API to issue updated metocean RP

David Paganie
Managing Editor

API to issue updated metocean RP

OMAE, San Diego -- API is planning to issue a new metocean recommended practice (RP2MET) by mid-2008, said Cortis Cooper, Chevron, at OMAE in San Diego on Tuesday. The new RP may be used to govern loads for the design and operation of facilities such as spars, semisubmersibles, and drillships, Cooper said.

This is the first API RP containing metocean conditions that will include data on currents other than just those caused by hurricanes, he said. Data on currents in deepwater generated by the Loop Current, its associated eddies, and by topographic Rossby waves (TRW), will be included.

Learnings from TRW may be used to govern pipeline and riser designs along the corridor near the Sigsbee Escarpment in the central Gulf, Cooper said. This is an area where a number of major discoveries have been announced including Chevron's Jack.

Other information used in drafting this upcoming API RP include three years of mooring data and 20 years of data from DeepStar's hindcast model GEM4.

6/13/2007