Mooring Systems for Floaters – FPSO Mooring System

1 Introduction
The offshore mooring line or anchor rode is the means of connecting the anchor on the
seafloor to a large ship or a floating structure at the surface. The mooring line is also called
mooring wire, anchor rode, mooring chain, mooring rope, mooring hawser or mooring warp. The
mooring line consists of rope or wire rope and chain and a variety of connectors. There is a large
variety of solutions available. Here we focus on giving an overview of mooring line solutions for
FPSOs (Floating Production Systems Offloading).
The mooring line can consist of chain or/and metal wire rope or/and synthetic fiber rope.
The construction(s) and material(s) are determined for the performance of the mooring line. The
mooring line is a part of a mooring system. The other components of the mooring system are the
anchor(s) and the connectors. The mooring system is used for station keeping/mooring of a ship
or floating offshore structure in shallow water or deep water or ultra-deep water.
The mooring system must be designed to withstand the environmental forces from wind,
waves and currents from any direction and that the horizontal excursions of the vessel or floating
structure are small to avoid damage to the sub sea equipment or risers. The mooring system is a
crucial element for any floating offshore structure.

2 Mooring Concept

2.1 Types of mooring systems:

i. Spread
ii. Internal turret
iii. External turret
iv. CALM
v. SALM
vi. DP (Dynamic Positioning)
vii. Tower

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2.1.1 Spread Mooring
Spread moored systems are mooring systems that allow tankers to moor at a fixed
location at a fixed heading and allows tankers to (off) load their products. Spread Mooring
Systems utilize four groups of anchor legs, normally arranged in a symmetrical pattern, attached
to the bow and stern of the vessel. This style of mooring maintains the vessel on location with a
fixed heading. Thus, its application is dependent on a site where the prevailing severe weather is
highly directional.
Spread moorings can be used in applications requiring long service life, in any water
depth, and on any size of vessel. Since the vessel is held essentially at a constant heading, the
requirement for a turret structure with a large capacity slewing bearing, as well as the associated
swivel stack for fluid, gas, chemical, hydraulic power, electrical power and control transfer is not
needed. Virtually all types of anchor leg configurations can be used with this system. Typically,
risers and control umbilical are located amidships on both sides of the vessel. This arrangement
provides ample room to accommodate a large number of risers and umbilical. In applications with
highly directional prevailing weather, the shuttle tanker offloading facilities are typically located
at the stern or the bow; other deepwater applications may require a dedicated buoy terminal for
cargo transfer.

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Features:
• Uses traditional shipboard mooring equipment.

• Turret structure and bearing are not needed.

• Fluid and gas swivels are not needed.

• Electrical power and control swivels are not needed.

• Easily accommodates a large number of risers and umbilicals.

Drawbacks:
• The dynamic motions of the FPSO are transferred directly to the SCR at the hang-
off positions. This leads to fatigue life issues in the riser touchdown point on the
seabed, which govern the cross-sectional design of the pipes.
• With increasing water depth, the length of mooring line required and the cost of
the mooring system also increase; hence there are significant savings to be made
by optimization of the mooring system.
• The potential for interference between the SCRs, mooring lines of the FPU, and
mooring lines of neighboring platforms. A typical FPSO is the centerpiece of a
deepwater field with wellhead platform and offloading buoy mooring lines in
close proximity.
• The minimal ability for a spread moored FPU to weather vane into the direction
of the environment if the dominant environmental conditions are on the side of
the vessel.
• Long installation times for SCRs, resulting in a large delay between the arrival of
the FPU on site and the first oil date.

2.1.2 Internal Turret

The Internal Turret Mooring system is integrated into the forward end of a tanker or
barge and is supported on a large roller bearing, located either inside a moonpool towards the
bottom of the vessel, or at deck level. The outer rotating race of the bearing is connected to the
vessel, while the inner race is attached to the fixed part of the turret. Above deck level, a manifold
structure enables connection between the lower turret and the swivel stack.

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Features:
• Permanent and disconnectable systems.

• Moderate to harsh environment.

• Deep water applications.

