Development of Ice Management Tactics and Navigational Simulation of Ice Management Operations on a State-of-the-Art Training Complex

Abstract

Ice management is one of the ways to achieve a more efficient operation of marine ice-resistant platforms in winter, to secure oil offloading operations and, if necessary, to support rescue and evacuation operations. Since 2012, Krylov State Research Centre, St. Petersburg, Russia, runs a training complex for navigational simulation of ship movement in ice conditions, developed with participation of TRANSAS, a global leader in the field of marine navigation simulators. The core functional elements of this training complex are the models of interaction between marine technology (ships and platforms) and ice in given water areas. One of the completed Russian Projects, Prirazlomnaya offshore ice-resistant platform, is taken as a case study to illustrate a stage-by-stage process of working out a tactic of ice management near the platform, including: 1) analysis of ice conditions in the area of Prirazlomnoye oil field, with consideration of environmental variability; 2) development of maneuvering procedures for the ice-breaking vessels to ensure safe oil offload to tankers; 3) polishing these maneuvers by means of a training complex; 4) analysis of the real maneuvers performed near the platform. This approach allowed a deeper understanding of the developed maneuvering layouts for supply vessels, with respect to specific ice conditions and given operational circumstances.