Kim Lyngberg Takes Top Prize at Deepwater Conference
06 April 2009
Sonsub engineering manager Kim Lyngberg has been awarded best technical presentation at this year's MCE Deepwater Development conference, held at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.
MCEDD is recognised as the leading conference addressing technical issues related to engineering, development, and production of oil and gas in deep and ultra deepwater arenas around the world.
Kim participated in Technical Session II: Global Project Achievements, presenting a paper jointly written with Francesco Guzzo of Eni S.p.A. on Aquila – the world's first decommissioning project in deepwater.
As deepwater fields mature there will be a growing need for decommissioning. When the FPSO Firenze had to be disconnected in 2006 and eventually scrapped due to corrosion, all risers and umbilicals were abandoned at 800m water depth. In winter 2008/09 Saipem UK's Sonsub Division was tasked to recover these risers and umbilicals for decommissioning.
Recovering these mature items presented Sonsub with a number of challenges:
- Unknown strength and integrity of risers
- Containing riser content to avoid environmental spills (including possible H2S and radioactive settlements)
- Control of loose riser buoyancy modules
- Existing buckles in risers
- Disposal of risers and umbilicals once onshore
- Recovery, inspection and reinstallation of mooring system
- Winter offshore operations
- Utilisation of the vessel Normand Cutter – a smaller asset than the one originally used to install the field (Maxita)
The presentation included a discussion of the above challenges and a 3D animation of the complex recovery operation.
