MOORING ANALYSIS OF A SEMISUBMERSIBLE DRILLING

RIG
Author: Rifel Landong Pordiman

Master Student Subsea and Marine Technology, University of Stavanger,

4036 Stavanger, Norway

Phone: +47-40212231; email: rl.pordiman@stud.uis.no

The oil and gas development in deep water area has been evolved recently by reason of the
high demand of energy. The usage of floating structures as the host facility in this field will
be one of the option to increase the oil and gas production. Semisubmersible drilling rig, as
one of the example of floating production systems, can be selected such as the unique
concept of its design is to restrain the changes of direct vertical access. It is robust in the
environment with typical harsh condition and it balances easily with changes in load and
water depth. The semisubmersible drilling rig also contains drilling equipment and other
machinery supported by pontoon-type columns that are submerged into the water to
minimalize vortex- induced vibrations and associated drag enhancement in the strong
prevailing currents, greatly advancing the design of the mooring and riser systems.

This paper will have a focus on the sensitivity study of mooring line system in the
semisubmersible drilling rig. The study case in this paper will be a recent design of
semisubmersible platform, Cat D, which will remain mainly used in Norwegian Continental
Shelf. This drilling rig is built to be able to operate at water depths up to 1300 meters and
drill wells down to 8500 meters. Based on the governing standard, the semisubmersible
drilling rig and its mooring will be analyzed to verify the station keeping of the host facility
due to the environmental load. The semisubmersible drilling rig will be partially submerged
by filling ballast tanks to maintain its stabilization so that it will be able to drill in deeper
waters.

A sensitivity analysis is undertaken to simulate various cases due to the given environmental
condition. The first-order and second-order difference-frequency wave loads and other
hydrodynamic coefficients are to be defined using Orcaflex as a tool for the simulation. The
mooring lines will operate the catenary mooring types where parts of the bottom chain keep
laying on the seabed when the platform moves. During drilling operations, the stability will
gives a reduced motion in rolling and pitching from waves and currents.

Key words: semisubmersible, mooring, sensitivity analysis