BV Tackles FPSO Cracking

Bureau Veritas has launched new rules for FPSOs which embody extensive recent experience with large floating structures and enhanced spectral fatigue analysis.

BV's Rules for the Hull Structure of Production, Storage, and Offloading Surface Units are the most up to date distillation of experience with a wide range of ship and box-shaped FPSOs. They take into account that the units have to remain onsite without dry-docking for twenty-five years, with specific loads, and place new emphasis on reinforcing focal points where cracking has appeared on existing FPSOs.

Marie-Françoise Renard, offshore leader for the marine division of Bureau Veritas, says, "We have been called in by several major operators of FPSOs to perform structural assessments of both converted and new built FPSOs, built to a number of different class society standards. The assessments show damage even in mild environments, especially to converted units. Using our powerful VeriSTAR tools we have been able to offer solutions to the lifetime maintenance of these structures, and we can now draw together the experience in this unique package of rules."