OTC 21271

Lessons Learned on the Design and Construction of Hybrid Riser Towers

Jean-Franois SAINT-MARCOUX (ASME), Jean-Luc Legras, Subsea 7

Copyright 2011, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 25 May 2011.
This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the authors. Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the authors. The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright.

Abstract
Compliant Risers cover many different types of risers. Even among self-standing compliant risers, different architectures are
possible. Nevertheless the paper will concentrate on bundle Hybrid Riser Towers (bundle-HRT).
The paper will describe the several choices to be made for the design of a bundle-HRT. The selection is driven by the
functional requirements, but also through the lessons learned and through reliability.
Then the paper will review the various components of the bundle-HRT (Foundation, Lower Termination Assembly, Bundle,
Upper Termination Assembly, Buoyancy Tank, Jumpers), and describe how each component incorporates the particular
requirements of the project. Finally the paper will detail how the lessons learned on previous projects have been systematically
introduced in the design of the following generation.
1.0 General Evolution of Hybrid Riser Towers
The use of Hybrid Riser Towers now spreads over three decades. Early patents were filed in the late seventies (Panicker
1980). Research was conducted in particular by Mobil Corporation alone and then in cooperation with Institut Francais du
Petrole IFP - (Goodfellow Associates 1990). The first actual projects were carried out in the late eighties and early nineties
in the Gulf of Mexico, first for Green Canyon 29 (Fisher 1988), then for Garden Banks 388 (Fisher 1995). The unit build for
GC 29 was recovered, refurbished, extended, and reused for GB 388. Clearly drilling risers design was the blue-print of early
hybrid riser designs. In particular the risers were jointed with threaded connection and were installed by semi-submersible
drilling rigs.
Water depth of bundle Hybrid Riser Tower
2500

Water depth (m)

2000

1500

1000

500

0
1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

Year of starting operation

Fig.1 Evolution of water depth with year of starting operation (all production provinces).

2015

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More recent Bundle-HRTs have been developed around risers joined by welding and essentially fabricated in a
fabrication yard in the host country. The bundle-HRT is towed to site and up-ended (Thiebaud, 2000).

Another significant feature is the number of risers per tower. As can be shown in Fig.2, in the early projects the
number of risers was very large and corresponding to a riser per well. As the concept was evolving the number of risers
decreased and corresponded to gathering of well in production loops commingling the flow from different wells.
Number of main risers per tower and number of towers per field
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Date
Number of main risers per bundle Hybrid Riser Tower

Number of Hybrid Risers towers per field

Fig.2 Evolution of number of risers per tower and number of risers per field (all production provinces).

Also from Fig.2, it can be seen that the trend for the number of riser towers per field is also increasing in the recent
projects. Even though it has a good service record there is a growing reluctance of having all production of a given field go
through a single unit. This concern can be alleviated by gathering through a single bundle-HRT the production from one of the
production zones or drill centers (Saint-Marcoux 2010)
2.0 Selection of bundle-Hybrid Riser Tower over other riser concepts
This is a whole subject in itself and much has already been said in numerous papers and presentations and dedicated
conferences. Numerous parameters have to be accounted for and in particular, environmental conditions, flow assurance, type
of floater. Nevertheless as ultra deepwater 1 fields are being developed the issue of layout and interference of mooring and
risers has kept growing.

Fig.3 Comparison between a layout with individual risers and a layout with bundled risers

Taken as deeper than 1800m per ANSI/API 17A

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There is a clear advantage of grouping the risers in order to decrease the risk of interference. This is the main purpose of
the bundle-HRT. It must be noted that other conceptual methods of grouping risers have been presented besides the bundleHRT: for example the Petrobras Boaio concept (Fernandes, 2008) or the group-SLOR (Hatton 2009) among others.
For convenience the pros and cons of bundle-HRTs are provided below:
- There is no known limit of water depth in the currently explored area of 3658m (12000)
- There is no known limit with pressures being considered for riser systems
- The use of flexible jumpers limits the service temperature at the top of the riser bundle to 130 C (266 F)
- An Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient (OHTC) of 1.7 W/m.K (0.3 BTU/hr.ft.F) can be achieved with about 150mm
of wet insulation without increasing the riser dynamics; pipe-in pipe can be used for lower OHTC
- Gaslift can be kept within the bundle of the bundle-HRT
- Bundle-HRT are not sensitive to floater motion; fatigue in place is minimum, which is be important for sour service, to
overcome the knock-down factor associated with the H2S content
- The floater is not affected by the vertical load of the risers, and the floater motion is not affected by the risers acting as
restraints
- The bundle-HRT is preferably installed before the arrival of the floater in order to expedite first oil 2
- A top-range installation vessel is not required for installation
- A local fabrication yard is required
3.0 Selection of Architecture
A number of options are possible in the arrangement of the various components of the bundle-HRT. A simplified flowchart
is provided below under Fig.4.

