TDI-Brooks Featured in World Dredging

Introduction

 

With the downturn of the oil & gas industry, many rig operators have had to find suitable sites along the Gulf coast where they could cold-stack their rigs until oil exploration picks up again. This paper describes the results of a site investigation and foundation assessment for cold stacking a large, semisubmersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) at the Keppel AmFELS dock facility located in the Brownsville ship channel, Brownsville, Texas.

 
The objectives of the investigation were to (1) determine the ship channel bottom topography using geophysical data collected at the site, (2) characterize the soil and foundation conditions at the site to predict final, after-ballasting pontoon penetrations, and (3) evaluate the potential for sliding of the semisubmerisble rig during a hurricane event.

 

Citation

World Dredging Mining & Construction
Vol. 50, Nos.11/2 – 2/17
Geotechnical Assessment for Cold Stacking of Semisubmersible MODU
Jean Audibert, Bernie Bernard, and James Brooks