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Historical Review on Integrity Issues of Permanent Mooring Systems

Presentation · May 2013

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 24025
Historical Review on Integrity Issues of
Permanent Mooring Systems

Kai-tung Ma, Chevron; Arun Duggal, SOFEC; Philip Smedley, BP;

Didier L'Hostis, TOTAL; Hongbo Shu, Shell
 Outlines

“We are having too many mooring failures.”

• What happened?
• Where?
• Which component?
• Why?
• Any solutions?

2
 Total 21 Incidents (2001-2011)
21 incidents were collected by the authors, mostly from public domain.

3
• The collection should be fairly complete.
• However, some incidents might not have been made public.
• In 2012, 2 chain failures (Dalia & Kuito), 1 wire rope failure (Haewene Brim).

4
Geographical Locations

5
 Point of Break in the Lines
Deep water

Shallow water
6
 “Multi-line” Incidents (2001-2011)

• 9 out of the 21 suffered multiple-line breaks.

• Multi-line breaks shall be considered as “System Failure”.

200? Undisclosed -- Multiple-line breaks.

7
 Probability of Failure

-3
9 multi-line failures / 300 permanent moorings / 10 years = 3 x 10

8
 Consequence of Failure

1. Gryphon Alpha 4 of 8 lines parted, riser broken. (~ $1.8 billion)

2. Nan Hai Fa Xian 4 of 8 lines parted, riser broken.
3. Liuhua 7 of 10 lines parted, riser broken.
4. Hai Yang Shi You Yoke column collapsed, riser broken.
5. Banff * 5 of 10 lines parted. (~ $0.3 billion)

* No. 5 could be any among Banff, Girassol, Volve or Schiehallion.

9
 Which Components are Failing?
by No. of Incidents by No. of Breaks

10
 Causes / Failure Mechanisms
Chain
• Fatigue, tension (3)
• Fatigue, OPB (2)
• Corrosion, MIC (2)
• Corrosion, general (1)
• Weather overload (1)
• Weld, flaw (1)
• Improper shop repair (1)
• Knotted chain (1)
• Handling damage(1)
• Wear (0?)
Wire Connector
• Corrosion (2) • Shackle too brittle (2)
• Weather overload (2) • Shackle improperly
• Fatigue, tension (0?) installed (1)
• Fatigue, touchdown (1) • H-link missing spacer (1)
• Overload, dynamic • Tri-plate pin displaced (1)
snapping (1)
11
 Causes / Failure Mechanisms
Chain
• Fatigue, tension (3)
• Fatigue, OPB (2)
• Corrosion, MIC (2)
• Corrosion, general (1)
• Weather overload (1)
• Weld, flaw (1)
• Improper shop repair (1)
• Knotted chain (1)
• Handling damage(1)
• Wear (0?)
Wire Connector
• Corrosion (2) • Shackle too brittle (2)
• Weather overload (2) • Shackle improperly
• Fatigue, tension (0?) installed (1)
• Fatigue, touchdown (1) • H-link missing spacer (1)
• Overload, dynamic • Tri-plate pin displaced (1)
snapping (1)
12
No. of Incidents vs Age

13
 How to Improve the Future (Part 1/3)

• Owners / Operators
– Perform periodic inspections
– Install monitoring systems & use them effectively
– Keep up maintenance work
– Update/develop Owner’s Engineering Standards
– Lack of consistency in designs
– Lack of consistency in maintenance practices

14
 How to Improve the Future (Part 2/3)
• API, ISO, Class Societies
– Keep improving codes and rules
– Incorporate LL into codes

15
 How to Improve the Future (Part 3/3)

• Vendors / EPCI Contractors

– Understand the “novelty” when going to deeper waters, harsher
environments, using larger components.
– Participate in JIPs, e.g. SCORCH, OPB, Mooring Integrity, …

• Mooring Community
– Created specialty forum: “Mooring Integrity User’s Group”
– Composed of operators, contractors, vendors, Classes, …
– Sharing LL openly, without identifying facilities.

16
 Conclusions

• High Pf – 21 failures in 10 years.

• Chain – Accounts for 50%; connector & wire follow.
• Variety – Root causes.
• Novelty – Failure mechanisms.
• Infant mortality – Enhance early-life inspections.
• JIPs – Effective in finding solutions & sharing LL.

17
 Slide 18

Thank You / Questions

“Mooring community needs to work openly together to

improve mooring integrity, no matter who you are, among
vendors, contractors, operators or regulators."

Special thanks to the following for their guidance:

• Subir Bhattacharjee of ExxonMobil,
Paper # • Paper Title • Presenter Name
• Martin Brown of Noble Denton,
• Emmanuel Fontaine of AMOG Consulting,
• Paul Devlin of Chevron,
• John Stiff of ABS Consulting,
• Ronaldo Rossi of Petrobras,
• and many others.
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