Emerging Trends in Umbilical Technology: Limitations and Recommendations

The impact of increasingly diverse functional requirements and extreme service conditions is having a significant effect upon the evolution of accepted umbilical technology. The current trend in deep water developments in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa coupled with a more diverse range of functional requirements such as medium voltage power supply to subsea equipment, high pressure and high temperature fluid injection, and integrated service functionality has lead to the development of a number of niche solutions being developed. These generally fall outside of the traditional umbilical design scope and as such are not effectively governed by existing industry design standards. The paper will discuss the current trends in umbilical technology; describing the limitations of existing accepted technologies with respect to functionality and extreme service requirements and highlight emerging technologies which are being developed by industry to address current limitations. The current legislative deficiencies related to emerging technologies will be discussed and will be focused upon medium voltage power umbilicals, high pressure high temperature umbilicals, and integrated service umbilicals.