OTC 14171

Girassol - The Umbilicals and Flowlines - Presentation and challenges

Jacky Rouillon - TotalFinaElf
Copyright 2002, Offshore Technology Conference
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2002 Offshore Technology Conference held in
Houston, Texas U.S.A., 69 May 2002.
This paper was selected for presentation by the OTC Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presented, have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
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presented.

Abstract
The Girassol field development, offshore Angola in
1,400m of water, has stringent operating requirements due to
flow assurance issues and the need for flexibility. The result
was the selection of new riser and flowline concepts with
numerous qualifications for materials and equipment. This
paper details how these concepts - freestanding riser towers,
insulated flowline bundles and a mid-depth export system met project requirements.
UFL has demonstrated that solutions could be developed in
a short timeframe. These concepts will be used as a reference
for other deepwater developments and while alternative
solutions may be chosen, the challenges will be similar.
UFL system presentation
The umbilical and flowline network, part of the Girassol
development, is made up of the following main systems:
Production system
The production system comprises five production loops.
Thirteen manifolds are installed in daisy chains along these
loops. Up to two production wells can be tied in to
each manifold.
Each of the production loops is made up of two sections:
the production bundle on the seabed bottom and the
production riser integrated within the riser towers connected to
the FPSO.
Production bundles
Each of the five production loops consists of several
production bundles interconnecting the manifolds (refer to the
overall field layout).

In total there will be 11 production bundles with eight

installed during the first phae of the offshore operations
carried out during 2001.
Each production bundle contains (Fig.5):
- Two by 8in production flowlines.
- One by 2in service line.
- These lines are contained within two semi cylindrical
modules of syntactic buoyancy foam, which ensure the
thermal insulation of the pipes.
- One by 30in carrier pipe housing the insulation foam,
the production and service lines.
The carrier pipe ensures the mechanical protection, the
corrosion protection and contributes to the overall thermal
performance of the system as it avoids exchanges of seawater
with the external environment. The carrier pipe is entirely
closed and full of inhibited water.
The weight in air is 550kg/m with a submerged weight in
production condition is in the range of 90kg/m.
Each bundle is equipped at each end with a sled (Fig. 6),
which is used for the installation by seabottom tow and also as
structural support to perform the tie-in of the spools
connecting the bundles to the manifolds.
The length of the production bundles varies from 700m to
3,000m. The lengths have been determined on the basis of the
subsea field layout, but are limited by the bollard pull of the
towing spread used for installation.
Production risers
The 8in and 2in risers, which are a continuation of the
pipelines in the production bundles, are integrated within
freestanding riser towers (Fig. 1 and 3).
Each production riser is equipped with a 3in gas lift line
with an entry point at the bottom of the riser tower.
Riser towers
The riser system concept consists of three freestanding
riser towers (Fig. 1).
Each three riser towers is a bundle (Fig. 3) of:
- One by 22in structural core pipe.
- Four by 8in production risers corresponding with two
production bundles connected at bottom of the tower.
- Four by 3in gas lift lines, one per production riser.

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Two by 2in service lines (one per production bundle).

Two by 8in injection risers (standardized for either
water or gas injection).

There are spare slots available for one production bundle

and one injection line.
Each of the riser towers behaves as an inverse pendulum
with the hinge point at the top of the suction anchor. The
connection between the riser column and the anchor is via a
latching system equipped with a flexjoint using elastomeric
elements (Fig. 4).
The uplift force is a combination of buoyancy provided by
buoyancy modules all along the riser column and one
buoyancy tank at the top.
On Girassol the top tank provides a 520 tons in place net
buoyancy. It has an overall height of 40m and a diameter of
8m (Fig. 2).
The riser tower current section is 1.5m dia and is nearly
neutral buoyant.
The risers are supported at the top of the tower and are free
to expand downwards.
The link between the top of the riser towers and the FPSO
is achieved by flexible jumpers for the production and
injection lines, and by bundles of several super duplex steel
tubes for the service and gas lift functions.
Injection system
There are four water injection flowlines and one gas
injection line. The sections on seabed are 12in, while the riser
sections within the towers are 8in (to be standardized with the
production risers). The water injection risers are integrated
within the riser towers (Fig 1 and 3).
Inline tees are installed along the injection lines. Each tee
can be connected to one injection well.
Control / command umbilical system
Associated with each production loop and injection line is
an electro-hydraulic umbilical, resulting in 10 in all.
Production umbilical
Each includes:
- Four hydraulic supply lines, two high pressure (HP)
and two low pressure (LP);
- Six chemical injection lines.
- Four electrical cables.
The 2in service line associated with each production loop
is not part of the umbilical. This is due to the size of this line
which considered to be too large to be part of the umbilical,
particularly in the dynamic section. It is contained within the
riser tower and then within the production bundles.
Injection umbilical
It includes:
- Four hydraulic supply lines (two HP plus two LP).
- Four electrical cables.
- One 1in service line.

