September 23 2009 - Bergen

First SNAME Meeting in Bergen, Norway!!

By Lars Rønning

September 23^rd 2009 marked the date of the first ever meeting of SNAME in Bergen, Norway!  Aker Solutions was the generous host of the event, which featured three technical presentations on the topic of harsh environment operations.  An incredible 37 attendees turned up, including Jim Sandkvist from SSPA who’d travelled from Gothenburg to attend and Honourary Vice-President of the Society, Peter Noble, who was visiting all the way from the Texas Section!

After welcoming the attendees, including the 13 students from the Bergen Technical College, Nordic Coordinator, Lars Rønning, introduced Peter Noble who talked briefly about recent international activities in the Nordic region.  Lars outlined upcoming activities and plans in the Nordic countries, before introducing the first technical presentation of the evening. 

Kjetil Heggernes and Håkon Sylta from Aker Solutions in Bergen presented on a method of using Computional Fluid Dynamics to determine waveloads from extreme waves coupled with non-linear Finite Element Analysis.  Fixed oil production platforms in the North Sea have experienced subsidence as the reservoirs below the seafloors are depleted.  In addition, years of observations have led to more stringent metocean requirements, coupled with regulatory requirements for documentation of structural capacity for ageing structures. Kjetil and Håkon showed an example of how the method has been used on an existing platform in the North Sea to assess it ability to withstand a 10,000 year return period wave.

After a short networking break, Inge-Bertin Almeland from Aker Solutions in Oslo gave a presentation on the latest developments in semi-submersible drill-rig design.  Inge-Bertin stepped in on short notice when a business trip prevented the original presenter from attending.  Inge-Bertin has been involved in most of Aker’s semi-submersible designs over the past three decades.  His presentation was on the design and fabrication of the latest of them - the Aker H-6e semi-submersible.  Two semi’s of this design have been built.  The hulls were built in Dubai and topsides built and mating performed at Stord.  One is already in operation and has experienced its first storm.  Inge-Bertin was happy to report that all had gone well.

The final presentation of the evening was by Peter Noble from ConocoPhillips.  Peter presented on the challenges of executing projects in high-latitude locations.  There is currently high activity related to exploration for oil and gas in these areas.  Some of the challenges presented by Peter are:

-         the inability to reliably predict the open-water season due to large variability per year

-         operational challenges with human crews (eg. seasickness on ice-resistant structures in open water, 24-hour darkness during winter, etc.)

-         maximizing drilling time (few vessels that can operate all-year)

Peter highlighted advances in autonomous or remote-controlled vehicles that assist in things like ice-movement monitoring, and in future may reduce or eliminate human operators.  All in all we still know very little about these regions of our planet, and much work is required to better understand requirements for executing projects and operating exploration, production and transportation facilities there.  Peter finished with a brief overview of the world’s largest ice-breakers, the Varandey tankers designed by ConocoPhillips and Samsung Heavy Industries.  ConocoPhillips and its partners have joined together to instrument the ships in order to learn more about operations in ice.

After the presentations, a large group stayed behind for further discussions and exchanging of ideas.  We hope to build on this by having another meeting in the near future.