High-strength mooring rope to secure Barents Sea floater
Offshore staff
SANDNES, Norway – Eni Norge says the Goliat field floating platform in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea will be secured by ultra-strong mooring ropes.
The 14 mooring lines are a combination of steel chains and polyester rope, with each line connected to a suction anchor on the seafloor. The chains are attached to the hull using chain stoppers.
Lankhorst Ropes in Portugal manufactured the ropes, which mostly comprise polyester fiber with a dyneema jacket, providing a minimum breaking strength of 2,579 metric tons (2,843 tons). Subsea buoyancy elements will keep the ropes clear of the seafloor.
Themooring lines vary in length from 900-1,800 m (2,953-5,905 ft), with the longest length of rope around 1,250 m (4,101 ft).
According to Andor Engebakken, the Goliat project’s transport and installation manager, polyester ropes provide numerous benefits – above all, a weight of just 3% of a chain with comparable breaking strength.
“Chains weigh half a tonne per meter. We will be deploying a total of 13,000 m [42,651 ft] of this rope, so we’re talking about considerable savings in weight which will enable us to increase oil storage capacity on the Goliat platform.
“Moreover, the rope is extremely flexible in response to major loads, and this will help to reduce wear and tear in harsh weather conditions. The rope has a lifetime of more than 20 years,” says Engebakken. “Our studies demonstrate that the rope will be able to withstand trawling impacts caused by the largest industrial trawlers.”
9/25/2013