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In this case, as the service line is smaller, it is included

within the umbilical.
In both types of umbilical, all the tubes for hydraulic
supply, chemical injection and service line are made of super
duplex steel.
Export system.
The export system is made up of two 16in steel lines
connecting the FPSO with the offloading buoy, which distance
is 1,6 km.
The export lines are installed in a mid-depth W-shape (Fig
11). Some buoyancy elements are installed at specific
locations along the lines to achieve the required configuration.
The export lines are tied-in to the FPSO and loading buoy
via flexjoint elements.
The upper and lower lines are respectively 2,400m and
2,750m long.
(Ref: OTC14208.)
UFL details
The subsea structures were to be installed during two
offshore installation campaigns. The first one has been
completed by the end of 2001, while the second campaign will
be carried out in 2003.
- Production bundles
- Injection sealines
- Umbilicals
- Manifolds
- Spools
- Well jumpers

Phase 1
8
18,000m
15,000m
34,000m
8
35
10

Phase 2
3
4,000m
15,000m
20,000m
3
23
24

Design requirements
This section defines the main requirements, which have
had a significant impact on the design of UFL system.
Environmental conditions
TotalFinaElf has operated in the Gulf of Guinea, off West
Africa, for an extended period of time. As a consequence, it
has gained considerable knowledge of the environmental
conditions in this area.
However, this deepwater location off the Angolan coast
has lead to some specific requirements which had to be
addressed.
It should also be mentioned that the engineering of the
UFL components - the riser towers, the export lines and the
umbilicals require specific data, which are not always part of
the standard environmental specifications.
Here after are some of the main environmental conditions
which required special attention by the development team,
particularly considering the structures that were to be included
within the project.

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GIRASSOL - THE UMBILICALS AND FLOWLINES - PRESENTATION AND CHALLENGES

Deep water
The deep water is a challenge by itself. New ways of
thinking had to be adopted and the usual codes are not always
fully adapted to engineering in such water depths.
For example, the external pressure here is greater than the
internal pressure of pipelines and risers and cannot be
overlooked as it may be on field developments in more
conventional water depths.
The temperature of seawater at the seabed is about 4C and
has an important impact on system with stringent
thermal requirements.

VIV. On future projects, additional metocean data gathering

will be necessary prior to detailed engineering.

Waves data
Even though wave conditions are well known for this area,
the innovative structures used at Girassol are subject to
fatigue, vortex induced vibration (VIV), etc. Specialised data
is required in order to be able to perform refined calculations.

Flow assurance requirements.

There is a specific paper dealing with production
requirements. Here are mentioned the main parameters, which
influenced the design of the UFL system.

Current profile
Knowledge of the current profiles is quite important for the
design of slender structures, such as the riser towers, catenary
umbilicals, etc. There was no data available for this water
depth and a data acquisition campaign of one year had to be
carried out at the Girassol location.
The collection and analysis of this data revealed some
interesting features:
- There are current profiles with reverse current.
- Current at sea bottom is not nil. This point was quite
helpful during the ROV operations near sea bottom.
- Etc.
Soil conditions
Soils at this water depth have specific characteristics which
need to be properly appraised to provide the relevant data for
engineering the foundation systems. This was significant for
the Girassol project as a large number of suction anchors were
used to secure structures to the seabed:
- The FPSO and offloading buoy.
- The riser towers.
- The templates of the subsea production system.
(REF: OTC14209.)
The slope of the soil is of importance as it influences the
flow regimes within the pipelines.
Marine life
This does not have a direct impact on the design of the
systems. It is interesting to note that contrary to existing
beliefs, there is marine life at the sea bottom, i.e. fish, octopus,
spider crabs, etc.
Design Review
The Girassol project revealed that there is a significant
amount work required to assess the specific environmental
data necessary for the engineering of structures for a
deepwater development. This is particularly true when the
structures are slender, compliant and subject to fatigue and

Geographical requirements
It was decided to fabricate the riser towers in Lobito in
the south of Angola - and the production bundles at Soyo in
the north of Angola.
The characteristics and capacities of the construction yards
had to be considered when designing the system. The
fabrication phase, which can last several months, imposes
constraints on the design.

