Subsea pipeline systems are a critical component of offshore oil and gas developments and are generally recognised as the safest and most economical means of transporting fluids such as oil and gas between subsea wells and offshore installations and for export to an end user.
As the energy industry transitions towards cleaner sources of energy, subsea pipelines are set to continue to serve as a safe and reliable conduit to transport fluids such as hydrogen and CO2.
The offshore industry has developed several well-established and mature standards which can be selected and applied for the design of subsea pipelines. In general, the available National and International Codes and Standards include primarily normative requirements which must be satisfied to comply with the standard. However, most of the available standards do not include detailed guidance on how to perform specific assessments and may also permit the user to adopt alternative approaches to those stated within the standard.
Within the pipelines industry, best practices have been developed to address the design of subsea pipeline systems where the standards are not definitive. This Recommended Practice (RP) has been developed based on Lloyd's Register’s (hereinafter referred to as LR) experience of these industry best practices.
Sections include:
- Section 1: Introduction
- Section 2: General design approach
- Section 3: Offshore installation safety
- Section 4: Pipeline analysis
- Section 5: Pipe-in-pipe Systems
- Section 6: Bundles
- Section 7: Subsea piping modules
- Section 8: Out-of-straightness (OOS) assessment
- Section 9: Change of use