianis, PE

President

John has over thirty years experience in offshore engineering. He has considerable experience with the design of deepwater hull forms such as Tension Leg Platforms, Semisubmersibles, Spars, FPSOs, and other offshore facilities including single point moorings. John’s specific areas of competence are structural design and analysis, Naval Architecture and global performance, regulatory submissions, technology and software development and model testing. John has participated in and directed many offshore projects ranging from concept selection and development through detailed engineering, fabrication and installation. He has also participated in the development of Industry standards and recommended practices.

John was the original founder of Houston Offshore Engineering in the early 1980’s. His team would eventually merge with Han-Padron Associates in 1988, and subsequently was acquired by ABB Lummus Global in 1998. Many of this same team reformed Houston Offshore Engineering at the end of 2004.

John has BS and MS degrees from Florida Institute of Technology. John has published more than 30 technical papers, has been awarded US Patents for deepwater facilities and operations, and is a Guest Professor of Harbin Engineering University in China. John is also an Editorial Advisor to Offshore Engineer Magazine.

Chuck Brown

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:27:59 GMT

Chuck Brown

Piping Design Supervisor

Thirty-five years of diversified domestic and international experience in platform layout/arrangement, piping design, project supervision and departmental management. Projects have included onshore and offshore facilities, fixed and floating platforms, semisubmersible drilling rigs and FPSOs. Expertise in hull/topsides/systems interface coordination, floating production facility layout/arrangements, proposal development, process piping layout, design checking and 3D modeling organization.

Roles and responsibilities extend from Piping Job Lead, Department Management, Manhour Estimating, Scheduling, Staffing, Field fabrication Assistance, Interface coordination, and CAD design.

Wink F. Miller

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:27:30 GMT

Wink F. Miller

Structural Design Supervisor

Wink is a Structural Design Group Leader with thirty-eight years experience in offshore design. This includes twenty years in a Supervisor/Checker capacity. He has extensive on-site fabrication support experience for such specialty hull forms as Semisubmersibles and Tension Leg Platforms. Wink also has considerable knowledge and experience with Spars, jack-up rigs, and fixed platforms, and has performed several field inspections.

His specific areas of competence include AFC drawings, interface with Fabricator personnel, and structural shop drawings. Wink has managed design teams which have resulted in multiple, highly successful project executions. Wink is known throughout the deepwater Industry as a hardworking and dedicated supervisor whose number one priority is on-time high quality deliverables which exceed customer expectations.

Staff

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:24:32 GMT

The staff of Houston Offshore Engineering distinguish themselves in two ways: Individually, they are experts in their disciplines, recognized in the industry in all key offshore engineering disciplines: Naval Architects, structural engineers, marine systems engineers and riser engineers. Together, they are seamlessly integrated into a team through many years working side by side on world class projects. Even before Houston Offshore Engineering started business more than six years ago, the technical leads were already working together as the deepwater systems team at a major EPCI contractor (responsible for NaKika semisubmersible, Kizomba A and B TLPs and the Magnolia TLP). The benefits of the longstanding relationship between discipline leads, working together to solve tough challenges designing offshore platforms, cannot be overstated. Houston Offshore Engineering is much more than a collection of highly qualified individuals, the company represents a seamless...

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Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:35:17 GMT

Instrumentation & Controls

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:40:08 GMT

Houston Offshore Engineering’s Instrumentation Team has extensive experience in control system design for floating facilities. Our control systems design experience spans DCS, PLC and SCADA systems, fire & gas, ESD and telecommunication systems.

Our services include development of control system philosophy and system architecture, P&ID development, preparation of specifications and data sheets for integrated control systems and field instruments, development and maintenance of instrument index, block diagrams, loop diagrams, and cause and effect matrices. Technical procurement support includes RFQ packages, technical bid evaluations and vendor document review.

Our unique capabilities include:

Ballast control and tank level monitoring systems

Integrated marine monitoring systems (IMMS)

Tendon tension monitoring systems (TTMS)

Mooring advisory systems (MAS)

Riser monitoring systems

Experience includes state of the art bus technologies such as Profibus, Foundation Fieldbus and DevicenNet. Additional services include interface management, HAZID/HAZOP studies, custom programming and software development, and inspection, pre-commissioning and commissioning activities.

Electrical

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:39:55 GMT

Houston Offshore Engineering’s Electrical Engineering capabilities include all aspects of electrical power generation and distribution systems for an offshore facility. Activities typically include electrical load studies, development of single line diagrams, hazardous area plans, lighting plans, cable schedules, switchgear/control room layouts, and preparation of specifications and datasheets for electrical equipment procurement. Procurement of electrical equipment includes RFQ preparation, technical bid evaluation and vendor document review.

Other services include system studies:

Fault level calculation
Load flow analysis
Motor starting analysis
Transient stability analysis
Relay coordination

Mechanical

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:39:48 GMT

Houston Offshore Engineering's Mechanical Engineering capabilities include design, specification, selection and procurement of the unique types of mechanical equipment found on a floating production facility. Technical procurement support involves preparation of RFQ packages, technical evaluation of vendor bids, preparation of purchase specifications and review of vendor documents and drawings for the following types of equipment:

Pumps
Compressors
Pressure vessels and tanks
Heat exchangers
Diesel engine and turbine generators
Packaged equipment
HVAC equipment
Mooring equipment
Material handling equipment
Valves and piping specialty items
Fire and safety equipment

Other services include material handling studies, noise and vibration studies, HAZID and HAZOP studies and pipe specification development.

Contact Houston Offshore Engineering

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:39:06 GMT

Houston Offshore Engineering provides expert engineering, procurement, construction, and installation services to support offshore oil and gas developments. Our projects range from conceptual studies that help maximize value early in field development to detailed design and fabrication support.

Our clients include major and independent oil and gas companies, drilling contractors, engineering contractors, fabricators, and transport and installation contractors.

Please fill out the form below and our team will follow up to discuss how we can add value to your project.

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noemail@houston-offshore.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:30:55 GMT

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2009-10-21T13:30:55Z

Instructor: Instructor

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