Deepwater tie-ins of rigid lines: Horizontal spools or vertical jumpers?

Movement toward deeper waters and harsher environmental conditions has requ ired the continuous development of new technologies, and will continue to d o so. In particular, this need has manifested itself in the design and oper ation of remote tooling to complete subsea field developments. One of the principal problems faced during both the design and operational phases of a project is the definition of methods and systems to perform the tie-in of production lines to subsea facilities. This problem, in fact, in fluences some critical decisions such as the type of lines used (rigid/flex ible), the structure layout (tie-in porches and interfaces), and the method of installation (first- or second-end connections). Different systems to perform remote connections of either flexible or rigid lines have been developed. Among these, special attention was paid to rigi d line connections, which are the preferred option of the industry for both technical and economic reasons. This new focus has, in turn, led to the de velopment of systems able to perform tie-ins of rigid lines using either ho rizontal spools or vertical jumpers. This paper presents a comprehensive co mparison between these two methods, including an overview of the systems co nsidered and an outline of advantages and drawbacks, both technical and fin ancial, of the two solutions.