Specification for production system

Design criteria
- Design pressure
270bar
- Design temperature
70C
Flowing conditions:
In order to minimize paraffin deposits, the following
constraints have to be met:
FPSO arrival temperature
T>40C (for a flowrate
of 10,000b/d).
Shutdown conditions:
To prevent hydrate formation, the temperature has to
remain above 20C after 16 hours.
This applies to all the points in the line. It means that all
the cold spots, such as spools, connectors, etc, have to be
avoided. It required development of specific insulation
systems.
Others constraints:
- Production risers shall be gas lifted
- Pigging requirements
- round trip cleaning/scrapping pigging
- capability of performing intelligent pigging
- Compatibility with fluids (100 ppm H2S)
- Resistance to erosion
- The profile of the lines shall be such that it minimizes
high and low points to:
- Avoid sand deposit if any.
- Minimize fluid segregation at low points.
- Minimize erosion due to gas velocity.
Specification for injection system
Design criteria for water injection:
- Design pressure
175 bar
- Design temperature
55C
Design criteria for gas injection:
- Design pressure
340 bar
- Design temperature
90C

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Specification for export system

Design criteria:
- Design pressure
- Minimum pressure
at offloading buoy:
- Design temperature
- Temperature drop:
- Requirement for round trip
pigging.

55 bar
5 bar
70 C
<3C

Technical challenges
To fulfill the above requirements, innovative concepts had
to be developed. These concepts required substantial
development, qualification and testing during the engineering,
fabrication and installation phases.
The section hereafter will focus on five main topics, which
have been particularly challenging.
- Field layout flexibility requirement.
- Riser towers.
- Production bundles.
- Export lines.
- Installation.
It has to be noted that on a project like Girassol - with
many innovative concepts - the management of interfaces
between the different packages (FPSO, SPS, UFL) was also a
challenge. This required effort from all parties the operator
and contractors - to cooperate and find acceptable solutions.
Of course in addition to the technical challenges, there
were also contractual and commercial challenges.
Requirements for flexibility
Drilling operations and reservoir studies were performed in
parallel with the engineering and the fabrication of the
different components of the UFL package. As new data and a
better knowledge of the reservoir became available,
modifications to the subsea field layout had to be
implemented.
The modular concept of the UFL network enabled the team
to cope with these modifications without major disturbances to
the overall process.
The different systems of the UFL subsea network are
comprised of a succession of sections of pipelines with the
elements of the subsea production system (SPS).
- Production system: bundle sections in between
manifolds connected to one or two production wells.
- Injection system: pipeline sections with inline tees
installed during j-lay installation.
- Umbilicals system: umbilicals were fabricated in long
lengths and were cut in sections at the end of the
fabrication process in order to fit the required lengths.
In addition, the unit length of the different sections have
been standardized, mainly the production bundles and the
corresponding umbilicals.

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As examples to the above:

- It was possible to make alterations as late as just
before installation to the length of the bundles and
consequently the manifold and production well
locations. This provided the ability to achieve the best
compromise (technical and cost) between the drilling
of wells and the change of the seabed arrangement.
- It was possible at the last minute to relocate one
production bundle from one production loop to
another in order to accommodate the drilling program
and make available more wells to begin production.
- Etc.
This was not an easy exercise. In order to be able to deal
with such problems and to react quickly, cooperation between
the different parts of the project team (reservoir, drilling, UFL)
and with the UFL contractor were necessary. An interface
team was set up specifically for this purpose.
At the end, the result was an overall field layout which
better corresponds to the reservoir drainage requirements and
which optimizes oil recovery.
Such requirements for flexibility in field development will
certainly become more usual for subsea development where
reservoir engineering is conducted in parallel with
construction activities
Riser towers
This is a new concept, which has never been used before in
such water depth. A concept based on the same principle was
used by Placid in the Gulf of Mexico. The novelty of the
concept required innovations, development and qualifications
of components. In addition, the design of the riser towers has
been significantly affected by flow assurance requirements.
The fabrication in Angola and the one-piece installation of
the riser towers imposed some constraints to be considered in
the development of the concept.
Here after some of the main challenges encountered during
the development of the riser towers concept, their fabrication
and installation are highlighted.
Insulation foam.
In order to meet the thermal requirements, the foam
modules, which encapsulate the riser lines for buoyancy
purposes, also provide thermal insulation. Such requirements
call for low-density material. On the other hand, the foam has
to be pressure resistant which requires a high-density material
In addition, the foam material has to be compatible with
the temperatures of the fluids circulating in the different risers.
For the production risers it is in the range of 40-50C and for
the gas lift risers, it could reach 90C.
These requirements are quite stringent and some of them
appear to result in the opposite effect. There are few suppliers
capable of providing such a material. It was necessary to
proceed with an extensive qualification program to select the

