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APL
applies well-proven buoy technology to facilitate
innovative gas transfer in marine environment
Viewed here are one of two submerged
turret loading buoys (STLTM) installed on the
Heidrun Field in the Norwegian North Sea. Advanced
Production and Loading AS of Norway has contracted
ABS to class a similar STL design for Gulf of
Mexico installation. The STL, a type of single-point
mooring system (SPM), is an integral component
of the industry’s first LNG terminal,
dubbed the Energy Bridge Deepwater Port. ABS,
which has classed some 40 SPMs, is leveraging
its worldwide expertise with buoy mooring technology
to assist industry in the delivery of an innovative
gas transportation system.
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Ian Simpson, ABS manager of Energy Project Development,
advises that ABS classification services to APL are
designed to facilitate an on-time start-up for the project.
The ABS services include:
- Technical review of the STL buoy
and associated moorings, riser and PLEM for site-specific
location in accordance with ABS Rules for Building
and Classing Single Point Moorings, 1996.
- Survey of the STL buoy during construction.
- Survey of the mooring piles and
PLEM during construction.
- Survey of the components and materials
for the single point mooring system at the manufacturer’s
shop for certification purposes and as required by
the ABS SPM Rules.
- Survey of the offshore installation
of the piles, moorings, PLEM and STL buoy together
with gas riser.
- Upon satisfactory completion
of the above, the attending ABS surveyor may issue
an Interim Class Certificate to allow the STL system,
as part of a Deepwater Port, to proceed with gas transfer
operations.
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BS classification services are helping to
make industry’s first step in offshore |
LNG development both safe and efficient, as operators seek to
apply offshore technology—traditionally used in the offloading
of oil—to innovations for gas transfer in a marine environment.
ABS has contracted with Advanced Production and Loading AS
of Norway (APL) to provide classification services for APL’s
Submerged Turret Loading (STLTM) system, a single-point mooring
system (SPM) and an integral component of the industry’s
first offshore LNG terminal, destined for the Gulf of Mexico,
some 116 miles offshore Louisiana.
The project will create industry’s first offshore
LNG deepwater port terminal in the United States and will
be the first of its kind in the world, says William J. Sember,
ABS vice president of Energy Development.
“ABS is supporting a safe and cost-effective regional
development that will create the first offshore LNG receiving
terminal in the world. This effort is aiding industry operators
to reach new thresholds of LNG capability while addressing
escalating gas demand, particularly in the U.S. market,”
said Sember.
Dubbed the Energy Bridge Deepwater Port, the terminal system,
planned for installation on West Cameron Block 603 in 280
feet of water, incorporates APL’s STL technology commonly
used in the offloading of oil in regions including the North
Sea, offshore China and offshore Western Australia. First
cargo for the Energy Bridge Deepwater Port is scheduled for
January 2005.
ABS, which has classed some 40 single-point mooring systems
(SPMs), is leveraging its worldwide expertise with buoy mooring
technology to assist industry in the delivery of this gas
transport innovation, says Sember.
The project, he adds, provides an industry model for taking
traditional, land-based LNG receiving terminals offshore to
achieve environmental advantages and economies of scale to
global gas trading.
“Offshore gas ports, such as the Energy Bridge Deepwater
Port, will avoid many of the challenges associated with building
or expanding conventional terminals in environmentally sensitive
or populated areas while facilitating the delivery of re-gasified
LNG directly into pipeline grids,” said Sember.
The terminal will consist of the STL system, a new-build
piled platform to support a gas-custody transfer metering
station and associated pipelines connecting the STL system
to two pipeline grids.
To be classed by ABS as an
XA1 Single-Point Mooring (SPM), the
submerged turret loading buoy (STL) is under construction
with Junoverken AB at Uddevalla, Sweden, and will be transported
to U.S. waters this November.
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