Offshore Port Research Articles

Inter-terminal transportation for an offshore port integrating an inland container depot

Offshore ports, which are located on islands or away from the hinterland, are usually connected with the hinterland via bridges for truck transportation. With the rapid growth of port throughput, the bridges are likely to become a bottleneck restricting the development of port business. Inland container depots (ICD) have been introduced as satellite terminals to address congestion issues on bridges by allowing a proportion of drayage trucks to pick up and drop off containers at the ICD instead of going to the container terminals of the offshore ports. Containers are transported between the ICD and container terminals by inter-terminal transportation (ITT) trucks owned by port authorities. The ICD is expected to mitigate the bridge congestion by transferring the travel demands of drayage trucks in peak hours to the travel demands of ITT trucks in off-peak hours. We propose a methodology for analyzing the influence of ICDs on port efficiency. An integer linear programming model is developed to optimize the movements of containers, drayage trucks and ITT trucks in an offshore port area with the objective of minimizing the costs of drayage trucks and ITT trucks and the penalty for late delivery of containers. Two model transformation approaches are proposed to reduce the solution space of the model for improving the computational efficiency of the algorithm. The influence of ICDs on port efficiency is evaluated through a real-world case study using the proposed methodology. The results provide insights for port authorities to make strategic decisions.

Comparative technical-economic evaluation of offshore container port systems

ABSTRACT The growth trend in the container industry has had a significant operational and infrastructural impact on the ports. In this context, the offshore port systems are expected to be an innovative port system in the effective use of mega container ships by offering operational and structural advantages. This study aims to guide the authorities on whether OCPS is worth investing in, in terms of investment costs. This article also highlights the financial feasibility of an OCPS that can allow countries with difficult nautical access to mega vessels to enter the global trade network. The data in this research were obtained from similar projects and studies with a series of industry assumptions. Overall, these results indicate that OCPS can compete with conventional ports in terms of investment costs, operating costs, and return on investment. Thus, a more sustainable container shipping network can be achieved with the advantages of OCPS.

US LNG Boom Puts Producers on Pace To Lap the Competition

The US is poised to retake the crown from Australia as the world’s top LNG exporter, a title the country held briefly in 2022 before Freeport LNG went offline due to a fire in June 2022. Freeport LNG recently began supplying cargoes again and may be up to full speed during the second half of this year. In 2021, the US was third in exports behind Australia and Qatar, which sold about 10.5 Bcf/D and 10.1 Bcf/D of gas as LNG, respectively. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US began exporting LNG in February 2016, and within 7 years developed the world’s largest LNG export capacity with seven LNG export facilities totaling 13.9 Bcf/D of peak production capacity. US LNG exports exceeded pipeline exports of natural gas for the first time on an annual basis in 2021. Monthly LNG exports set new records throughout 2021 and averaged 11.3 Bcf/D during that winter, 2.2 Bcf/D more than the previous winter. In March 2022, US LNG exports reached a new high of 11.9 Bcf/D. US exports will be further bolstered by new projects moving forward. According to the US Energy Department (DOE), there are currently five export terminals that have received regulatory approvals and are under construction with another dozen either expansion or greenfield projects that have received regulatory clearances but have yet to break ground. Analysts at Wood Mackenzie see a massive investment opportunity for this next wave of US LNG terminals and predict three new projects with a total capacity of over 34 mtpa could start up as soon as 2024—New Fortress Energy’s Louisiana FLNG, Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG Phase 1, and ExxonMobil/QatarEnergy’s Golden Pass LNG. Another dozen or so projects could find their way to first cargoes by 2028. If the majority of these projects proceed to final investment decision (FID), the market could see a $100-billion infusion over the next 5 years, with three quarters of that investment coming in pre-FID projects, according to Wood Mackenzie. Planned liquefaction terminals range from additional trains on existing plants to ground-up projects, which even includes a pair of offshore ports utilizing FLNG vessels. While the outlook for the US LNG export market looks strong, inflationary issues are threatening to take the bloom off the rose. The overall cost of these projects is on the rise. According to Wood Mackenzie, Calcasieu Pass LNG, which had its FID made in mid-2019, was expected to cost around $580 per tonne. By March 2022, that number had risen to more than $650 per tonne. Other projects are also experiencing inflationary pressures on planned capex. Despite this, the competitive nature of takeaway contracts has kept those fees lower, even as the cost of the terminals rise. That combination could start to squeeze developer returns. The war in Ukraine has been a major factor contributing to the appetite for US LNG and thus, a key driver in securing long-term contracts for future deliveries. European countries dependent on Russian natural gas have pulled back and are attempting to rein in their dependence while seeking new supplies. While many of the newest supplies will not be available for a couple of years, European counties are expected to push through a period of higher volatility and pricing until fresh US imports start to arrive.

