Russian partnerships extended
Bureau Veritas and the Russian Register are working together to provide basic design review for the Shtokman FPU for the two tenderers: SAIPEM, Samsung and SOFEC (SSS) and Aker, Technip and SBM (ATS). The process has called for a comparison between BV and RS rules, design review and documentation review, and performance of thermal, linear and non-linear hydrodynamic and structural calculations with VeriSTAR Hull. BV’s Offshore Rules have been translated into Russian and co-operation agreements have been reached with the Russian Register and the University of St Petersburg.
BV has also provided services to the Shtokman and other Russian projects including Independent Verification Body Services to provide assurance of design integrity at the FEED stage of disconnectable floating production platforms, the offshore trunk pipeline and subsea production systems.
Bureau Veritas and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping are working under a three-year co-operation agreement covering the development of joint guidelines for LNG carriers and Offshore Floating Production Units (FPUs). Under the agreement, common guidelines for LNG carriers, based on GAP analyses as well as the BV and RS rules and the IMO IGC Code, are expected to be published in first-quarter 2012. These will include the requirement for operating in Arctic areas. Work on producing common guidelines for FPUs has begun. In addition to the parameters used for the LNG guidelines, these will include feedback gained from the work on the Shtokman natural gas field.
In a separate development the leading Russian design office Severnoje has selected BV as the class society for its new Medmax LNG carrier design.
BV joined forces with the State Maritime University of St Petersburg to develop IceSTAR, an industrial software tool for modelling ice loads and their effects on structures. The program is said to improves the structural design of new generation of large LNG carriers and offshore floaters for use in heavy ice conditions.