2.1.3 External Turret

The External Turret Mooring system comprises a steel box type structure that can be
close or extended some distance from the bow or stern of the vessel, providing a foundation for a
rotating bearing arrangement and a turret. The bearing accommodates a fixed chainable to which
mooring chains and fluid transfer hoses are attached. The chain legs are anchored to the seabed
either by anchors or piles. Product and utility connections are made between the facilities on the
tanker and the seabed via a swivel stack in the turret, allowing the tanker to weather vane around
the fixed part whilst continuing production. External turret systems are less expensive than
internal turret designs and can be delivered in a shorter period of time, making them an excellent
choice for many applications. They can be attached to the bow and the stern of ships.

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Features:
• Fluid and gas swivels are needed
• Electrical power and control swivels needed
• Limited number of risers and umbilicals

2.1.4 Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring

After more than 40 years of use, the Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM)
system remains one of the most flexible, cost-effective, safe and reliable offshore
loading/offloading systems. Environmentally friendly, this cost-saving "instant port"
solution provides a trustworthy system that satisfies most offshore loading and offloading
requirements. This concept has been utilized for a wide range of applications, water
depths and vessel ranging from small product carriers to the largest ULCCs.

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Features:
• Short term mooring: for import and export of fluids between onshore or offshore facilities
and a tanker.
• Permanent Mooring: for production and storage systems.
• Semi-permanent Mooring: permanent mooring with easy disconnects capability to
evacuate the facility in case of severe weather conditions.

2.1.5 Single Anchor Leg Mooring

A mooring facility dedicated to the offshore petroleum discharge system. Once installed,
it permits a tanker to remain on station and pump in much higher sea states than is possible with a
spread moor.
The Single Anchor Leg Mooring or SALM: Prevents collision damage to the swivels by
placing them underwater and below the keel level of the tanker. Any damage should then only
affect the simple surface buoy and be relatively cheap to repair. The underwater swivels do
however have maintenance disadvantages. To prevent the flexible loading pipe clashing with the
mooring chains the catenary is replaced by a single, nominally vertical, tensioned chain mooring
leg. In shallow water the fluid swivels are on the base. In deep water the fluid swivels could be
attached part way up the mooring leg. This would ease maintenance of the swivels and the
flexible pipes from the swivels to the tanker.
Fluids flow either through a flexible pipe from the base on the seabed directly to
the ship or flow through the base and the tubular column, via a swivel to the ship. The
submarine hoses are long enough to adapt to all the motions of the buoy. The fluids are
transferred between the buoy and the FPSO through one or more floating hoses. The flow
through the buoy goes via a swivel, which allows flow between the geostatic parts and
the rotating parts of the buoy.

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Features:
• All weather
• Great range of water depths
• Fast installation and cost effective
• High reliability

2.1.6 Dynamic Positioning

DP means dynamic positioning. This means to keep a floating structure stationary by
means of controlling the magnitude and the direction of thrust, based on position feedback.
The power management system provides all the power needed for the positioning of the
vessel. It consists of two circuits. A high voltage circuit for the power supply of the thrusters and
a low voltage circuit for the control systems. There are four kinds of thrusters that are used in DP
systems. These are described below. These thrusters must be able to create thrust in the
longitudinal and transverse direction and torque around a vertical axis at the ships center of
gravity in order to keep the vessel at its specified position. A position reference system provides
the control system with information on the location of the vessel at any time. There are several
different systems, such as satellite navigation, acoustic position measurement, radio ranging, laser
beam ranging etc. For redundancy purposes more than one system is used.
The DP-control system has to keep the vessel on station and at a fixed heading,
resisting environmental loads. It includes sensor systems, other that the position reference
system, for example for the measurement of wind velocity or for measurement of roll and
pitch of the vessel. These sensor data is processed. Inconsistent data is rejected, high
frequency components of position signals are filtered and the required forces on the ship
are determined. The required forces are then allocated to the available thrusters, keeping
power and thrust limitations into account.

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Features:
• Suitable for harsh environment.
• Great range of depth possibilities.
• Many risers possible.
• High buying costs, high user costs.

2.1.7 Tower Mooring

Tower moorings are a cost effective way of permanent FPSO moorings in shallow
waters. A turntable is fastened to the tower with a roller bearing to allow the vessel to freely

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weathervane around the tower. A yoke is connected to the turntable with pitch and roll joints to
allow the vessel to pitch and to roll. The yoke includes a large ballast tank filled with water to
provide the necessary restoring force to minimize vessel motions. The two mooring links suspend
the tank from a support structure mounted on the vessel.
Product is transferred from the tower across swivels located on the turntable and
through hoses from the turntable to the vessel. Ample deck space is available on the
tower for manifolding, pigging, and auxiliary equipment. Access to the tower can be
made along walkways from the vessel across the yoke.

