Failures of mooring systems in offshore floating production are not easy to predict, but they do occur, and they will happen more often as infrastructure nears the end of design life.

“It is mission critical that we do the detective work up front on these ageing systems,” according to Tony Hall, CEO of Welaptega Marine. “It’s imperative that we identify any phenomenon that could put a facility at risk of failure.”

Hall, whose company specializes in risk-based mooring integrity verification, was speaking today to a group of offshore integrity experts attending a seminar on ageing infrastructure. It was convened by the Oil, Petrochemical and Energy Risk Association (OPERA).

“It’s not good enough to do the postmortem on a failure. That’s too late. We need to be on the lookout for deteriorative mechanisms that put the system at risk of failure so preventive action can be taken.”

Tags: Welaptega Marine