Development of a Novel Concept for Evacuation in Dynamic Ice Conditions

Abstract

With robust oil prices and a belief in the Arctic’s potential, the oil and gas industry is, once again, taking interest in the extreme northern regions. While offshore platform evacuation vehicles have been improved for open water conditions, the development of evacuation systems for ice-infested waters has lagged. This study investigated the operational requirements for evacuation vehicles in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. Following the generation of novel concepts through a series of brainstorming sessions, a three-tier vessel performance evaluation was created to rank and compare the performance of existing and novel concepts during a platform evacuation scenario. One of the novel concepts generated through this exercise is outlined in further detail.