By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 17 -- BP PLC has awarded a $2 million contract to CorrOcean Inc.—the US-based unit of CorrOcean ASA, Trondheim, Norway—to provide monitoring equipment for the production risers on BP's Thunder Horse field semisubmersible platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thunder Horse, which lies in more than 6,000 ft of water in ultradeepwater Mississippi Canyon, is expected to be the largest field in the Gulf of Mexico and will have the largest semisubmersible platform (OGJ Online, Dec. 23, 2002).
CorrOcean will provide response-monitoring equipment that will be installed on the production risers to provide information on the stresses that the risers experience during the life of the field.
The riser-monitoring systems will include sensors to monitor angles, stresses, and strains in both the touchdown zone and top-zone of the infield production steel catenary risers. The CorrOcean sensor systems will be integrated with the front-end subsea control system, which sends data to the control room using long-distance modems for processing and distribution on the platform.
"Riser response monitoring technology is becoming a critical consideration for operators developing oil and gas assets in ever deeper water, with the ultradeepwater Thunder Horse no exception," said Henning Arnøy, director of CorrOcean's advanced integrity services division.
Thunder Horse progress
The award follows earlier contracts let last year for subsea corrosion monitoring and topside corrosion and sand monitoring.
BP last year also awarded Aker Kværner an $11 million contract to supply advanced drilling and mooring equipment for the proposed platform (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2002).
Together with three nearby oil and gas fields, Thunder Horse is part of a pioneering project for oil and gas production in ultradeep gulf waters.
The equipment has been developed and will be delivered by Maritime Hydraulics AS and Maritime Pusnes AS in first quarter this year.
Thunder Horse oil will be delivered ashore via a planned 70 mile, 28-in. Proteus oil pipeline to a booster station platform to be installed on South Pass Block 89, and from there to a connection with the proposed 90 mile, 30-in. Endymion pipeline to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port at Clovelly, La. The two lines combined will have a capacity of 420,000 b/d initially. Both segments are slated for completion in early 2005, in line with Thunder Horse's intended start-up (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2003).
