It is expected to facilitate industry consideration of alternatives to costly steel in the development of mooring systems and risers, says Ernesto Valenzuela, Offshore Technology Development Manager, ABS.

“It is no longer a question of if but when composite materials will take their first starring role in production from a deepwater hydrocarbon reservoir,” said Valenzuela.

“We have brought a comprehensive set of criteria to operators wanting to apply fibre-reinforced plastics (FRPs) to their projects.”

Valenzuela said the ABS Guide for Certification of FRP Hydrocarbon Production Piping Systems provided technical guidance and design procedures for using composites or FRPs on the topsides of offshore facilities.

As projects become more complex and move into deeper waters, the topsides become heavier, the steel mooring systems and risers become longer and heavier, thus presenting serious challenges to project economics.

“These challenges have spurred research into substitute materials that would do the job of steel, but at much lighter weights. Once thought of as an exotic material, composites and FRPs are gaining acceptance among operators,” said Valenzuela.

ABS plans to unveil its composite guidance in three stages. First, release of criteria for FRP in topside applications; secondly, criteria for carbon-fibre composite riser piping and joint application and; thirdly, criteria for composites in cryogenic piping applications.

The move to synthetic mooring lines during the past decade has been key in making some recent deepwater projects possible and the offshore industry’s first step away from steel and into alternate materials.

The use of composites, specifically carbon-fibre materials replacing steel in production and drilling risers, and in the tendons of tension-leg platforms (TLPs), is the next step.