OTC 20845

Moorings with Polyester Ropes in Petrobras: Experience and the Evolution

of Life Cycle Management
Ronaldo R. Rossi, Cesar J. M. Del Vecchio and Ricardo Célio F. Gonçalves, Petrobras

Copyright 2010, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 3–6 May 2010.

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Abstract

This paper describes the experience of Petrobras in the design, installation and operation of deepwater mooring systems
incorporating high efficiency polyester fiber ropes. These ropes have been used now for more than 12 years in catenary and
taut configurations to moor drilling and production units as well as storage and offloading facilities. The paper provides a
history of the development of this technology, highlighting the key issues involved in introducing in mooring systems a
component that has non-linear visco-elastic behavior. Differences to all steel systems in terms of: behavior, failure modes and
design criteria and procedures are discussed. The paper presents the life cycle management strategy adopted by Petrobras in
the early years of the use of this technology and its evolution that have guaranteed that the only failure mode observed over all
these years was mechanical damage. It is expected that this paper shows that the use of polyester (polyethylene terephthalate)
ropes in deepwater moorings is a mature technology.

Introduction

In the mid 80’s Petrobras was drilling in Campos Basin in water depths around 600m and producing in depths around 400m.
Mooring systems were all based on chain, wire rope and drag embedment anchors. Increasing water depths indicated that all
steel systems would become anti-economical due to the reduction in restoring efficiency.

Initial studies were based in using synthetic fiber ropes as extension wires in the mid-catenary. Since compliance to wave
induced motions would be given by the geometry of the steel components the fiber rope should have stiffness similar to a steel
wire rope. Therefore aramid ropes were the first to be considered (Riewald, 1986).

Cost considerations led Petrobras and the US Navy (Karnosky & Liu, 1988) to start studying the use of polyester fiber ropes
for moorings. It was also devised that, in deepwater, the axial compliance of polyester ropes could provide enough compliance
so that a long catenary might not be required (Baxter, 1987).

The use of polyester ropes in permanent moorings was a big challenge for several reasons, the most obvious one being
establishing design methodologies and criteria for all possible failure modes. Since most large diameter fiber ropes were not
optimized for tension and axial fatigue performance (Parsey, 1983)), it was also necessary to further develop rope
constructions and generate enough data on the performance of these ropes.

Results of a comprehensive study on the use of fiber ropes for deepwater moorings were presented in 1992 (Chaplin & Del
Vecchio, 1992). Full details of the study, including assessment of failure modes, load-elongation behavior, design
methodologies and criteria were produced (Del Vecchio, 1992). Since the study was partially based in model ropes,
confirmation of load-elongation behavior in full scale and additional data on fatigue performance were obtained in the
following years and incorporated in the type approval process of the ropes. Field trials were conducted in 1995 to assess
installation procedures.
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Units Installed

Although initial use of polyester ropes was expected to happen in MODUs, in order to accumulate experience, in the late 90’s
Petrobras was faced with the challenges of: installing several production units in water depths around 1000m in a congested
area (Marlim Field) and also installing an early production system based on a FPSO with anchors in depths downs to 1620m.
An additional challenge was that the systems in Marlim Field had to be taut leg.

The introduction of such an innovation and the requirements to maintain Class of the floating units made Petrobras adopt a full
life cycle management approach since the start of its installations. This will be discussed later.

Table 1 show all Units presently installed in Brazil with polyester fiber ropes along with installation dates, lengths and MBS
(Minimum Break Strength). In addition to the units listed in Table 1 10 other units that have already been demobilized had 66
lines with polyester ropes.

Unit No. of Lines meters / line Total Length (m) MBS (tonnes) Installation
P-19 16 946 15136 710 Nov./97
P-26 16 1258 20128 710 Jan./98
P-27 12 640 7680 630 May/98
P-34 b 6 1400 8400 710 Nov./06
P-38 8 1152 9216 710 May/01
P-40 16 1400 22400 1000 Oct./01
P-43 18 1430 25740 1250 Feb./05
P-47 18 1570 28260 1250 Mar./05
P-50 18 1500 27000 1400 Apr./06
P-51 16 1700 27200 1000 Dec./08
P-52 16 2500 40000 1250 Nov./07
P-53 9 1300 11700 1400 May/08
P-54 20 1800 36000 1400 Nov./07
PIRANEMA 9 1300 11700 525 Jul./07
Sum 198 290560

Table 1. Characteristics of Units with Polyester Ropes in Operation

From the table we can see that there are almost 300km of polyester rope installed. It can be calculated that the average age is 5
years. A testimony of how well these systems have been designed, installed and maintained is the fact that in all the presently
installed systems and the ones that have been removed is that the only few failures observed were due to direct mechanical
damage to the fiber ropes.

Rope Specification

In order to allow the use of different yarns and rope constructions maintaining minimum properties, a technical specification
based on minimum yarn and rope core tenacity was produced. The specification also called for a minimum tensile fatigue
performance based on the performance of the best (in terms of fatigue) steel components that could be part of the mooring line.