Flexibles

Threaded
Connection

Upward top
connection of
flexibles
Downward top
connection of
flexibles

annulus
gaslift with
GSPP and
exopy foam
buoyancy

Coil tubing
vertical access

Lateral Coil
tubing access
by pulling the
buoyancy
latch from the
FPS0

Welded
connection

Tether
connection to
the buoyancy
tank

Integral
buoyancy tank

Flanged
spools

separate
gaslift line

On-shore
Welded

Spools with
connectors

Off-shore
Reeled

Fig.4 A diagram of several options possible in the design of bundle-HRTs

These options should be considered for a new project at the conceptual design stage. These options were generated from
lessons learned to attempt at simplifying design or installation.
As an example upward top-connection of flexibles was meant to reduce the vertical load of the jumpers on the Buoyancy
Tank and also to simplify the connection of those jumpers to the top of the Buoyancy Tank. In recent projects this option was
not retained because the buoyancy tank supporting the flexibles would be in the zone of wave action.
Similarly riser threaded connections were compared to riser welded connections and the later was systematically retained.
2

Installation after the FPSO arrival is feasible and was done for the BP Angola Greater Plutonio project (Zimmermann,
2009b)

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Other choices must be evaluated for each project. This is in particular the case for:
- Integral or non-integral buoyancy tank
- Gaslift lines: separate or annular
Typical data of bundle-HRT are provided in the attached Table 1:

Client
Number of towers
Water depth (m)
Fabricated Mass (met tonnes)
Number of risers
- main risers
- ancillary risers (gaslift,
service)
Diameter of bundle
Number of equivalent single
risers

Green Canyon
29
Placid Oil
1
468

Garden banks
388
Enserch
1
639

Girassol
Total Angola
3
1330
2200 (each)

Greater
Plutonio
BP Angola
1
1310
4200

26

26

6 (per tower)

24

24

6 (per tower)
1.5 m

3
2.3 m

4 (per tower)
annular
gaslift
2.0m

26

26

18

CLOV
Total Angola
2 (+2 future)
1300
3200 (each)

Table 1. Main characteristics of built bundle-HRT (CLOV is planned)

Data are respectively taken from Fisher (1988), Fisher (1995), Rouillon (2002), and Djia (2009).
4.0 Selection of Components
The major components of the bundle-HRT are the foundation, the bottom spools, the Lower Riser Assembly (LRA), the
bundle, the Upper Riser Assembly (URA), the buoyancy tank and the jumpers.

Foundation
On recent projects foundation in deepwater has been with suction anchors. It must however be noted that on a Single
Hybrid Riser project for the Petrobras Roncador P-52 FPU a drilled and grouted pile was used (Lacour 2008).
Lesson Learned: suction anchors can be designed to handle vertical loads and are the de facto standard for Hybrid Riser
Towers
The bottom connection between the LRA and the foundation may be rigid or flexible. The rigid solution has been used for
the early projects in the Gulf of Mexico for GC29 and GB388 but required a titanium stress-joint. On later bundle-HRT
projects a flexible joint with a Rotolatch connection system has always been used 3 .
Lesson Learned: Titanium stress joints are expensive long-lead items and only a few companies may be able to provide
them.

Lower Riser Termination Assembly

The LRTA is somewhat complex because it is the location of interface between
- the production risers
- the gaslift risers
- the production spools
The production risers are free to expand and, for an external gaslift line the gaslift line has to be flexible enough to expand
differentially, unless the gaslift line is integral such as in the annular space of a pipe-in-pipe riser. The size of the spool must
be kept to a minimum to avoid the use of a large installation vessel. A larger number of riser lead to longer spools because the
design must allow removing them independently.
Lesson Learned: There could be some advantage to limit the number of risers, say no more than 5 or 6 in order to simplify
the design of the LRTA

For the Single Hybrid Riser Tower of Rocandor P-52, a rigid connection with a carbon steel taper joint was used.

OTC 21271

Lesson Learned: gaslift is an important part of the design. Consideration should be given to inject the gaslift at the
production line Pipeline End Termination (PLET).

