Operational excellence in pipelay operations - Effect of ocean surface conditions

Installing subsea pipeline is a daunting task and nothing less than an engineering masterpiece. It requires almost an unthinkable amount of work hours, planning, calculations, analysis, risk assessments, surveying, identifying the optimal pipeline route and much much more.

One could write a thesis on each and every element here but lets focus a little on the latter as it has a significant cost impact on the use of wave buoys.

Finding the exact pipeline route is by no means an easy task. One has to identify and categorize potential geological hazards (geohazards) as well as constraints ranging from cultural, ecological, pipeline, and/or project specific constraints. Consideration of such geohazards and constraints will help to reduce, control, or avoid potential engineering, construction, and operational problems.

This means that the installation vessel will have a very specific and locked trajectory it has to accurately adhere to and make sure that the pipes are lowered and placed exactly on the chosen pipeline route.

As in any offshore marine operations weather conditions are of critical importance. That's very much the case when it comes to a pipelay project and by weather one should really specify and say ocean surface conditions. Current direction & speed is critical along with significant wave height, period and wave direction.

Due to this one is reliant on the use of wave buoys to provide real-time measurements of such, at or at least, close to the moving installation vessel. The greater the distance between the location of the wave buoy and the vessel itself the greater the risk of not having exact and accurate measurements at the point of interest.

A common misconception we at Miros - Real-time Ocean Insights hear a lot is that there isn't or cant be much of a difference in such measurements within a limited geographical area. Well after measuring the ocean surface for more than 30 years we have enough substantial data to kill that myth once and for all! There's frequently times where there's a surprisingly large difference in wave measurements within a small confined area.

So as the vessel is slowly moving further and further away from the installed wave buoy you come to a point where you will have to go back and retrieve the wave buoy and move it up ahead of the vessel along the set pipeline route. And then repeat and repeat again.

Depending on the length of the planed pipeline this obviously becomes a very expensive and time-consuming exercise.

But there is a easy-fix solution here. A solution which not only is significantly cheaper but one who will also provide better and more accurate measurement of the exact location of the vessel. Even when its moving.

A solution where such data also could be utilized for whole range of other purposes, what about correlating the actual vessel movements to the measured ocean surface? But that's a topic for a different article.

The solution is of course our renowned, tested, proven and certified radar based technology.

Now you can literally make your vessel a portable and moving "wave buoy" wherever you go, any place, any time. No hassle, no maintenance need, no deployment, no retrieval, no calibration need, guaranteed uptime.

Take the step into the future with our Sea-State-as-a-Service offering. So simple and so easy.