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GIRASSOL - THE UMBILICALS AND FLOWLINES - PRESENTATION AND CHALLENGES

appropriate foam compatible with all of the service conditions

to be encountered during field life, including temporary phases
such as the construction in Lobito and the installation. The
selected material was a glass syntactic foam with pure amine
hardener developed by Balmoral.
The density of the material is 590kg/m3 with a thermal
conductivity of 0.12 W/m K.
Another challenge for the selected subcontractor was to
develop a manufacturing process for the required modules.
This was to achieve quantities in the range of 4,000 modules
for the three riser towers and 7,800 modules for the production
bundles. It represents 10,000m3 of foam.
The foam modules - 6m long with interlocking chicanes were designed with tight tolerances to ensure a close fit
without gaps to minimize heat losses (Fig.7a and 7b).
Foam modules in this material had never been fabricated
before, so there were few industrial standards to work to. New
procedures had to be developed and agreed between parties for
the inspection, repair and acceptance. New test benches were
developed for that purpose.
This work took a significant amount of time and a number
of attempts on a trials-and-error basis before the process was
stabilized. This was one of the most important challenges of
the UFL project.
Thermal behavior of riser towers.
While the raw material was being qualified by the foam
supplier, it was necessary to ascertain the overall thermal
behavior of the riser tower. Full-scale tests were performed on
a fully assembled 12m sample section.
The tests were performed with configurations that
simulated conditions during field life, i.e. vertical
configuration with surrounding water at 5C and with fluids
circulating in the lines (Fig. 8a).
The results of the first tests did not match expectations.
After several experiments and further analysis, it appeared that
the convection of the trapped water within the riser bundle had
larger impact on the overall thermal behavior of the system
than anticipated. As a consequence, the lower part of the riser
tower was cooling to 20C faster than the expected 16 hours.
An expert technical committee made up of representatives
from Girassol partners and the UFL contractor was set up to
define a solution in the available time frame as construction of
the riser towers at Lobito was ready to start.
It was decided to add seals and to fill the spaces with open
cell foam in order to minimize circulation of water. A series
of laboratory tests was performed to qualify the
selected materials.
For future projects, an ongoing challenge will be to
develop materials capable of filling spaces in an insulated
system with good thermal insulation properties, adequate field
life and which avoids thermal convection. In addition, these
materials should be easily transportable and applicable in a
fabrication process, which could take place in a remote area.
At this point of the Girassol development, there remained a
substantial amount of work to be done to get the proper tools

to assess the overall thermal behavior of such complex

structures.
Tests are a good method for validating the results of the
numerical calculations. Such tests, if they need to be
representative of real conditions, must not be too complex.
Otherwise it becomes a project within the project.
In addition, if the experimental set-up is too complex, it
would be impossible to carry out a series of tests or parametric
analysis to determine the leading parameters.
Cathodic protection.
The steel lines are encapsulated within modules of foam.
There are seals and filling material to avoid water exchanges
and circulation. In these circumstances and if the system is
not contained within a fully watertight cover, the cathodic
protection requires specific attention. On Girassol it was
decided to use sacrificial anodes.
Quite a lot of simulations using dedicated tools were
necessary to find the solution, which was to cast small anodes
along steel wires. They are installed adjacent to the pipes in
the interstices between the tubes and the foam.
Fabrication in Angola
The riser towers were fabricated at the Lobito yard in
Angola (Fig 9a and 9b). A new fabrication line was built
specifically for Girassol. To facilitate the construction, the
design evolved towards standardized components:
- Standardization of the foam modules (only two types:
inner and outer modules) were used.
- Standardization of the size of the lines within the
riser towers.
It was quite important during the development of a new
concept, such as the Girassol towers, to be aware of
construction constraints. Construction personnel have to be
involved as soon as possible in the design review to ensure it
takes into account fabrication and installation aspects,
particularly when there is no past experience.
The system must not become complicated during the
development process. Standardization shall be a key objective
and the components must remain as simple as possible. The
value of this philosophy will become obvious during the
course of the project.
Production bundles
The production bundles are simpler than the riser towers,
although there have been technical challenges. Some of them
are highlighted here.
Insulation foam
In order to achieve the requested thermal performances in
flowing and shutdown situations, the two production lines
were installed between syntactic foam modules (Fig. 5). For
standardization purpose, the modules are of the same material
as used in the riser towers (Fig. 7b).

