The project was designed to evaluate, develop, and improve project readiness of technologies for solutions for the Touch Down Zone (TDZ) region of Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) used for deepwater development. There is often insufficient time during the system selection phase for a project team to undertake a comprehensive investigation of potential SCR performance and therefore any selection often later requires timely and costly alterations to other parts of the system in order to mitigate difficulties with the SCRs. Furthermore, design improvements during the early stages of development will lessen the chance of premature failure and any accidental discharge of oil and gas that may result. This project helped to alleviate those concerns by evaluating and developing SCR system designs to improve project readiness, safety and environmental protection at the TDZ region.
The Joint Industry Project (JIP) researched two case studies with SCR applications; including 1) a semi-submersible floating production unit in the Gulf of Mexico and 2) a tanker-based FPSO unit offshore West Africa. The top four TDZ solutions were be analyzed, developed, and tested/validated during partial and full scale testing. The four TDZ solutions included 1) Titanium segment, 2) Lightweight Coating (LWC), 3) Upset pipe, and 4) PDW-1 Integral Connectors.
Due to the proprietary nature of the work, the full-version deliverables will not be releasable to the public for 10 years following release of the data to JIP participants. As of May 2010, the full (9 volume) proprietary version is expected in June 2010, making the proprietary versions available to the public in approximately June 2020. Until then, a public-version summary report (Report AA) is provided below.