SHELL MARKS PROGRESS ON AUGER PROJECT

ltaly's Belleli SpA has launched off Italy the 19,000 metric ton hull for Shell Offshore Inc.'s Auger tension leg platform (TLP) planned for the Gulf of Mexico. Meantime, Shell has installed foundation templates for the Auger TLP. The $1.3 billion project is expected to start production in early 1994 and peak at 40,000 b/d of oil and 150 MMcfd of gas. Belleli late last month launched in waters off Taranto, Italy, the hull for the Auger TLP, to be installed in 2,860 ft of water in the

March 8, 1993

3 min read

ltaly's Belleli SpA has launched off Italy the 19,000 metric ton hull for Shell Offshore Inc.'s Auger tension leg platform (TLP) planned for the Gulf of Mexico.

Meantime, Shell has installed foundation templates for the Auger TLP.

The $1.3 billion project is expected to start production in early 1994 and peak at 40,000 b/d of oil and 150 MMcfd of gas.

TLP HULL

Belleli late last month launched in waters off Taranto, Italy, the hull for the Auger TLP, to be installed in 2,860 ft of water in the Garden Banks area off Louisiana.

That will be a world record water depth for oil production.

The hull consists of four 49 m tall steel towers linked by a thick steel pontoon belt at the bottom and diagonal struts at the top. Overall, the hull measures 109 m long and 88 m wide.

Belleli built the hull under a $120 million contract from Shell (OGJ, Oct. 15, 1990, p. 37).

Belleli Auger Project Manager Umberto Belleli predicted the next generation of TLPs will be capable of working in water depths as great as 1,500 m (4,921 ft).

TEMPLATES INSTALLED

The 600 ton subsea templates will anchor the tendons for Shell's Auger TLP in 2,860 ft of water on Garden Banks Block 426.

MCS Hydra-Lok, Houston, working under a subcontract from HeereMac of Netherlands, locked the four Auger templates to 16 foundation pilings on a single trip. MCS used a swaging tool and technology developed by Hydra-Lok Ltd., Barrow-In-Furness, England. The tool was deployed from HeereMac's SSCV Hermod derrick barge.

MCS is a partnership of Hydra-Lok and Marine Contractor Services Inc., Houston.

After initial deployment of the tool to the floor of the gulf, MCS swaged all 16 piles in 45 hr, including moving and stabbing the tool into foundation piles. Each connection was verified before the tool was moved to the next pile.

HOW IT WORKS

The Hydra-Lok system uses hydraulic pressure contained between radial seals to swage a pile section outward into a prepared groove in the template sleeve to create a full strength mechanical connection. Auger foundation piles are 72 in. OD with 2-1/8 in. W.T.

MCS verified integrity of each template-pile connection ultrasonically and by plotting pump pressure vs. fluid pumped volume as the pile expanded into the template. Also, the pressure/fluid volume plot depicted the status of swaging operations as they occurred.

In addition to representing the deepest water use of Hydro-Lok's swaging system, securing the Auger foundation templates involved the most successive swaged connections completed without bringing the tool to the surface, said Charles Fahrmeier, MCS general manager. Recovering the Hydro-Lok tool to surface after the job was complete took 3-1/2 hr.

Fahrmeier said pile swaging is replacing grouting as the preferred method of locking subsea templates to foundation piles. Hydra-Lok's pile swaging system has been used on more than 70 structures in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico, including templates, subsea manifolds, and platform jackets.

Hydra-Lok pile swaging requires no guidelines or divers.