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Thermal behavior of production bundles.

As done with the riser towers, a full-scale sample of 12m
was tested to assess its thermal characteristics (Fig. 8b). It was
placed within a horizontal water basin at 4C. Flowing and
shutdown conditions were simulated with different
configurations of oil circulating in the lines.
The thermal convection phenomenon was also noted here,
but to a lower degree. Tests at different inclinations
demonstrated the importance of the bundle slope.
Gaps between the foam modules are sources of water
circulation within the carrier pipe, which is detrimental to the
overall thermal performance. In order to limit water
circulation, additional seals were installed between
the modules.
The u-value for the production bundle is in the range of
1.5W/m2 C.
The thermal requirements in shutdown conditions require
that no cold spots shall exist along the production lines. As a
result, all tie-in spools equipped with connectors have to be
insulated. The spools have been fitted with insulation shells
and the connectors with insulation covers installed once the
tie-in is performed. This also required specific development
and qualifications.
In order to prevent wax and hydrates formation, the
production lines are configured in a loop to allow for roundtrip
pigging from the FPSO (pig receiver and launcher are installed
onboard the FPSO).
Tie-ins of spools and jumpers
The selected tie-in systems were the MATIS tool
developed by Stolt Offshore and the CAT tool developed by
FMC Kongsberg.
The first one is based on flanged connections, which allow
horizontal and vertical connections fully in line with the pipe
without the need for bends. The second one is based on
mechanical connector to perform horizontal connections.
These types of connection avoid an uneven profile of the
production line with no high or low points.
This is favorable in order to:
- minimize load impacts from slugs.
- avoid deposit of possible sand.
- avoid segregation of fluids at low regimes.
This was an important feature for the design of the bottom
of the riser tower where there are a lot of tie-ins to be
performed (fig. 4).
Export system
The export system is a new concept never used before.
Due to thermal requirements - temperature loss had to be
less than 3C - it was not possible to take the flowlines to
seabed, where the water temperature is 4C, and then back to
the surface at the loading buoy.
This influenced the selection of a mid water depth Wshaped configuration (Fig.11).

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The engineering of the export system was yet another

technical challenge as it had to:
- accommodate different fluids in the lines. This
impacts the shape of the lines.
- accommodate the variations in distance between the
two floaters, including in the extreme case, with one
line broken.
- be compatible with the excitation induced by the
FPSO and the loading buoy. This is mainly critical at
buoy side.
Extensive and detailed analyses were required to assess the
overall behavior of the three interacting systems: FPSO, export
lines and offloading buoy. The export lines, due to their near
neutral buoyancy, are sensitive to environment factors.
Thorough fatigue calculations were required. Parametric
analyses with a set of wave scatter diagrams were performed.
It resulted in the need to reinforce the export lines at the
offloading buoy side. The thickness of the pipe was increased
on the last 300m and studjoints have been welded.
Installation
The installation phase was a critical part of the project. A
significant number of structures had to be installed with
procedures never used before in such water depths.
Offshore operations began in February 2001 and were
planned to continue through January 2002 with a first oil by
December 4, 2001.
Vessels from Stolt Offshore and Bouygues Offshore were
involved. The main units of the installation spread were:
- Seaway Polaris: lowering of subsea packages (suction
anchors, manifolds, spools and jumpers, etc) and j-lay of the
injection lines.
- Seaway Eagle: lowering of subsea packages
(manifolds,)
- Seaway Explorer: towing of production bundles and riser
towers, tie-in of spools and jumpers using MATIS and
CAT systems.
- Seaway Kestrel: diving activities at top of riser towers,
installation of insulation covers on connectors.
- Seaway Legend: metrology and support to other vessels.
- Malila: tie-in of spools and jumpers with CAT system.
- FDS: installation of flexible jumpers between FPSO and
riser towers, installation of umbilicals, j-laying of export lines,
tie-in of umbilicals with CAT system.
In addition to these vessels, there were vessels for
assistance such as supply boats, tugs, barges and surface
diving vessels. At some stages of the offshore operations, up
to fifteen installation units were working at the same time.
Here are additional details related to the main installation
activities.
Survey
An important campaign was to survey the tow route from
Soyo to Girassol. Some obstructions between the coast and the
site were found. Adjustments to the tow route had to be made

