Similar consideration had to be given to activities in administrative areas, workshops and laboratories – and not least in the control room.Īll in all, it was important that the architect knew what was going to happen in those parts of the topsides which did not deal with drilling or oil production/processing. It was also important to reduce the possibilities for personnel developing repetitive stress injuries while engaged in routine work.Īssessing all operations and requirements for access to and expansion opportunities in spaces related to power supply, ventilation and other technical systems was important. Good access was significant for maintaining and servicing equipment components where this involved overcoming physical challenges in structural terms. Understanding the various work processes on the platform was important for Bekke to achieve good solutions which provided operators with positive working conditions. These also included daylight in as many cabins as possible, although that was not an absolute. Shell may have wanted to apply a UK standard, but chose not to challenge Norway’s requirements. Photo: Shadé Barka Martins/Norwegian Petroleum MuseumĬommon areas such as canteen and lounges were often smaller, and four-berth cabins were largely the standard on British installations at the time. arkitektens rolle, engelsk, A standard cabin onboard Draugen. He had a tour of the various departments, and was presented with models of the living quarters on Shell’s UK platforms which differed markedly from designs he was used to off Norway. Safety considerations on the Draugen platform meant that specific requirements were set for the working environment – and these were stricter in many cases than in the UK sector.īekke discovered this fairly soon after being hired as the Draugen topsides architect, when visiting Shell Expro’s head office in London.
And making sure facilities and suitable areas maintain both physical and mental condition is important. Not only is the space available very limited, but both efficient work spaces and comfortable leisure facilities must be taken into account. The architect’s role in shaping the working and living environment on an offshore production platform has a wider scope than for a building on land. This presented big challenges, but also very special opportunities. In contrast, the Draugen topsides was to an integrated solution where the various functional areas were built into an overall framework of big steel girders. To preserve the strength of this divider, solutions had to be found which ensured that it had a minimum of penetrations for conducting pipes, cables or ventilation channels. The main rule was that these quarters had to be separated from the drilling and process areas by a solid fire- and explosion-proof wall. That was particularly the case after the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) insisted in 1976 that a safer design was needed for crew cabins and living areas on the Statfjord B platform. Photo: Statoil/Norwegian Petroleum Museum The quarters module was then placed as far as possible from areas which would suffer the biggest consequences in the event of an explosion or fire.
Most of the offshore platforms built with a concrete gravity base structure (GBS) in the 1980s were designed with a topsides put together from modular units. He had considerable experience of creating such facilities from his previous job with Phillips Petroleum, and remained with the Draugen project until it came on stream in the autumn of 1993.
0 kommentar(er)