Failure Modes

The following failure modes were investigated: simple tension, creep rupture, hydrolysis, fatigue, abrasion during installation
and some possible combinations such as hydrolysis and tension. Creep, hydrolysis and tensile fatigue were investigated taking
into consideration loadings relevant to the units and environments that Petrobras could possibly use.

Creep was not a concern in catenary systems, however, for taut systems, rope elongation during installation and operation has
to be taken into account. In this case mooring design has to address: initial length of rope to be purchased, length of the upper
steel components and need for retensioning.
OTC 20845 3

Tensile fatigue was proven to be better than required, making sure that steel components of the mooring line would fail before
the polyester rope.

Resistance to abrasion was evaluated on field trials. It was found that a braided polyester cover with a minimum thickness of
7mm and that is tight enough not to slide over the core generally provides enough resistance during installation.

In 1997, when Petrobras first installed its first complete mooring system with polyester ropes, the only failure mode that we
did not have data to design for the full 20 years life was hydrolysis. Data was available that could be extrapolated to a life of
10 years. Therefore, mooring lines in these units have means of replacing mooring lines without removing the anchors. Field
experience has proven that degradation associated with hydrolysis is not significant.

Over the years of applications two other possible causes of mechanical damage were found: soil ingress and marine growth.
Soil ingress happens when a rope gets in contact with the sea floor. This may happen accidentally or as part of the installation
procedure. Most of the rope presently installed in our units has barriers, developed by Petrobras to avoid the ingress of soil
particles (ISO 18692, 2007).

Marine growth may happen in the upper part of the polyester rope at a water depth that is a function of location. Marine
growth, when present, usually does not penetrate in the load bearing core but may cause some damage in the outer region of
the core. This is mostly caused by relative movement between the core and the cover and results in limited reduction in
breaking strength.

Design Procedures and Parameters

As highlighted by Chaplin and Del Vecchio (1992), system design is strongly influenced by the non-linear visco-elastic
behavior of polyester ropes. Therefore obtaining tether properties at all relevant loading regimes, to use in design, is essential.
The approach adopted to obtain load-elongation properties was to start the work with model ropes, adjust results with
measurements in 400tonnes MBS ropes from two manufacturers and verify properties by comparing with measurements which
the ones performed as part of the Type Approval process or with the measurements made in the tests required to demonstrate
that the rope purchased for a project meets the specifications of ISO18692-2007.

Petrobras designs its mooring systems and purchases polyester ropes to meet the requirements and following the
determinations/recommendations of: National Authorities, ISO standards (19901-7-2004, 18692-2007), Practices
recommended by the Classification Society responsible for the Unit and our own internal requirements.

Table 2 shows typical Load-elongation properties used in design. Figures quoted are secant moduli, normalized based on rope
MBS. If safety factors on load and offset are very tight, properties specific to the particular project are used. For example, a
secant modulus, incorporating creep elongation for a duration corresponding to a persistent environment condition may be use
to refine offset estimates.

Condition Secant Stiffness

Quasi-static 15
Upper dynamic 32

Table 2. Typical Moduli of Polyester Ropes Used for Design

Since polyester fiber has a non-linear behavior the software used in mooring analysis has to be adapted to represent the rope
properties. Several computer programs like Ariane (BV), DMOOR (originally from a JIP carried out by Noble Denton),
Dynasim and Situa (Petrobras in house development with the support from universities) have been modified in order to include
those properties. These programs were used to design most of the mooring systems of the floating units listed in Table 1.

As pointed out by Del Vecchio (1992) the axial stiffness modulus of polyester fibers has a strong dependency of the mean
tension. It is also dependent on tension range and has a weak dependency on the frequency of cyclic loads. Some studies have
been done to represent this behavior using spring-dashpot and other more sophisticated models (Rossi, 2002). The piece-wise-
linear model using a quasi-static stiffness and a dynamic stiffness with a dependency of mean tension was implemented in the
above programs and the spring-dashpot model was implemented in Dynasim and Situa.
4 OTC 20845

Safety factor on breaking strength is a parameter that links design with life cycle management. Although several standards do
not require the use of an additional safety factor for polyester ropes Petrobras has always adopted this practice. Having in mind
the innovative character of the application, early projects adopted a safety factor of 1.25 (rope MBS 25% higher than
required). For new projects Petrobras is using 10%.

Managing Life Cycle

To complete this task we must be sure that at any time polyester ropes are fit for service. There are two major differences
between polyester ropes and steel components of mooring lines such as wire rope and chain. The first is that, due to the strong
influence of terminations, the short samples used to determine rope strength (either initial or after some time in service) show
higher dispersion of breaking loads than what is found in steel components. The second characteristic is that, since the
application of polyester ropes for deepwater moorings was a relatively new application, it would be unwise to assume that all
possible failure modes have been identified and accounted for properly.