Features:
• It eliminates the need for submarine hoses and provides a simple fluid transfer via jumper
hoses from the tower to the tanker.
• It provides direct access to the tower structure from the storage tanker.
• Only minor tanker modifications are required.
• All mechanical equipment is located above sea level.

3 Mooring Lines
Mooring lines are usually constructed out of one or more parts of three different
materials; chain, steel wire rope or synthetic fibre rope. Chain is the most common product used

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for mooring lines. Two different types of chain can be recognised; studless and studlink chain.
Studless chain is moor suited for this problem because it is better suited for permanent moorings.
Steel wire rope has a lower weight and a higher elasticity than chain, for the same breakingload.
This can be an advantage in deeper water, when using longer lines. Because of the fact that
offshore activities moved into deeper water, an even lighter product was developed; synthetic
fibre rope.
Most mooring lines consist out of several different materials; for instance chain at the top
and bottom of a line and in between synthetic fibre rope. This way the characteristics of each
material are used in their best way.
Mooring lines can mainly be used in two different ways, namely the catenary mooring or
the taut leg mooring. With a catenary mooring, the last part of the mooring line is resting on the
seabed. The main advantage is that therefore the anchors only need to withstand a horizontal
force; the disadvantage is that the system has a quite large footprint. In deeper water the weight of
the lines starts to play a role so this type of mooring is not suited for very deep water.
With taut leg mooring the footprint is a lot smaller because the lines are under constant
tension in a straight line from the fair leaves to the anchors. Disadvantage is that the anchors thus
need to handle a vertical force as well as a horizontal force. This type of mooring is better suited
for very deep water.

4 Forces
When trying to keep a floating object at sea in position it will have to resist the
environment. It will need a mooring system to oppose the forces subjected to it by wind waves
and current. In this case wind will act on the exposed area of the FPSO and waves and wind and
current act on the hull, risers and mooring system. In the picture below the exciting forces and the
restoring forces are shown. These will be handled separately.

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Model input:
The maximum design conditions are put into the dynamic equation of the total system:
• 100 year waves, with associated wind and current.
• 100 year wind, with associated waves and current.
• 100 year current, with associated waves and wind.
Model result:

4.1 Wind
Wind has a stochastic nature which greatly depends on time and location. It is usually
characterized by fairly large fluctuations in velocity and direction. It is common meteorological
practice to give the wind velocity in terms of the average over a certain interval of time, varying
from 1 to 60 minutes. The value assigned to this interval is the average wind speed at 10m above
the surface. These values are found in meteorological data (see section Input) and can be used in
the following formulae to give the total wind loads.

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4.2 Current
The forces exerted by current depend on the mooring type of the FPSO. In an
environment were waves and current act primarily from one direction, an FPSO can be spread
moored. For a unidirectional environment an FPSO should be able to weathervane.
The current acts on the FPSO, risers and mooring system itself. Therefore the current
profile has to be know over the whole depth. The profile is imported for the magnitude as well as
for the direction of the forces. The current forces also interact with the wave drift forces.

The following formula can be used to calculate the current force on the hull:

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The risers and mooring lines can be modelled as long cylinders. For this the Morison equation
can be used:

4.3 Waves
First order wave forces create large loads on the FPSO itself, but not on the mooring
system. This is because the periods of the waves are too high to cause significant motions. The
loads on the mooring system are created by the mean wave drift force and the second order wave
force. The second order wave loads occur at lower frequencies which can coincide with the
mooring systems natural frequency and thus cause unacceptable excursions. Wave forces are
calculated using wave scatter diagrams, which are explained in the Boundary Input section.
As said the individual waves go to fast to cause loads on the mooring system. The wave
drift force is a constant force and thus has to be overcome by the mooring system. The drift force
is shown in the picture below. It is the same force that will help you get your ball back when it is
in a pond, by throwing stones behind it.

Waves also cause higher order forces.

These forces have a much lower period than the individual waves and

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can therefore be dangerously close to the natural frequency of the mooring system. When this
happens the motions are only restricted by the damping of the system. A computer model is
needed to calculate the effects of both the wave drift force as the second order wave force.

