Page 55: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Feb/Mar 2013)

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Subsea – Umbilicals

Installation initiative increases industry involvement

Umbilicals form a critical link in conjunction with the Society

As the oil & gas in the recovery of hydrocarbons for Underwater Technology (SUT), industry ventures involving subsea production. Over arranged a one-day seminar/

U the past 30 years, many umbilical workshop with the objective of into deeper waters systems have been installed in gaining a better appreciation of the and more extreme waters ranging from a few meters issues. environments, to depths exceeding 2000m. With this, the UMF aimed to

Installing umbilical products develop a strategy with the ultimate operators, umbilical subsea presents several challenges goal of reducing the occurrences of equipment designers and it is understandable that some umbilical installation problems. dif? culties have been encountered The workshop adopted a similar and manufacturers, and during past operations. format to that used for the UMF installation companies, With the trend to ever deeper umbilical blockages initiative have been working waters and longer tie-back which was very successful and distances, and with subsea resulted in a joint industry project together to ensure production moving into addressing blockage avoidance in umbilical installation increasingly hostile environments, subsea productions systems it is likely that installation will (www.basics-jip.com).

is as smooth an continue to be a problem for the The workshop was a great operation as possible. industry. In 2009, the Umbilical success, with more than

Pat Oakley reports.

Manufacturer’s Federation (UMF), 100 attendees from operators, oedigital.com February 2013 | OE 57 oe_umbilicals2.indd 57 31/01/2013 17:03