Bureau Veritas is extending its partnerships in the Russian shipping and offshore sector, focussing on High Arctic offshore projects.
Bureau Veritas and the Russian Register are working together to provide basic design review for the Shtokman FPU for the two tenderers: SAIPEM, SAMSUNG and SOFEC (SSS) and AKER, TECHNIP and SBM (ATS). The process has called for a comparison between BV and RS rules, design review and documentation review, and performance of thermal, linear and non-linear hydrodynamic and structural calculations with VeriSTAR Hull.
BV’s Offshore Rules have been translated into Russian and co-operation agreements have been reached with the Russian Register and the University of St Petersburg. “The challenges of extracting oil and gas from the tough environments of the high Arctic have led to close co-operation between Bureau Veritas and the Russian Register, and close links between Bureau Veritas and the University of St Petersburg,” explains Bernard Anne, managing director of BV’s marine division. “There is huge potential in the exploitation of oil and gas fields in the High Arctic, and we are working with the main offshore operators and our Russian partners to ensure the natural resources can be harvested to benefit Russia and that it is done safely and cleanly.”
BV has also provided services to the Shtokman and other Russian projects including Independent Verification Body Services to provide assurance of design integrity at the FEED stage of disconnectable floating production platforms, the offshore trunk pipeline and subsea production systems. Bureau Veritas and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping are working under a three-year co-operation agreement covering the development of joint guidelines for LNG carriers and Offshore Floating Production Units (FPUs). “We can combine the particular strengths of the BV and RS rules, to produce definitive guidelines which draw on the experience and expertise of both organisations,” explains Anne.
Under the agreement, common guidelines for LNG carriers, based on GAP analyses as well as the BV and RS rules and the IMO IGC Code, are expected to be published in first-quarter 2012. These will include the requirement for operating in Arctic areas. Work on producing common guidelines for FPUs has begun. In addition to the parameters used for the LNG guidelines, these will include feedback gained from the work on the Shtokman natural gas field.In a separate development the leading Russian design office Severnoje has selected BV as the class society for its new Medmax LNG carrier design.
BV joined forces with the State Maritime University of St Petersburg to develop IceSTAR, an industrial software tool for modelling ice loads and their effects on structures. The program dramatically improves the structural design of new generation of large LNG carriers and offshore floaters for use in heavy ice conditions.
Bureau Veritas is a world leader in conformity assessment and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has close to 50,000 employees in 930 offices and 330 laboratories located in 140 countries. Bureau Veritas helps its clients to improve their performances by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.