Technoeconomic Model for Offshore Supply Operations

The vital role of logistic support for maintaining uninterrupted drilling operations is well known to offshore petroleum engineers. Moreover, its importance is growing as exploration and production activities are extended to progressively deeper water and harsher weather conditions. However, no systematic approach for ensuring effective logistic support has yet been realized. A method of studying the characteristics of logistic support and of designing a system for securing effective supply to an offshore rig is proposed. It is based on event simulation modeling of offshore supply operations, together with more conventional technical and economic models for yielding economic criteria which take into account a possible interruption of drilling operations. The method has been developed through a detailed investigation of each component of the supply operation and of the inherent problems. To evaluate the feasibility of the approach, an example has been provided.