The port authority as system builder in cross-border regionalization: An exploratory study of port Esbjerg in the development of north sea wind

This article enquires into the emerging governance function of port authorities as system builders in the development of cross-border technological innovation systems, i.e., cross-border regionalization. The argument is that port authorities, as hybrid organizations, possess a unique combination of resources allowing them to act as system builders and thus complement policymakers and other key decision-makers in solving transboundary governance issues. The empirical setting of the study is the Danish Port Esbjerg and the strategic system building activities performed by the Esbjerg port authority towards the ambitious European visions for expansion of the North Sea offshore wind industry, a key vision for the decarbonization of Europe. Particularly, Port Esbjerg assumes a leading role in cross-border networks and partnerships and contributes to solving transboundary governance issues by mobilizing and shaping its locational assets to fit the needs of the offshore wind industry and by international cooperation and partnerships with like-minded offshore ports.

Detection of oil spills based on gray level co-occurrence matrix and support vector machine

Accurate reconnaissance of Marine oil spill is very important for emergency management of Marine oil spill accidents. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is a suitable carrier for offshore oil spill reconnaissance because of its fast deployment speed and low cost. Aiming at the identification accuracy of small oil spill accident in offshore port area and the problem of day and night reconnaissance, this study takes thermal infrared remote sensing images of oil leakage captured by UAV as the research object and proposes an oil spill detection method based on a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) method. Firstly, the extraction steps of image GLCM feature and the basic principle of SVM classification are studied. Then, the thermal infrared image data collected by UAV is preprocessed, including image filtering, clipping and rotation, and the sample database is generated. Subsequently, GLCM features of the samples were extracted, and the energy and correlation in GLCM were selected as classification features and sent to the SVM classifier to complete the oil spill detection of real-time thermal infrared images. The experimental results show that, compared with Classification and Regression Tree algorithm (CART) and Random Forests of Decision Trees (RF) algorithm, the detection accuracy of the method proposed in this paper reaches 95%, which were 10 and 2 percentage points higher than them respectively. The proposed method in this paper has fast recognition speed and high accuracy, and can provide all-weather recognition of oil spills for the detection of small oil spills in the offshore port area.

Detection of Marine Oil Spills Based on HOG Feature and SVM Classifier

Oil spill accidents have gradually increased due to the continuous development of marine transportation and petroleum processing industries. Monitoring and managing marine oil spills present important economic, social, and practical implications in preventing offshore oil pollution and maintaining ecological balance. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has become a suitable carrier for low-altitude oil spill detection because of their fast deployment and low cost. Thermal infrared remote sensing images are used as the research object in this study. A method around histogram of gradient (HOG) features combined with a support vector machine (SVM) is proposed for identifying oil spills at sea to improve the accuracy of offshore low-altitude oil spill recognition and realize all-weather monitoring of offshore oil spills in offshore waters. Steps for extracting HOG features and basic principles of the SVM classification are first investigated. Image preprocessing is then performed on collected thermal infrared image data to produce samples. HOG features of samples are extracted, and the radial basis function is selected as the kernel function for training the SVM classifier. HOG features of the infrared image to be tested are calculated and then sent to the classifier for identifying the oil spills. In addition, the proposed method is compared with the back propagation(BP) neural network method and local binary pattern (LBP) combined with the SVM classification method for analysis. The results show that the oil film recognition method based on the HOG feature and SVM has a recognition accuracy of 91.3% in the environment of small infrared oil film samples, which is significantly better than the BP and LBP-SVM recognition methods, and obtains a shorter training time. The method proposed in this study has obvious advantages in terms of small sample size and processing efficiency, can meet the requirements of all-weather inspection of oil film pollutants by UAV in offshore port areas, and has great application potential in the field of maritime supervision informatization in the future.

