The Development of a Superior Form of Fire-Protective Cladding for Quarters at Ekofisk, Norwegian North Sea
Authors: Barnard H.D. , Gilbreth E.W. , Murhall C.C. 
Published: December 2007

The safety of personnel residing in a living-quarters module on an offshore platform can be greatly improved by the installation of a heat-shield wall platform can be greatly improved by the installation of a heat-shield wall on the inboard side of the quarters. This paper describes the study that developed the heat-shield wall and that helped develop a tool for predicting the mechanics and consequences of certain platform disasters. predicting the mechanics and consequences of certain platform disasters. Introduction

Early 1973 heralded the expected increase in offshore activity on Phase 2 constructions at the Ekofisk field, and launched the designs of future Phase 3 installations.The first installation to be engineered in the Phase 3 development program was the Cod field platform, to stand in about 230 ft of water in Block 7/11 and to lie about 50 miles northwest of Ekofisk Center. The platform was to be a combined drilling, production. and platform was to be a combined drilling, production. and accommodations platform with a production rate of 17,400 BOPD and 118.5 MMscf/D of gas. Because of its remote location it had to be fully self-supporting a compact production facility with its own living quarters and with its products pipelined to Ekoflsk Center.The quarters were to be permanent and were designed toaccommodate all drilling and well service company crews during well drilling, completion, and testing;accommodate all work crews during production equipment and line hook-up; andeventually house the operations and maintenance personnel during the production life of the field. production life of the field.

To the regulatory authorities involved, the concept of permanent living quarters on a production platform close permanent living quarters on a production platform close to hydrocarbon-handling equipment was highly innovative, and was considered unsafe and of unsound practice.To assure the regulatory authorities to the contrary, it was decided to prepare certain theoretical analyses for Cod. The intent was to demonstrate that in the event of failures, selected platform disasters, or normal operating upsets, personnel on board were protected within the confines of the quarters for an adequate period.The documentation for these analyses was called the safety study. This study examined production flaring during equipment malfunctions, calculated normal and abnormal operating noise levels, and predicted the sequence and consequences of certain major platform accidents occurring as a result of possible material or equipment failure.The section of the study that analyzed these catastrophies (as the major accidents were called), although rudimentary in its approach, did produce parameters and predict effects that clearly indicated that a superior type predict effects that clearly indicated that a superior type of fire protection was required for the quarters. It showed that the quarters, where the personnel would ultimately assemble in an emergency, had to be protected on its inboard side and roof by a construction that could withstand high, intense thermal shocks, continually high radiant heat levels, and the errosive effects of convective heat fluxes.To meet these conditions a special wall was devised, called the heat-shield wall; similar types of high-grade fire barriers were designed for the roof and skid.Materials were selected and fire-tested individually. Components of these materials were assembled into sample wall panels and subjected to ad hoc fire tests, where the loading criterion was the heat flux and the upper test limit was the temperature level at which their steel support structure began to lose its physical properties.

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