Mooring System Monitoring Using DGPS

Abstract

Over the recent years, the need for active monitoring of offshore production facilities has increased. Due to significant amount of mooring line failures in the recent past, permanent mooring systems for Floating Production Units such as FPSO’s, FSO’s and future FLNG’s are typically required to have active monitoring systems to provide feedback of the mooring system’s status, performance and integrity. This paper will address some of the offered solutions with regards to active mooring system monitoring. Some pros and cons are given for several techniques within the industry currently available, and then a simple but elegant alternative is proposed. With the use of position monitoring, for instance with GPS signals, qualitative and quantitative feedback can be provided on the status of the permanent mooring system. A detailed explanation is given backed up by a few real life examples in which such a system was used to quickly assess the status of the mooring system.