IR-Net: An improved RetinaNet-based ship detection detector

The task of ship object detection is of great importance to research. Ship object at sea is key to marine monitoring, real-time rescue, and wartime attack. Whether the ship object can be identified quickly and accurately to support the commander's decision-making is largely related to the success of the maritime mission. However, the dense arrangement and arbitrary direction of ships make it more difficult than the general object detection. Therefore, this paper proposes a rotation detector to deal with these problems. Furthermore, ship detection faces some chanllenges such as the complex background of offshore port images, the large ratio of ship length to width, and the potential of being blocked by clouds. Therefore, this paper proposes a rotatable bounding box based on RetinaNet, named Improved RetinaNet (IR-Net). With the deeper ResNet as its backbone network, this network extracts deeper object features. Furthermore, DCM (deformable convolutional module) is added to the network, so that the sampling points of the network can change with the shape of the object ship, thus extracting the object features more effectively. Finally, in this paper, the Cutout data enhancement strategy in the network is added, which effectively improves its detection accuracy in the case of object occlusion. Ablation experiments show that the IR-Net proposed in this paper has a more accurate detection performance on the HRSC2016 ship dataset.

Risk Analysis Study for The Implementation of An Offshore Port in The State of Pará.

The advancement of maritime transport in the world in recent years has proved to be very efficient, leading to the expansion of one of the main ocean transposition channels in the world. Aware of this reality, this work develops an assessment of the implementation of a port project in the northern region of Brazil, using Monte Carlo methodology-based risk analysis software, computer simulations are generated for a 35-year lifespan, resulting in the distribution and tornado readings of the main existing risks and the optimal market rate (14,7%), for 100% of project feasibility.

Uncertanties and Risk Analysis on Ports Construction Projects Considering Technological and Market Strategic Factors

This article appropriates a new methodology for evaluating port projects involving not only economic analysis, but also strategic factors, technological and market, wich provide greater security and assertiveness on the search for the development of a Hub Port model as an option to optimize the logistics of port operations. To achieve the objectives of the proposal, a technical and economic analysis model was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of the project with the inclusion of technological features (deep of ships, modes of transport linking the port to its region of land influence, expansion area) and market components (cargo demands, free trade zone, distance from the main centers of world trade) that decisively interfere in the attractiveness of the project. Linked to this proposal, a risk analysis was carried out, including uncertainties involving economic and strategic aspects, with market and technological variables. To achieve the objectives of the study, the Monte Carlo method operated by the software “@RiskTM” was used, where the analyzes of positive and negative interferences in the project were carried out. To evaluate the proposed methodology, it was applied in two cases studies of the feasibility of a new logistics platform in Brazil and Africa, with the implementation of an offshore cargo concentrator port. One was in the State of Pará, in northern Brazil, and the other in Dakar, Senegal, which can integrate the entire South America and Africa, respectivaly. The results of those analysis show very favorable indicators for the implementation of the proposed projects. Considering that, strategic factors introduced in the study, the greatest influences were: transport modes that link the port to the land influence zone and the draft of the ships. For the offshore port of Pará, strategic factors boosted the viability result by approximately 55% for a 95% probability of success and for Dakar, in Africa, the results were 100%, both for a 14% rate and a life span of 30 years showing that strategic factors are elements very importatants, as they produced almost 100% and 70% elasticity in the results, respectivaly, so they should be considered in feasibility studies of hub ports in addition to tradicioanl economic analysis.