5 Boundary Conditions
When choosing an FPSO mooring system several factors are of importance to make sure
the FPSO mooring design will meet the required field lifetime and properties for a specific place
on the planet. All different aspects that have to be taken into account are given as boundary
input.The boundary input can be divided in:
• Environment

• Field conditions

• Soil

• Threats

5.1 Environment
Site specific data for the environment has to be collected for the following factors:
Wind, waves and current.

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5.1.1 Wind
Wind data can be found at various meteorological institutes. For the ultimate limit
state the maximum wind speed is of interest. For fatigue analysis the periodic nature of
wind should be analyzed. Wind data is available in de same form as wave data of which
an example is given below. Therefore wind will not be further analyzed.

5.1.2 Waves
The input for the wave force model is usually in the form of a wave scatter diagram. This
diagram gives information on the wave heights and periods and their frequency of occurrence.
For the North sea these diagrams are available from the Ness-Next Database on a 30x30 km
scale. The diagrams are hind casted from the date collected by different wave buoys, as can be
seen in the picture below.

When the location is know the specific wave scatter diagram can be collected from the
Ness-Next Database. An example of such a scatter diagram is shown below. Each value indicates

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a 3 hour sea state. All the sea states together give the wave climate for a period of time. This
wave climate can be put into a computer model to calculate the response of the mooring system.
An example of a wave spectrum is given below. This table gives the wave conditions for 1000 3
hour periods. This table will therefore give the waves one can expect during a period of
1000*3/24=125 days.

Another way of displaying the environmental conditions at a specific site is given below.

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Example of sea state data. [Source: Offshore Hydromechanics, J.M.J Journée, W.W. Massie]

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5.1.3 Current
Current doesn't vary as much as waves. Therefore a maximum current velocity is
added to the waves for the mooring system response calculation. A typical current profile
is displayed in the picture below.

5.2 Field Conditions

With current oil prices the development of smaller fields becomes more attractive. Field
lifetimes therefore range from two to 30 years. Cost and installation time of a mooring system has
to be compatible with this lifetime. Dynamic positioning for instance will be highly suitable for
fields with a short lifetime because of short installation times. The FPSO can also be installed at a

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new site afterwards, using the same mooring system. For fields with longer lifetimes fuel
consumption of the DP system becomes a factor and the cost of this will exceed the cost of a
different type of mooring. For the seven types of mooring systems explained on this site, different
factors are examined and these are displayed in the following table.

Mooring
Water Depth Field lifetime Environment
system
2-4 4-1010-30
Shallow Intermediate Deep Calm Intermediate Harsh
yr yr yr
Spread ++ + - + + + ++ + --
Internal
- ++ + - + ++ ++ ++ ++
turret
External
- ++ + - + ++ ++ ++ ++
turret
CALM + + +- - + ++ ++ + -
SALM + + +- - + ++ ++ + -
DP - ++ ++ ++ + -- ++ + --
Tower ++ - -- -- + ++ ++ ++ ++

5.3 Soil
For an FPSO anchors with a very high loading capacity are needed. This capacity has to
come from the soil stiffness. Selecting the right type of anchor and mooring method for the right
type of soil is therefore crucial. The possibilities are a drag anchor, suction anchor, piled
anchor or a tower.

5.3.1 Drag anchor

When using a spread catenary mooring system drag anchors are very suitable. These
anchors have to be pretensioned to achieve the right penetration depth.

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5.3.2 Suction anchor
For soft soils with a small lateral holding capacity a large volume of the soil has to be
mobilized to support the large mooring forces. Suction anchors are large cans that are pushed into
the seabed using a negative pressure difference inside the can. Suction anchors are very suitable
for deep water because of the high outside pressure and the axial loading capacity. In shallow
water the pressure difference that can be achieved is to small to get the cans to the required depth.

5.3.3 Piled anchor

In hard soils suction anchors cannot be installed because the pressure doesn't deliverer enough
force to drive the can to the required depth. Also drag anchors will not penetrate the soil enough.
In this case driven piles will have to be used. A support frame guides the pile and will hold the
pile and mooring cables.

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5.3.4 Tower
In shallow water and in harsh environments a tower can be the solution. The tower is piled to the
seabed and therefore has a large holding capacity and stiffness. Using mooring lines in shallow
water can also give problems for ships sailing past and offloading the FPSO.

