Page 10 - Pipelines and Risers

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FOREWORD

This new book provides the reader with a scope and depth of detail related to the design of
offshore pipelines and risers, probably not seen before in a textbook format. With the benefit
of nearly 20 years of experience, Professor Yong Bai has been able to assimilate the essence
of the applied mechanics aspects of offshore pipeline system design in a form of value to
students and designers alike. The text is well supported by a considerable body of reference
material to which Professor Yong Bai himself has made a substantial contribution over his
career. I have been in the field of pipeline engineering for the best part of 25 years and in
that time have seen the processes involved becoming better and better understood. This book
further adds to that understanding.

Marine pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas have become a safe and reliable part of
the expanding infrastructure put in place for the development of the valuable resources below
the world's seas and oceans. The design of these pipelines is a relatively young technology
and involves a relatively small body of specialist engineers and researchers worldwide. In
the early 1980's when Professor Yong Bai began his career in pipelines, the technology was
very different than it is today, being adapted from other branches of hydrodynamics,
mechanical and marine engineering using code definitions and safety factors proven in other
applications but not specific to the complex hydrodynamic-structure-seabed interactions seen
in the behaviour of what is outwardly a simple tubular lying on or slightly below the seabed.
Those designs worked then and many of the systems installed, including major oil and gas
trunklines installed in the hostile waters of the North Sea, remain in safe service today. What
has happened in the intervening period is that pipeline design processes have matured and
have been adapted and evolved to be fit for purpose for today's more cost effective pipelines;
and will continue to evolve for future application in the inevitable move into deeper waters
and more hostile environments.

An aspect of the marine pipeline industry, rarely understood by those engineers working in
land based design and construction, is the more critical need for a 'right first time' approach in
light of the expense and complexity of the materials and the installation facilities involved,
and the inability to simply 'go back and fix it' after the fact when your pipeline is sitting in
water depths well beyond diver depth and only accessible by robotic systems. Money spent
on good engineering up front is money well spent indeed and again a specific fit for purpose
modem approach is central to the best in class engineering practice requisite for this right
first time philosophy. Professor Yong Bai has made important contributions to this coming
of age of our industry and the benefit of his work and knowledge is available to those who
read and use this book.

It is well recognised that the natural gas resources in the world's ocean are gaining increasing
importance as an energy source to help fuel world economic growth in the established and
emerging economies alike. Pipelines carry a special role in the development and production
of gas reserves since, at this point in time, they provide one of the most reliable means for
transportation given that fewer options are available than for the movement of hydrocarbon
liquids. Add to this the growing need to provide major transportation infrastructure between
gas producing regions and countries wishing to import gas, and future oil transmission
systems, then the requirement for new offshore pipelines appears to be set for several years to
come. Even today, plans for pipeline transportation infrastructure are in development for
regions with more hostile environments and deeper waters than would have been thought