INSTALLATION ENGINEERING:

One minute thats all the time it took for CPP jacket to be launched from the launch barge to the final upright position. In just 60 seconds a structure which required months to design and build can be lost or damaged during this sensitive operation. The Central Processing Platform (CPP) is located in the Su Tu Vang field in Block 15-1 offshore Vietnam. The CPP jacket, being a vertical launch differs from the conventional horizontal launch jacket. THE CRITICAL ASPECTS OF A VERTICAL LAUNCH ARE: 1. High launch velocity. 2. Large stern submergence for the launch barge as it is required to support the jacket for an extended time to provide the required buoyancy. 3. Due to the high velocity of the launch operation, clearance between seabed and jacket will be less compared with typical conventional launch operation. This was further accentuated by the limitation of water depth at launch site.

COMPARISON BETWEEN ACTUAL & SIMULATED BEHAVIOR OF THE VERTICALLY LAUNCHED CPP JACKET
It is therefore evident that the vertical launch operation is critical in terms of buoyancy, clearances and barge loading. This calls for highly specialized and detailed engineering to simulate the actual behavior of the jacket during the launch. The engineering for this critical operation was performed by the naval architecture group of McDermotts construction support engineering, group in Dubai. Special consideration was incorporated in the analysis to simulate the actual behavior of the jacket such as refining the drag/ damping coefficient of the barge, sensitivity study of weight/COG movement. As shown in the images below, the close co-relation between the predicted and the actual behavior of the jacket during the launch operation confirms the analysis methodology and justifies the detailed engineering efforts.

FACTS OF CPP JACKET

NUMBER OF LEGS: 4 OVERALL HEIGHT: 60.1 m MUDLINE HORIZONTAL TO TOP HORIZONTAL: 53.1 m TOP HORIZONTAL ABOVE MWL: 7.0 m JACKET LENGTH: 58.0 m JACKET BREADTH: 48.0 m JACKET WEIGHT INCLUDING RIGGING: 3,991 MT JACKET BUOYANCY: 5,290 MT MINIMUM REQUIRED WATER DEPTH FOR LAUNCH: 57.0 m

LAUNCH SEQUENCE: BARGE VIEW

LAUNCH SEQUENCE: SIDE VIEW