The Penguins pipeline is a 60 km PIP system designed to buckle laterally on the seabed. The pipeline has been laid in a snaked shape in order to initiate regular lateral buckles. However there is significant uncertainty over the buckle formation process and concern over the robustness of the snake lay approach. A detailed as-laid ROV survey was undertaken to define the geometry of the pipeline system. This has been supplemented by two high precision ROV surveys of the pipeline in the operating configuration. This paper outlines how the buckling uncertainty was addressed at the design stage, the as-laid stage, and finally compares the predictions with the actual observations of lateral buckles in the operating flowline.

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