Sea ice management for oil and gas platforms in the Bohai Sea

Bohai is a typical marginal oil field in an ice region, where most of the oil and gas platforms are economical. Sea ice is the main factor that affects the safety of oil and gas platforms in Bohai. Due to the complexity of the ice load and ice-induced vibrations, there are large security risks when developing Bohai oil and gas in the winter. It is difficult to ensure the safe production of oil and gas in winter using existing sea ice disaster warning technologies. Based on winter oil and gas production in the Bohai Sea’s Liaodong Bay, a set of suitable sea ice management systems is proposed in this paper. These systems integrate sea ice monitoring, risk assessment and risk prediction technologies. Based on the risk warning system, an ice management model of a Bohai ice platform has been put into practice, which ensures the safe production of the platform in winter.