Bundle
The bundle design rests on arranging the buoyancy foam and the rigid lines, so that flow assurance requirements are met,
the bundle is neutrally buoyant, and there is no adverse hydrodynamic effect such as galloping. On the Girassol project
(Rouillon 2002), special measures had to be taken to avoid the effects of water convection between the hot production lines
and the insulation material. The service temperature of epoxy foam blocks is not high enough to accommodate production
temperature higher than typically 70C (160F ).On later projects thermal insulation and buoyancy were treated separately
(Legras, 2006) . The insulation material is applied to the production line; buoyancy is kept at ambient seawater temperature (if
necessary by the use of the seawater convection). The shape of the buoyancy foam and the location of the lines are arranged to
minimize the risk of unsteady hydrodynamic effects such as galloping.
Lesson Learned: Avoid using the same material for insulation and buoyancy.

Upper Riser Termination Assembly

The URTA is the location of the interface between the jumpers and the bundle. The major advantage of an URTA is to
simplify the construction of the Buoyancy Tank. The riser shaft inside of the Buoyancy tank has been eliminated. For a large
number of risers a taper joint is required. Also the jumpers become slightly longer.
Lesson Learned: There could be some advantage to limit the number of risers, say no more than 5 or 6 in order to simplify
the design of the URTA (as for the LRTA)

Buoyancy Tank
When an URTA is used, the Buoyancy Tank is a stack of identical relatively simple cylindrical compartments, which
simplifies the ballasting piping arrangement. The connection to the URTA can be similar to that of the suction anchor.
Lesson Learned: The buoyancy tank design must closely understand the fabrication capabilities of the area

Jumpers
The jumpers are attached to the URTA (or the top of the buoyancy tank) by flanges or connectors. Detailed analyses of
jumpers and riser interference are required to avoid clashing (Blevins 2005, 2008).
Lesson Learned: Jumper Interference requires taking into account both lift and drag effect.
5.0 Fabrication Process
All projects since Girassol have switched from construction with offshore drilling equipment to onshore fabrication. This
trend is expected to continue because of the cost of deepwater drilling rigs. It can be observed that the current trend is towards
more onshore construction to minimize cost and allow onshore pre-commissioning of complete units. Also onshore a wider
range of quality control is available.
6.0 Installation
The Girassol installation pattern has been essentially followed for all following projects so far. Fatigue during tow must be
analyzed; if necessary it can be mitigated by carefully selecting the tow route and possibly by sub-surface tow, requiring tugs
with larger bollard pull.
The installation process is reversible which allows simpler de-commissioning or even re-use. The first bundle-HRT was
indeed dismantled and re-used (Fisher 1988, 1995).
7.0 Way forward for ultra-deepwater
There is no show-stopper for the use of bundle-HRT in ultra deep water.
Bundle-HRT are well suited to allow riser active heating, as well as providing electrical power to subsea separation and
pumping units located in the vicinity of the riser.

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Riser monitoring should become a standard to accelerate the delivery of suitable equipment (Zimmermann 2009a).
8.0 Continuous improvement process
It is important to ensure that the information gathered on a project is readily made available for the future. This can be
achieved by a continuous improvement system (see Fig.5).
Lessons learned of each project are incorporated into a lessons learned data base. The Discipline coordinator ensures that
the lessons learned are included in best practices and in the particular case of the bundle-HRT into a specific architecture
document.
The best practices documents are regularly updated with a review conducted at six-month intervals.

International
Design
Standards
Close Out
Reports

PECS &
Oversight
Committees

International
Design Codes

The Knowledge
Management
Circuit

Lessons Learned
System

Acergy Codes of
Best Practice

Global Virtual
Library

Engineering
Discipline
Seminars
Networked
Disciplines

Engineering
Discipline
Organization

Fig. 5 Continuous improvement process

Conclusions
The bundle-HRT is a mature technology with ten years of continuous field experience (Zakarian 2009). Internally the
lessons learned of the Girassol, and Greater Plutonio project have been recorded and analyzed in order to define a preferred
architecture. This was backed-up by a Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA).
Standardization is desirable to allow faster delivery of projects.
There is benefit in reducing the number of risers to simplify the design of the tower.

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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Subsea 7 for allowing them to prepare this paper.
Nevertheless this paper only reflects the opinion of its authors and does not imply endorsement by the company to which
acknowledgements are made.
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Note: Above patent dates are the dates of issue of the patent. This list of patents is not comprehensive