Morphodynamics and Evolution of Estuarine Sandspits along the Bight of Benin Coast, West Africa

It is well known that estuarine systems are significantly affected by hydrodynamic conditions such as river discharge, storm surges, waves and tidal conditions. In addition to this, human interferences through developmental projects have the capability of disrupting the natural morphological processes occurring at estuaries. In West Africa, the goal to improve standards of living through large-scale dam construction, offshore ports and coastal erosion countermeasures has triggered alarming changes in the morphodynamics of estuarine systems. The estuaries at the Volta River mouth (Ghana) and “Bouche du Roi” inlet (Benin), located along the Bight of Benin coast, West Africa, were selected as two case study sites to examine their long-term morphodynamics and sandspit evolution. In this study, we primarily analyzed estuarine morphology using remotely sensed images acquired from 1984 to 2020. We further estimated the longshore sediment transport for this region using results from the image analysis and the depth of active sediment motion. Our results reveal that the longshore sediment transport rates for this region are in the magnitude of 105–106 m3/year. Comparative analysis with other estuaries and sandy coasts suggests that the longshore sediment transport along this coast has one of the largest rates estimated in the world.

Anthropogenic Effects on the Contemporary Sediment Budget of the Lower Rhine‐Meuse Delta Channel Network

AbstractDeltas and estuaries worldwide face the challenge of capturing sufficient sediment to keep up with relative sea‐level rise. Knowledge about sediment pathways and fluxes is crucial to combat adverse effects on channel morphology, for example, erosion which enhances bank collapse and increasing tidal penetration. Here, we construct sediment budgets which quantify annual changes for the urbanized Rhine‐Meuse Delta of the Netherlands, a typical urban delta experiences changing fluvial and coastal fluxes of sediment, engineering works and dredging and dumping activities. The delta shows a negative sediment budget (more outgoing than incoming sediment) since the 1980s, due to anthropogenic intervention. Following a large offshore port expansion, dredging in ports and harbors in the region has doubled in the past 5 years, likely due to the induced change in net sediment fluxes. In addition, the deeper navigation channels, ports, and harbors are now trapping siltier sediment, changing the sediment composition in the mouth. The removal of sediment by dredging is adverse to the necessity for sediment in heavily eroding branches. To allow for sustainable sediment management in the future and to cope with sea‐level rise, further measurements are required to properly quantify the amount of incoming sediment at the boundaries of the system and the internal mechanisms of transport. The varied response of the branches has important consequences for navigation, ecology and flood safety and management of the sediment in the system. These effects will be of pivotal importance in coming decades with similar implications for many urbanized deltas worldwide.

Design Framework for a Modular Floating Container Terminal

The design and development of an offshore port terminal is a complex task that involves distinctive design and decision challenges. In this paper, we propose the implementation of a floating, modular, platform that can act as an additional terminal of a port, with the aim of expanding its current container handling capacity. To this end, we introduce a generic methodology to tackle three aspects of an offshore terminal: terminal layout design, strategic logistics optimization, and operational process coordination. The terminal layout design includes the modular arrangements, handling on and between platform modules by the associated equipment. To select the final layout design concept, we evaluate different alternatives on criteria such as layout complexity, scalability, and the number of moves associated with the modular nature of the platform. Subsequently, the selected concept is given as input to a strategic logistics optimization approach that introduces a mixed-integer linear programming model. The proposed model minimizes the capital, operational, and maintenance costs of the floating modular terminal, i.e., number and size of modules, number and type of equipment, as well as capacities. In parallel, we develop a simulation of the floating terminal’s hinterland connections, where the number and type of required vessels are specified for relevant destinations and transport configurations. At the operational level, we focus on the coordination of handling equipment on the offshore platform by employing a tailored simulation/optimization approach. Our methodology is demonstrated on a case study that considers accommodating the growth of a port in the Hamburg-Le Havre range via the use of a modular, floating, transport, and logistics hub.