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GIRASSOL - THE UMBILICALS AND FLOWLINES - PRESENTATION AND CHALLENGES

to define a 300m large corridor. At Girassol, for each of the

bundles, an approach route had to be defined and surveyed.
Overall positioning system
On Girassol it was decided to install a full array of stands
to support transponders. This allowed all the vessels and
drilling rigs to work in a unique reference positioning system.
This revealed very helpful as it ensured coherence between
co-ordinates and saved time. Each vessel had just to come on
location, to install some transponders in pre-installed stands, to
do a minimum calibration check before being ready to work.
This overall positioning system will be used during field
life for positioning of the intervention vessels. It will also be
used for any future extension of the field.
Towing of production bundles
The production bundles were bottom-towed from Soyo to
Girassol. In order to confirm the tow route and select the antiabrasion coating to be applied onto the carrier pipe, a tow test
with a 12in pipe coated with different materials was performed
from Soyo to site and back.
Following this test, it was decided to coat the bottom part
of the carrier pipe with a 7mm thick layer of polypropylene.
Seaway Explorer, assisted by one tug, performed the actual
towing of the production bundles. In addition two other
vessels were used - one for tow wire deployment at the
launching area and as guard vessel during the travel to site,
while the other acted as a survey vessel to check positioning of
the bundles.
The maximum pull required, encountered during launching
operation, was in the order of 200t. It required two vessels.
During normal towing only Seaway Explorer was necessary.
The average time for a towing operation, including hookup, launching and final positioning, averaged to eight days.
The minimum was five and a half days and the maximum 13
days. Any problem encountered during the hook-up and
launching or during positioning in the target area had a
significant impact - as much as several days - on the
total duration.
Towing of riser towers
The riser towers were towed on the sea surface from the
Lobito yard to the Girassol site. Once on location, they were
upended, placed above the suction anchors and tied-in to these
subsea structures.
This was one of the phases when the constraints in the
structural components are the highest. Specific subjects, such
as fatigue behavior, routing according to weather forecast, fish
tailing, etc, had to be evaluated.
OTC paper 14211 is dedicated to the installation of the
riser towers, which was one of the most challenging phases of
the project.
J laying of the injection lines
For this operation Seaway Polaris was upgraded with a
newly built j-lay tower.

Full-scale deepwater tests were performed to check the

correct functioning of the system. Modifications and
adjustments were required before a stabilised lay rate was
obtained.
Large structures, such as the initiation and abandonment
sleds and injection tees, could not pass through the stinger.
Each had to be welded in place just before entering the water.
This was a difficult and weather sensitive operation.
The in-line tees were equipped with swivels to ensure
correct vertical positioning on the seabottom.
For the j-lay installation of the injection lines, it was a
learning curve. The lay rate increased from 800m/day at the
beginning to 1,100m/d for the last injection line.
Lowering of subsea packages
Seaway Polaris carried out the insallation of most of the
subsea packages. For that purpose the vessel was equipped
with an active heave compensator (AHC).
Full-scale tests with structures simulating the main
packages to be installed were performed in deep water off Sao
Tome Island in the Gulf of Guinea. It allowed the project team
to appraise the dynamic behavior of the packages during
lowering and to calibrate analytical tools.
The AHC proved to be very helpful and little time waiting
on weather was experienced during these operations.
Installation of export lines
The newbuild vessel Saibos FDS installed the two export
lines. This operation had never been performed before. Even
with extensive testing and sea trials, it remained one of the
most challenging offshore activities (Fig 17).
There is an OTC paper dedicated to the export lines design
and installation (OTC14208).
Tie in operations
All the tie-in operations were carried out using rigid
spoolpieces or jumpers, fabricated onshore in accordance with
the results of metrology. Three types of connection systems
were used:
- flanged connection by MATIS tool;
- mechanical connection by CAT tool;
2in connection using ROV-operated connector
For Girassol, Stolt Offshore developed a new generation of
MATIS (modular advanced tie-in system) diverless tie-in tool
for deepwater connections down to 3,000m. MATIS allows
the alignment of the pipes, the insertion of a gasket and then
insertion and tensioning of studs and nuts.
The tool is 6.2m x 3.6m x 3.8m and weighs 23t. With its
handling structure, the weight in air is 51t (Fig 13).
Improvements remain to be made to decrease the size and
weight of the tool.
The MATIS system allows horizontal and vertical
connections fully in line with the pipe without the need for
bends. Once completed, the connection, which is a wellknown API 17D flange, is simple and robust (Fig 14).

