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Ship collision damages: Case studies
Published in C. Guedes Soares, Developments in the Collision and Grounding of Ships and Offshore Structures, 2019
Shengming Zhang, P. Terndrup Pedersen, R. Villavicencio
A Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility is moored directly above the natural gas field. It will route gas from the field to the facility via risers and process and store it in the cargo holds. A sea going LNG carrier will offload the LNG for delivery to markets worldwide. Fig. 15 shows offloading of a FLNG to an LNG carrier.
Gas commercialisation projects in West Africa
Published in Tina Soliman Hunter, Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, Penelope Crossley, Gloria M. Alvarez, Routledge Handbook of Energy Law, 2020
Over the next couple of decades, energy demand in Africa (especially for electricity) is projected to grow at 3.5 per cent per annum (p.a.), much faster than the global average of 1.3 per cent p.a.1 The continent holds about 488 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves.2 Gas production is projected to increase by 110 per cent, driven by commercialisation in resource-rich countries as more dynamic and international liquid natural gas (LNG) markets evolve and domestic supply projects are successfully executed to meet growing demand.3 Within the past decade, about 30 per cent of global oil and gas discoveries have been in sub-Saharan Africa.4 Countries such as Ghana, which hitherto relied mainly on imports, have recently announced exploration and production licensing rounds. Despite being parties to large-scale cross-border gas pipeline projects such as the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), Ghana has made considerable progress in developing its domestic gas reserves from recent discoveries such as in the Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields, Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) area, the Tweneboah-Enyennra-Ntomee (TEN), etc.5 Given the resource potentials and demand projections, operators in the sub-region have also ventured into several gas commercialisation options ranging from traditional large-scale to small-scale LNG projects, Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs) and Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG). The main constraints to timely investment decisions and successful project execution have typically bordered on the challenges of (i) whether or not end-users can afford a market-based cost-reflective price for delivered gas; and (ii) downstream power sector liquidity and creditworthiness, which in some cases becomes more complicated due to high technical and commercial losses.6 As these issues arise and projects are being structured to overcome the various risks, it is important to highlight that the institutional framework of laws, regulations, policies, licensing and contracts relating to the exploration, production and supply of gas plays an instrumental role in meeting any underlying security of supply and competitiveness objectives. By discussing developments in Nigeria and Ghana, this chapter will examine the range of interrelated international petroleum transactions, legal, policy and risk assessment issues that underpin gas utilisation and commercialisation objectives in the West African sub-region.
Hydrodynamics of a conceptual FLNG system in side-by-side offloading operation
Published in Ships and Offshore Structures, 2019
Yuting Jin, Shuhong Chai, Jonathan Duffy, Christopher Chin, Neil Bose
The demand for natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel, is expected to increase sharply in the future, making the exploitation of offshore gas fields more attractive. Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG), an innovative type of floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and storage platform which consists of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO)-type hull equipped with LNG storage tanks and liquefaction plants, has been proposed and developed in the past decade (Zhao et al. 2011). Research investigating this type of production system and its associated technology has supported FLNG as a promising solution of exploiting stranded gas fields (Zhao et al. 2014). In such a case, the side-by-side configuration of FLNG and LNG carrier is considered as one of the most feasible options for LNG offloading operations. However, hydrodynamics of such multi-body systems are highly complicated due to complex fluid structure interactions. Excessive wave-induced loads and motions in the horizontal plane caused by the hydrodynamic interactions and gap wave excitations of the FLNG–LNG offloading system exert high potential risks on the damage of the flexible cryogenic LNG hose (Kim et al. 2012). Therefore, accurate prediction of the hydrodynamics of an FLNG–LNG system is essential for the safe offloading operation in a real seaway.
Study on the mechanics of a coiled tubing within a marine ‘pipe-in-pipe’ system with a low diameter ratio
Published in Ships and Offshore Structures, 2018
Yingchun Chen, Xinhua Wang, Wenming Wang, Wenda Wang, Shimin Zhang
The challenges and demands on marine natural gas development have given rise to floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) technology. FLNG platforms float above natural marine gas-fields producing, liquefying, storing and transferring liquefied natural gas (LNG) at sea (Lee et al. 2012). Unlike traditional risers used for drilling, the risers connected to FLNG, which transport LNG from marine wells, are usually of small diameters. Risers connecting the FLNG and well-head are of paramount importance, due to which these risers require regular pipeline inspections to ensure safety. To conduct a pipeline inspection, pipeline inspection gauges (PIGs) are deployed to remove the wax debris attached at the inner pipe-wall of the riser, while also inspecting the pipe-wall at the same time. As the diameter of the riser (Do) is quite small, traditional pipeline inspection methods are not suitable. Therefore, coiled tubing (CT) is used to tie and inject the PIG in small pipe-diameter inspection operations. This is to ensure that the PIG does not become lodged within the riser (Zhang, Zhang, Liu, Wang, et al. 2015; Zhang, Zhang, Liu, Zhu, et al. 2015).