ORCA Offshore

The key expertise of ORCA Offshore is operational risk consultancy and analysis for offshore marine operations. Thorough knowledge of advanced simulation technologies to identify and quantify risks, combined with an extensive offshore operational experience, ensures realistic risk assessments, sound design advice and realistic design analysis.

ORCA Offshore delivers a range of engineering and consultancy services for offshore transport and construction activities, which aim to control the risks associated with the exposure of equipment and personnel to the marine environment.

Knowledge of the behaviour of offshore construction equipment exposed to the offshore environment is vital for the development of safe and efficient work procedures. ORCA Offshore delivers this knowledge and is able to translate the effect of environmental conditions to equipment behaviour using various simulation tools.

Offshore construction risk consultancy and support services

ORCA Offshore delivers consultancy and support services on various aspects of offshore construction work, including:

PROJECT: Dana Petroleum Western Isles FPSO berth mooring analysis. For Keppel Verolme a berth mooring design and analysis has been performed for the Dana Petroleum Western Isles FPSO.

PROJECT: Ophir Wellhead platform. SPT Offshore has commissioned Orca Offshore to perform all the naval architectural analysis for the Ophir WHP project. The scope included marine transport, mooring and lift dynamic analysis.

PROJECT: Root Cause Analysis crane accident. Performed for the Dutch Safety board and included a time domain lift simulation. Revealed the cause of the accident. Report is available for anyone to read and learn. See our website.

PROJECT: Marathon Alba Transport. Performed Orca Offshore has performed a full structural spectral strength and fatigue analysis of the Marathon EG Alba B3 platform transport from Europe to Afrika on the Heerema barge H541. The work included the purchase of environmental data for the fatigue analyses and for the extreme transport criteria.

PROJECT: Dragon Oil LAM-E Installation. Orca Offshore and Seacamel have been awarded the Transport and Installation related engineering for the load-out, transport and installation of the Dragon Oil LAM-E platform in the Caspian sea. Scope for Orca offshore includes the marine stability, dynamic float-over analysis and structural analysis for the various phases of the platform installation.

PROJECT: Statoil Gina Krog Jacket Design. Orca Offshore has been responsible for the Naval Architectural design of the Statoil Gina Krog (previously Dagny) jacket. The work included; Transport, launch and upend design and analysis.

PROJECT: Pipelay Stinger Structural analysis. Orca Offshore was hired by Zeetech and Ulstein Sea of Solutions to perform the structural spectral dynamic analysis on several stinger designs for the vessels SapuraKencana SK3500 and SK1200 and the Petrofac JSD600. The analysis have been performed with MOSES which combined the vessel motion and the structural strength and fatigue analysis of the stinger in one model including API code check.

PROJECT: Centrica F3-Fa Marine Design. Orca Offshore performed all marine designs and analysis and provided offshore support as OIM.

SERVICE: Down Time Analysis Tool. This service tool is available and will calculate the days waiting on weather based on historical weather data for any offshore operation. The Tool will use time trace weather data, the dynamic properties of the equipment and the planning of the operation to work out the statistics of the weather risk.

• Design and review of offshore marine procedures
• Review of HSE systems
• Review and advice on operational limits
• Construction superintendent
• Client representative

Workability analysis for offshore operations

ORCA Offshore performs various levels of workability analysis for any offshore operation. A workability assessment combines the offshore environment, the marine spread hydrodynamic behaviour and the operational procedure into one simulation model, which will give insight in the environmental risk of the operation.

Offshore conceptual design services

Risks and costs of the transportation, installation and removal of an offshore structure will have a strong effect on the selection of the best concept for the planned purpose of the structure. Operational requirements are important as these will generate the required revenues. But the costs of installation, maintenance and removal of an offshore structure can be significant and can determine the success or failure of a chosen concept.

Therefore, good knowledge of offshore installation technology and weather risks is valuable input for a concept design of an offshore platform, or any offshore structure. The compromise between operational requirements and offshore construction method related to risks and costs should be carefully chosen.

Marine analysis for offshore structures

ORCA Offshore has the knowledge and tools to determine the response of any floating structure to wind, waves and current. Any offshore structure, from a simple barge to complex multi-body systems, can be analysed for static and dynamic responses. We offer the following marine analysis:

• Transport analysis including stability, bollard pull and longitudinal strength
• Motion analysis
• Launch analysis
• Upending analysis
• Mooring analysis
• Dynamic lift and lowering analysis

ORCA Offshore uses MOSES from Ultra Marine. MOSES is a structural and marine simulation language used to analyse motions, loads and stresses in multi-body marine structures subjected to the marine environment.

Structural steel design services

ORCA Offshore offers structural steel design experience for a wide range of structures related to shipping, dredging and offshore; for example:

• Ship structural design
• Offshore platforms
• Lift points (castings or fabricated)
• Grillage and seafasting design

Online marine engineering

Our online marine engineering service presents various online simulations and analysis of marine operations. Please visit the Transport Analysis website to find out more about this service (see link below).

Offshore operational decision support services

ORCA Offshore can provide operational decision support (ODS) based on an integrated approach using the various data sources, including:

• Operational limits based on dynamic models
• Weather forecast data
• Waverider buoy data
• Motion monitoring data
• Load measurements

This service will combine the different data sources in one model, which will show the offshore installation manager the actual and predicted utilisation of the defined operational limits of the offshore operation.

The service normally includes offshore support by a senior naval architect but, based on the operational requirements, it is also possible to set up the service as a standalone system which can be operated by the offshore crew.