Houston-based OPE Inc. successfully completed marine model testing of its new moored Satellite Separation Platform (SSP), a floating production/services vessel suitable for operating in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa and other areas around the world.
In its different variations, the SSP could be used as a mobile early production facility, a minimal production facility, an offshore pipeline pump station, a control/services buoy, a remote flare buoy or as a floating power generation vessel.
Hydrodynamic testing and motion analysis was carried out at the Delft University of Technology Model Basin in Delft, Holland.
The program included evaluation of motions resulting from normal and extreme operating conditions including 100-year storms for the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa.
The multipurpose SSP floating facility can be used as a satellite separation facility that could provide improved flow assurance and individual well control to subsea trees in water depths up to 10,000 feet.
The SSP also has application capabilities in water depths as shallow as 150 feet in the "Mini SSP" mode. OPE developed the vessel's design so that it can be easily built in any fabrication facility with an access depth of 30-feet to 40-feet.
All process and operational equipment would be installed at dockside and fully tested prior to deployment to the installation site thus eliminating the need for costly offshore hookup.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