Isolation Barrier Valves Installed Successfully in Deepwater Gulf of Guinea

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 28453, “Egina Deepwater Development: Isolation-Barrier-Valve Case Study,” by G. Forrest, C. Morand, K. Johnson, and V. Okengwu, Halliburton, and V. Chaloupka, SPE, Total, prepared for the 2018 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 20–23 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2018 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. A major operator manages multiple deepwater projects in the Gulf of Guinea. This paper describes one of these, a recent 44-well project. The operator required an ISO 28781-qualified bidirectional subsurface isolation barrier valve (IBV) to be installed in each well. This paper presents the results of the IBV deployment in the field. Introduction The Egina field was discovered in 2003 in Oil Mining Lease 130 located in deep water (1150–1750 m) approximately 200 km offshore Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Subsurface IBVs have become commonplace in lower-sandface-completion installations. The potential time and operational cost savings are well understood. However, industry concerns remain regarding the ability of these devices to operate reliably in demanding wellbore conditions. The primary challenges for this project were Deviated wells with horizontal drains, high dogleg severity, and azimuth changes Isolation of different reservoirs along each drain Faults Running the upper completion in sieved nonaqueous-based mud (NABM) Well-Control Philosophy and Barrier Requirements General philosophies and requirements for well control—including the overall principles for well barriers, kill methods, and project-specific needs—require the following with respect to barriers: Can be pressure-tested Location and status can be known at all times Can be re-established in a short period of time Can operate in the environment despite challenges related to pressures, temperatures, and fluids The integrity of a barrier can be verified by pressure-testing to working pressure in the direction of flow when possible. These tests can also be run in the reverse direction. After completion and tree installation, tests are conducted using available well pressure. IBV Design Update. The IBV design in question (Fig. 1) was first run in west Africa in 2008 as a result of an extensive qualification and testing program aimed at improving upon its predecessor. The new IBV improved debris tolerance to meet ISO 28781 regulatory requirements. Enhancements also included increased differential opening pressure, simplified operating and workshop-testing procedures, removal of the transit pin, and increased opening force.

Simulation Models for Offshore Port Service Concepts

Offshore port service concepts were developed to flexibly respond to the emergence of large container ships and the increase in port trade volume. As one such offshore service concept, a mobile harbor system has recently been proposed. Although it is possible to effectively increase the capacity of existing ports through these mobile harbor systems, the methodology for evaluating the performance of a traditional port is limited when applied to evaluating the performance of the mobile harbor system. In this study, we develop a simulation model to analyze the mobile harbor system. The simulation model reflects the operating characteristics of the mobile harbor, and the performance metric of the system can be derived from the model. The results can be applied to capacity planning of a port system with a method that reduces search space. We applied our method to the Surabaya port in Indonesia to derive the optimal mobile harbor design that satisfies the required service level.

Acquisition and Analysis of Electric Fields in Marine Environment

Various sources of the electric field in the marine environment are analysed, which can be divided into artificial and natural sources according to causes, DC and AC sources according to the frequency. In order to better grasp electric fields in marine environment, a data acquiring system of the electric field is introduced based on msp430. The system has characteristics of low noise, low power and high resolution etc. Then ocean tests are carried out and the electric fields are acquired in offshore port and open sea respectively successfully. It is found that the environmental electric fields of offshore port are very different from that of pelagic environment, and the amplitude and frequency of the electric fields vary greatly with the sea conditions.

Economical and Safe Method of Granular Material Storage in Silos in Offshore Port Terminals

Abstract The article discusses issues related with storage of granular materials in silos made of corrugated sheets and reinforced with vertical ribs. Advantages and disadvantages of these structures are named, and typical technological solutions used by largest silo producers are presented. Moreover, basic assumptions of Eurocode 3 are discussed in the context of determining the buckling load capacity of a ribbed jacket. Alternative methods are indicated to determine the silo stability using analytical and FEM based methods. General conclusions are formulated with respect to designing of silos made of corrugated sheets.

