Process Support and Marine Systems in a Spar Hull: Innovation Meets Regulation

Historically, the marine systems on a spar are relatively simple. However, attracted to the operational value of having large volumes of storage, particularly for flow assurance of the subsea wells and flowlines during shut-down conditions, the subject-hull design criteria included the capabilities to store (inside the hull) 10,000 bbl of dead oil, 1,000 bbl each of diesel and methanol, and 2,400 bbl of subsea chemicals. The paper traces the development of the project’s process-support and marine systems.

Introduction

The Gulfstar 1 (Fig. 1 above) is a spar-based floating production system located in the Gulf of Mexico.