Saipem

Abstract Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a crucial technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in hard-to-abate sectors, including offshore oil and gas operations. This work provides a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Carbon Capture and Storage system integrated on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit to treat the flue gases generated by the onboard power generation. The scope includes both topside installation and subsea infrastructure for transporting CO2 to the storage site. The assessment quantifies emissions from construction and operation over 25 years, evaluating the environmental performance of the entire CCS system as a decarbonization solution for offshore production fields. The study has been structured into the following key phases: System layout analysis to identify the main building blocks.Definition of the system's life cycle phases.Establishment of system boundaries.Design of the system and data collection from various departments.Execution of the LCA and computational analysis. The first 3 steps ensure proper analysis boundaries and avoid missing environmental impacts. System design focused on collecting and calculating technical data—such as weights, materials, and construction times—for all CCS components. The LCA was performed using the midpoint approach and Global Warming Potential over 100 years (GWP100) metric, covering the entire system lifecycle from component fabrication to operation, and adopting a cradle-to-gate perspective for greenhouse gas emissions quantification. The findings provide a comparative evaluation between the investigated system's performance before and after the CCS plant implementation. Moreover, considerations are made quantifying CO2-eq emissions generated throughout the plant's lifecycle in relation with its storage capacity. Considering the results, it can be asserted that the implementation of carbon capture and storage systems for the decarbonization of offshore oil and gas production sites represents an efficient and effective solution. Comparing the emissions generated from the same system before and after CCS implementation, the net CO2-eq emissions reduction results in 87.9% less. Furthermore, even though the construction and operation of such facilities result in notable CO2-eq emissions, the hourly storage capacity of an average-performance CCS system ensures that the additional emissions associated with the installation of such infrastructure are offset within a reasonable and relatively short timeframe. The study of a real case application confirms that carbon capture and storage technology is one of the main solutions of a global strategy against climate change, and it can be immediately deployed for offshore applications. Indeed, while greenhouse gas emissions should be avoided whenever possible, hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as the offshore industry – which still play a significant role, particularly in the production of energy and raw materials – could achieve a substantially reduced, close to net-zero, climate impact through the implementation of CCS technologies.

R&D (Research and Development) Engineering plays a central role throughout the development of new technologies for offshore applications, following a structured methodology aligned with international qualification standards. Usually, the maturity of technology is assessed by the TRL (Technology Readiness Level) according to a specific standard (in the below figure the API 17Q/ API 17N is used). The R&D effort varies along the TRL scale. It is most intense during the early phases of a new technology: during the inception (TRL 00–01), the R&D team invests heavily in concept validation and feasibility studies and, if necessary, in patenting activities to protect the Intellectual Property. During development (TRL 02–03), R&D drives the design and prototyping, maintaining a high level of engagement to ensure technical robustness, technological risks mitigation, and innovation. As the process moves into industrialization (TRL 04–05), the effort gradually decreases, focusing on environmental and system testing and refining designs for manufacturability and integration of the technology with existing systems. In the final stages i.e., commercialization in executive Projects, deployment and commissioning (TRL 06–07), R&D involvement is more limited but remains essential for support during first offshore installation, integration and field performances validation. This progressive shift ensures that R&D resources are concentrated where they add the most value, enabling a seamless transition from concept to a qualified technology ready for offshore applications. This paper will describe the journey through these TRL steps of the Integrated Acoustic Unit (I.A.U.), a proprietary and innovative technology developed to monitor the pipeline integrity during offshore laying. The paper will start with a brief recap of the inception of the technology, from first TRL steps to the prototype's construction, technology qualification and will mainly focus on the first commercial application of the I.A.U. achieved with the deployment in Scarborough pipelay project. It will provide a summary of the integration, calibration and measurements performed onboard the pipelay vessel, for more than 1-year operations, along with the analysis of the measurements and the performances.

Abstract This paper presents a soil reaction framework for monotonic lateral analysis of offshore wind monopiles in sand, formulated using input parameters that can be derived from seismic cone penetration test (SCPT) data. The model adopts a multicomponent Winkler representation incorporating distributed lateral, distributed moment, and base shear reactions within a unified bounding-surface plasticity formulation. This approach enables direct linkage between soil reaction behavior and site-specific soil properties, namely small-strain stiffness and cone penetration resistance inferred from in situ measurements. Model calibration is supported by an original centrifuge testing program conducted within the Monopile Improved Design through Advanced Cyclic Soil Modeling (MIDAS) project, covering monopile geometries and sand densities representative of offshore wind applications. The calibrated parameter ranges are subsequently evaluated against independent field test data sets from the Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) and VIBRO research programs. Comparisons indicated that the proposed formulation reproduces global load-displacement response and bending moment distributions with satisfactory accuracy across a range of pile–soil relative stiffness conditions. The proposed framework provides a computationally efficient alternative to three-dimensional finite-element analyses for monopile design, particularly during early wind farm development stages when high-fidelity simulations are constrained by time and/or limited soil data.

The joint industry project (JIP) Wind Avatar focuses on the possibilities unlocked by the development of digital twin technology, applied to floating offshore wind turbines. Precisely, we consider the construction and operation of the digital twin of a single synthetic floating wind turbine model. The present work is based on a reference wind turbine and floater model and focuses on methodologies to perform a calibration of a digital twin from available operational data to ensure consistency with the real asset. The properties calibrated focus on the wind turbine and are mostly related to masses and stiffnesses of the different parts of the model. We are considering synthetic data and building a workflow based on Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) and on an optimization workflow to evaluate the applicability of this approach in a realistic context. The workflow is based on a systematic comparison of mode shapes and frequencies between digital twin and real asset and relies on the Sequential Quadratic Approximation (SQA) approach for the optimization [1]. The main outcomes are that the optimization can allow to calibrate structure properties if a well-defined set of vibration modes has been identified from sensor data. The results underline how the workflow is promising if used in favorable context.

The seismic performance of large equipment on offshore oil production platforms is vital for ensuring personnel safety and maintaining the structural integrity of the platform. Seismic failure of equipment can result in catastrophic hazards such as explosions, platform damage or collapse, significant economic losses, and environmental disasters. This paper evaluates the seismic performance of various types of commonly used equipment on offshore platforms in upstream operations. The seismic response of the equipment, modeled together with the platform, is assessed using nonlinear time-history analysis under three-component, 22 different high-magnitude recorded earthquake records, and analyzed through both coupled and uncoupled dynamic analyses. The findings reveal that offshore earthquakes significantly affect equipment on offshore platforms, with results indicating a positive correlation between peak ground acceleration (PGA) and material yielding in equipment supports, while peak ground velocity (PGV) and the PGA/PGV ratio significantly affect the seismic performance of the platform. Equipment that is horizontally positioned and supported is found to be more vulnerable than vertically positioned equipment, regardless of the first mode shape. The findings of this study establish seismic design recommendations for topside equipment, propose specific PGA thresholds for various types of equipment, and provide recommendations for enhanced equipment saddle designs to improve the seismic performance of topside equipment on offshore platforms.