As mentioned previously, initial installations by Petrobras happened in a time when it was felt that there was not enough data
on degradation by hydrolysis to design systems for a life of 20 years. Taking this into account, together with the characteristics
discussed in the paragraph above it was decided:
- to inspect all mooring lines visually every year to investigate mechanical (accidental) damage;
- to use an additional safety factor of 25% for the MBS of the polyester ropes over the minimum required in the design;
- install samples to be removed periodically to assess retained strength
- remove one sample at a time after the first year of installation and every 2.5 years thereafter;
- in the event that any sample shows strength smaller than rope MBS an assessment of the hole system is started.

As mentioned above, experience with installation and operations soon showed us that unexpected events leading to rope either
touching or being dropped on the sea floor happen. Today, all rope purchased by Petrobras have filters. Due to the
effectiveness of these barriers in preventing detrimental soil ingress it is now considered possible to pre-deploy polyester ropes
on the sea floor. Pre-installation and Hook-up procedures are much better if this technique is used.

It was also found that marine growth between rope cover and core happens in shallow water and has a detrimental effect by
increasing abrasion damage in this area. However this process seems to decrease with time, limiting loss in breaking strength.

Having in mind that:

- samples removed from service (without mechanical damage) never showed a clear tendency to have lower breaking
strengths as a function of years of service, and
- the two only additional degradation mechanisms found (soil ingress and marine growth) were easily controlled,
Petrobras has reduced the additional safety factor on polyester ropes to 10% and only install and remove inserts if required by
Classification Societies or by National Authorities. The only reason to keep removing inserts periodically would be if we still
think that an unexpected failure mode that did not show in 12 years of experience could happen. In regions affected by
hurricanes and in the event that loads exceed limits agreed with National Authorities, Petrobras intends to remove part of the
mooring line that reached high loading for evaluation.

Periodical inspection with remotely operated vehicles is still performed to investigate accidental damage.

Conclusions and Recommendations

A proper combination of rope specification, design criteria, safety factors, inspection and evaluation of loading and retained
strength allowed Petrobras to operate permanent mooring systems for more than 12 years without failure of polyester ropes
except for ropes that have suffered accidental mechanical damage.

Today it is possible to operate such systems safe and reliably using safety factors marginally bigger (10% of MBS) than those
used for mooring chain or wire rope.

It is also concluded that, except in the event of unpredictable loading of the mooring system, it is not advisable to periodically
remove inserts to assess retained strength. The only recommended evaluation method is visual inspection to investigate
accidental damage.

It is our believe that, after 12 years of successful experience with the use of high efficiency polyester fiber ropes, along with all
the studies conducted on the subject and all documentation produced by Classification Societies, Standards Organizations and
Associations as the American Petroleum Institute, the use of polyester ropes in deepwater moorings can be considered proven
technology.
OTC 20845 5

Mooring analyses show that exploration and production units moored in water depths beyond 2000m could benefit from the
use ropes made of higher strength and/or higher stiffness fibers, such as aramids, HMPEs, LCPs and PEN, in terms of reduced
offsets and reduced diameters (Davies, 2000). Therefore we consider that most of the research effort on fiber ropes should be
directed to generating data an experience equivalent to what we now have with polyester ropes for higher strength and stiffness
fibers.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the permission of Petrobras to publish this paper.

References

Baxter, C. (1988) Uses of Parafil Ropes for Mooring Offshore Platforms. Symposium on Engineering Applications of Parafil Ropes,
London, Jan. 1988.

Chaplin, C. R. & Del Vecchio, C. J. M. (1992) Appraisal of Lightweight Moorings for Deep Water, OTC 6965.

Davies, P., François, M., Grosjean, F., Baron, P., Salomon, K. & Trassoudaine, D. (2002) Synthetic Mooring Lines for Depths to 3000
Meters, OTC 14246.

Del Vecchio, C. J. M. (1992) Light Weight Materials for Deep Water Moorings, PhD thesis, University of Reading, 1992.

ISO 18692-2007 (2007) Fibre Ropes for Offshore Stationkeeping- Polyester, 2007.

ISO 19901-7- 2004 (2004) Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries- Specific Requirements for Offshore Structures- Part 7: Stationkeeping
Systems for Floating Offshore Structures and Mobile Offshore Units, 2004.

Karnoski, S. R. & Liu, F. C. (1988) Tension and Bending Fatigue Test Results of Synthetic Ropes, OTC 5720.

Parsey, M. (1983) The Fatigue Resistance and Hysteresis of Man-Made Fibre Ropes. Offshore Europe 83, SPE 11908, Aberdeen. Sept.
1983.

Riewald P G, (1986) Performance Analysis of an Aramid Mooring Line, OTC 5187.

Rossi, R. R. (1992) Polyester Ropes for Mooring Oceanic Platforms in Ultra Deepwaters, Coppe/UFRJ – MSc. Thesis (in
Portuguese).