Fire Protection On The Beryl Aplatform

ABSTRACT The paper summarizes a fire protection engineering analysis of the principle fire and explosion risks associated with a large North Sea platform. A review is given of principle fire and explosion protection systems including water spray for fire intensity control and exposure protection, water spray with AFFF, Haloh 1301 for fire extinguishment or inerting, manual hose reels with dry chemical twinned with AFFF and portable fire extinguishers. Automatic smoke, fire, and gas detection is utilized for early warning of fire and hazardous gas concentration. Fire protection engineering also plays a part in the area classifications for electrical equipment, arrangement of drainage systems, fire proofing of critical structural members and arrangement and determination of process safety valves. The Beryl platform has a number of unique risk factors including facility size, high production rates and platform construction which necessitated careful analysis of risk and application of fire safety systems. Engineered fire protection solutions in the platform design, safe operation of the facility were provided ＿without extensive layout modification with minimum impact on operations. INTRODUCTION With the advance of exploration and production activity in the North Sea, new fire protection engineering techniques are being required to insure protection from fire and explosion. The magnitude of fire risk associated with North Sea platforms is shown by the Beryl A platform, here compared with some well-known landmarks. (Fig. 1) Located over 20D mile offshore in a water depth of 392 feet, the platform consists of a base concrete support topped by steel deck structure and quarters. Sixteen of the 19 base cylinders are utilized for crude storage with a capacity of 950,000 barrels. These extend 150 feet above the sea floor. The remaining three cylinders are utilized as main support towers and extend an additional 300 feet to support the steel deck structure. Height of the steel deck above low average tide is 100 feet. The steel deck structure is 197 feet wide by 230 feet long with two levels, each approximately an acre in area and spaced 33 feet apart. The compartmental steel structure encloses equipment and facilities-for production, drilling, recompression, utilities, and life support-systems. Overall weight of the structure is 350,000 tons, which serves to maintain the structure in place, anchored by steel dowels over 6 feet across projecting into the sea bed 16 feet below the bottom of the structure. The platform will eventually produce up to 100,000 barrels-per day Crude will be pumped from the platform to a single point mooring structure and onto specially designed bow loading tankers. Figure 2 shows the platform in its towing position which illustrates the size of the structure. DESIGN OBJECTIVE The fire protection and safety provision incorporated in the platform provide maximum protection against fire risks as well as limit the fire and explosion exposure to employees.