The Compliance of Ship's Crew Toward International Convention Implementation for Controlling of Ballast Water and Sediment from Ships In Offshore Port of Taboneo

This study aims to analyze the level of compliance of the ship’s crew toward The BWM Convention. (Ballast Water Management Convetion). This research is kind of qualitative using a research design that relates the independent variables and the dependent variable at the same time. The study was conducted in the Offshore Port of Taboneo with a total sample of 54 respondents. The research data is primary data from interview by using questioner and secondary data obtained from interview and literature study. The results showed that the Compliance of the crew on the ship that has been equipped with Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS) is 66.67 % of respondents fall into the category approach to obedient and 33.33 % of respondents approach to non-obedient category. So also the compliance of crew on board ship that has not been equipped with BWTS there are as many as 60.61 % of respondents fall into the category approach to obedient and 39.39 % of respondents approach to non-obedient category.

Marine bioinvasions: Differences in tropical copepod communities between inside and outside a port

The difficulty of detecting non-indigenous species (NIS) in marine environments is an “invisible problem” in areas where plankton monitoring does not occur. In this study, we investigated the dominance of the NIS Temora turbinata and copepod community structure in two tropical marine habitats: inside an offshore port, which had turbid and calm waters, and outside the port, which was more hydrodynamic. Our study area was on the northeast coast of Brazil. We found 17 taxa of Copepoda, which were dominated by T. turbinata and the congener, T. stylifera. The high average density of the NIS (21.03 ind./m3) was in stark contrast with that of the native copepods (0.01–3.27 ind./m3). The NIS density was negatively correlated with the species richness and evenness of the native community, was significantly higher inside the port than outside, and was positively correlated with phytoplankton density. A multivariate analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in copepod community structure between inside and outside the port; outside the port, the community was more diverse, and the native T. stylifera was more abundant. We found that tropical copepod communities inside an offshore port have low diversity, and probably have little biotic resistance against NIS invasions. Our results, combined with those previously obtained, highlight the need to study the spatial distributions of NIS and native species in pelagic environments.

Methodology for mapping operational zones of VSC-HVDC transmission system on offshore ports

This research proposes a methodology for mapping operational zones of transmission systems based on voltage source converter high voltage direct current technology (VSC-HVDC) linking offshore ports to onshore power grid. Various operational conditions are investigated using the simulation software PSCAD in order to evaluate the feasibility of application of VSC-HVDC technology on offshore ports whereas supporting three economic activities: transshipment, subsea mining and power generation. The electrical power source considered in this research is based on nuclear energy or driven by fossil fuel. Varying the settings of the HVDC control strategy as well as the power balance within the offshore port and running several simulations on the power system, the power and voltage profiles in the generation, distribution and transmission of the system can be evaluated in details. Based on the methodology, stability boundaries in the HVDC system can be defined and mapped for reliable operation of the system during unusual and critical scenarios.

New cytotoxic furan from the marine sediment-derived fungi Aspergillus niger

A fungal strain of Aspergillus niger was recovered from sediments collected in the Northeast coast of Brazil (Pecém’s offshore port terminal). Cultivation in different growth media yielded a new ester furan derivative, 1, along with malformin A1, malformin C, cyclo (trans-4-hydroxy-L-Pro-L-Leu), cyclo (trans-4-hydroxy-L-Pro-L-Phe), cyclo (L-Pro-L-Leu), cyclo (L-Pro-L-Phe), pseurotin D, pseurotin A, chlovalicin, cyclo (L-Pro-L-Tyr) and cyclo (L-Pro-L-Val). Compound 1 was cytotoxic against HCT-116 cell line, showing IC50 = 2.9 μg/mL (CI 95% from 1.8 to 4.7 μg/mL).