6 Installation Challenges
Although the industry has had quite a bit of deepwater installation experience, incidents
of dropped mooring lines, damaged lines or interfacing structures during installation and similar
problems continue to plague the various projects. Some of the high level challenges in deepwater
installation are considerably higher tension values and therefore large pull-in loads, expensive
installation vessel spreads demanding an efficient installation procedure, longer times required to
perform as built survey, and the high cost of fixing a problem or installation related damage.
Some of the more detailed challenges are discussed below.

6.1 Avoiding Twist in Mooring Lines

Ensuring there is zero or minimum twist introduced in the mooring system during pre-
installation or final hook-up of the mooring is essential to its long-term integrity. Presence of
twist in the wire rope can result in bird-caging action and premature failure. Presence of twist in
the mooring chain can reduce the strength and fatigue performance significantly. Ideally, the
mooring line should be completely free of twist at hook-up. Additional safeguards are required to
avoid twist being introduces during installation. Some installation time will have to be spent to
take out introduced twist. Either of these steps will increase the installation time and hence cost,
but are necessary for optimum performance of the mooring system. Use of low-torque pull-in
wire, use of a second line for balancing the torque, and introduction of an in-line swivel during
pull-in are various methods currently used. The installation contractor’s past experience can be a
valuable asset. The issue of managing twist should be addressed very early on in the installation
planning.
The acceptable level of twist in a mooring system is still a gray area. The long-term
behavior of mooring wire and mooring chain in the presence of varying levels of twist cannot be
predicted with certainly. These are some analytic tools that the manufactures have that can be
used as rough guidelines but are not benchmarked. For studless chain, experience has shown that
the relationship of twist angle versus torque is very sensitive to the precise modeling of the
geometry of the link at the crown region. Similarly, reliable data on torsional rigidity of mooring
wire rope and pull-in wire rope may not be readily available. This information may be important

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to predict the anticipate twist. The industry could benefit from some collaborative effort to
develop systematic data on torque-twist behavior of both chain and wire rope under various levels
of tension. These data will increase understanding of the resulting strength and fatigue life
reduction due to twist. The complexity of the problem calls for a combination of analytic
predictions benchmarked by laboratory testing.

6.2 Tension Accuracy at Hook-Up

This is another area that can easily be overlooked. As mentioned earlier, for taut systems
the tension variation between the adjacent lines in one mooring group can result in a serve
reduction of the fatigue performance. When the requirement is specified, reliable means of
measuring tension during installation is required. Measurement of chain departure angle served
reasonably well for shallow water catenary systems. For taut systems, the resolution of the angle
measurement may not be adequate. Indirect prediction of tension requires very accurate
measurement of all the variables and parameters governing line tension.
The more important parameters include: mooring chain and wire length, unit weight of
chain, wire and connectors, elasticity of the chain and wire, water temperature, water depth
including tide, draft and trim of the vessel, exact location of the anchor, number of link embedded
in the soil, and the prevailing weather. Verification of the top shackle height below the water
surface (predicted versus observed value) has been successfully used as a check on some recent
projects. However, more reliable direct measurements would be desirable. The verification of the
installed mooring line tension is something that needs to be thought through early in the
installation planning cycle.

6.3 Avoiding Installation Damage to Wire Rope

In recent experience in installation, they have seen several problems with damage to wire
rope during installation. The damages have occurred on both sheathed spiral strand wire ropes.
Some of the damages incidences occurred during the unspooling operation from the installation
reel. In other case, the damage was caused by other installation gear. Fortunately, neither of these
incidents caused any serious damage. However, an adequate assessment protection in the region
of the damages sheathing. Assessment of the damage and remedial action can be costly for these
systems in deepwater. A replacement line and the installation cost can easily reach several million
dollars.

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7 Conclusion
Though the industry has moved forward into shallow or deepwater with several installed
systems there still is considerable room for improvement in several areas of design an installation.
The challenge to both operators and engineering contractors is to design economic systems that
are safely installed without unpleasant surprises in the field, and are reliable in-service. The cost
of fixing a problem late in the design stage, or in the field during installation is extremely high.
This expensive fix can only be avoided by very rigorous planning, diligent review of design and
installation planning phases, and careful management of design and installation interfaces.

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