Development concepts for the northern Caspian sea

Abstract

Today the Northern Caspian Sea is considered to be a very perspective region for oil and gas growth. However, the challenges encountered in the Northern Caspian Sea are not usually met in such combination in another regions, so this imposes special requirements for the further development of hydrocarbon fields in this region. This thesis is focused on the field development in the Kazakh sector of the Northern Caspian Sea and it is addressed to a discussion of development concepts that might be applied for these conditions. Possible options for production drilling, production of hydrocarbons, oil and gas transportation and processing are discussed on basis of the analysis of existing solutions for similar conditions. Attention is also given to ice load mitigation measures and other aspects that should be taken into consideration during the development of fields in the Northern Caspian Sea. In the second part the issue of the ice-structure interaction is described with respect to the shallowness of the Northern Caspian Sea. After gaining understanding of the physical processes related to the ice action on vertical and sloping structures, numerical modelling is performed in ANSYS 15.0 Workbench. The numerical set-up of the model is described in accordance with the theoretical background of the finite element method. The results obtained from the modelling of the ice action on vertical and sloping structures are discussed and compared with actual theoretical models for the ice loads calculation. It was proven that there is some discrepancy between the numerical and theoretical solutions when grounded ice rubble adjacent to the structure partially dissipates the ice loads into the seabed. Finally, conclusions and suggestion for further research wrap up the thesis in order to summarize the acquired findings.