Floaters for Oil and Gas Exploration in the Arctic - A Review

Abstract

Abstract The Arctic is an exciting frontier in the oil and gas exploration regime. A number of studies estimate that the Arctic holds about one fourth of the all undiscovered oil and gas reserves in the world. This implies a forthcoming race for the oil and gas exploration in this pristine and fragile region. Due to their relatively small environmental footprint and versatility, floating platforms have strong potential in becoming the most suitable exploration and production option for a wide range of water depths. However, compared to fixed platforms in the Arctic, research and developments associated with the application of floating platform in the arctic is extremely rare. Based on extensive literature review, this paper aims to provide a starting point towards the development of site specific floating platform solution for oil and gas exploration and production in the arctic. The literatures studied include research works and industrial reports since the 70's and 80's to current on-going developments. The topics reviewed comprise suitable deployment regions for the arctic floaters as well as a wide variety of floaters both in conceptual and deployment phase. This paper also briefly presents various approaches to predict the effect of ice load on floaters as well as some literature review on ice management and oil spill response. The focus of this review paper comprise of theoretical, experimental as well as practical research and developments in the field of arctic floaters both by academics and industrial experts. The Arctic region is protected by increasingly stringent local and international maritime laws and environmental protection laws and calls for extreme caution from engineering perspective in developing oil and gas exploration systems. This paper points towards the best practices to safely approach the oil and gas exploration in the Arctic based on academic research findings and industrial experiences. Comparison of the wide variety of floaters conceptualized or developed for the Arctic, aids the new studies on the similar theme to set onto the right course. Accumulation of several empirical, semi empirical and analytical methods for the prediction ice loads on a floater assists in a quick estimation of ice loads on the floaters. This section also points towards several competing detailed assessment methodologies to predict dynamic ice loads on the floaters. The literature reviews of ice management and oil spill responses make the reader aware of the resources to identify the recent developments in these fields. Based on systematic and focused literature review of a wide range of academic studies and industrial reports, this paper briefly assimilates the state of the art on arctic floaters. This review paper targets to infer some useful initial information, on the future development projects involving floaters for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.