Floating Concrete Structures for Oil and Gas Production

The introduction of floating concrete platforms to offshore oil and gas production has opened a new era of cost-effective platforms for deep water field developments. This development not only concerns North Sea waters. Several oil companies have recognised the merits of the concrete floaters also for the Gulf of Mexico where they are now seriously considered for deep water oil and gas fields. The main advantages of concrete platforms are their favourable cost and scheduling factors, simple design and construction, robustness and durability in operation and moderate sensitivity to topside weight. The paper presents various platform configurations and their dynamic behaviour, as well as a discussion of materials and construction methods.