ROUILLON JACKY

The CAT (connector actuating tool) tool was developed by

FMC Kongsberg Subsea. This tool activates a mechanical
connector. Its weight is 2.5t. The CAT system allows
horizontal connections in line with the pipe. The weight of
the connector itself is in the range of 5t including the
stabbing system.
In addition to factory tests, these tie-in systems have been
subject to extensive qualification testing:
- Shallow water tests in Bergen (Norway)
- Shallow water tests in Haugesund (Norway)
- Deep water tests in Sognefjord (Norway)
These tests confirmed the functionality of the tool and
checked the operational procedures. Despite this series of test,
the debugging of the Matis tool took some time.
Fifty-two MATIS connections were performed - 13
vertical at the tttvbottom of riser towers and 39 horizontal. The
average duration for a tie-in operation is estimated at 14 hours,
while the time to close each flanges is about nine hours.
Forty-six CAT connections were performed at an average
duration of around five hours.
CONCLUSION
UFL demonstrated that solutions that need to respond to
the demands of a project like Girassol, with stringent flow
assurance requirements, can be developed. At the current state
of oil industry technology, such developments require many
innovations, qualifications and testing. This was particularly
true of the riser system, as there were few concepts that could
be used as reference points.
The concepts developed for this project will likely be used
in the future as reference points for upcoming deepwater
developments, but alternative solutions will also be developed.
More than the concept themselves, the experience gained
will be of particular relevance for future projects as Girassol
has identified most of the challenges which affect deepwater
developments. It also pointed to technical issues which have to
be faced and defined some of the limits of technical solutions.
Based on this knowledge, it will be possible to focus on what
could become a "show-stopper" on a project. This should
allow for greater efficiency.
The Girassol UFL package achieved the objectives of the
project. The concepts and new materials, which were
developed, are applicable to upcoming deepwater and ultradeepwater developments.

OTC 14171

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Girassol project is a development operated by
TotalFinaElf E&P Angola under a production sharing
agreement awarded by Sonangol to a contractor group
including TotalFinaElf, ExxonMobil, BP, Statoil and Norsk
Hydro. TotalFinaElf would like to thank Sonangol and all of
its partners for their support in the preparation of this paper
and their permission to publish.

OTC 14171

GIRASSOL - THE UMBILICALS AND FLOWLINES - PRESENTATION AND CHALLENGES

Figure 2: Top buoyancy tank

Figure 3: Riser bundle cross section

Figure 1: Riser tower general view

Figure 4: Riser tower cross section

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ROUILLON JACKY

OTC 14171

Figure 7b: Production bundle foam modules

Figure 5: Production bundle cross section

Figure 6: production bundle; termination sled

Figure 8a: Riser Tower thermal test

Figure 7a: Riser tower foam modules

Figure 8b: Production Bundle thermal test

OTC 14171

GIRASSOL - THE UMBILICALS AND FLOWLINES - PRESENTATION AND CHALLENGES

Figure 9a: Lobito construction yard

Figure 10b: Construction of production bundle

Figure 9b: Construction of riser tower

Figure 11: Export system

Figure 10a: Soyo construction yard

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Figure 12 - Seaway Polaris and FDS

Figure 13: Recovery onboard Explorer of

Matis with its landing frame

Figure 14: Flanged connection by Matis

OTC 14171

Figure15: FDS vessel nearby FPSO

Figure 16: connection of flexible

jumpers at top of buoyancy tank

Figure17: tie-in of export line to FPSO