Plans for a Floating LNG Facility Constructed Of Prestressed Concrete
Authors: Terry M.C. 
Published: December 2007

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the Improved Oil Recovery Symposium of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Tulsa, Okla., March 22–24, 1976. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

With the development of the offshore reserves discovered around the world, a significant number and types of structures have evolved to exploit these reserves. Some of these structures are production facilities, others are storage facilities, some support facilities such as utility power generators, etc. Materials for power generators, etc. Materials for construction are both steel and concrete, and the accomplishments and designs for some of the North Sea structures, for example, are pretty impressive.

The case for the floating structure has just begun. The advantages it provides far outweigh the disadvantages in our estimation, and Global Marine Development Inc. has elected to develop a floating offshore LNG liquefaction facility, the hull of which will probably be constructed of prestressed concrete instead of steel as was planned in our first design efforts.

This paper describes some of the requirements, advantages, and problems of developing the floating problems of developing the floating LNG facility.

TEXT

Innumerable discussions and many publications have pointed up the publications have pointed up the merits and problems involved with the development and exploitation of the hydrocarbon reserves found around the world. Being a pioneer in the offshore drilling industry and the first to drill in many of the areas of the world, we at the Global marine companies have been very concerned about the obvious, to us at least, energy shortage that is now upon us. For this reason we set about a serious undertaking — the development of a floating offshore facility that could treat, liquefy, store and transfer natural gas in the liquid state to carriers for transport to the markets of the world.

Our first efforts were aimed at providing a mobile facility that providing a mobile facility that could exploit the reserves that before were felt to be unfeasible because of depth of water, distance offshore or amount of estimated reserves. This facility could conceivably deplete a reserve, be modified to fulfill the requirements of a second reserve and move in, etc., etc.