Platforms at sea seem massive when you approach them by ship. Although built to resist the gale force storms and the waves relentlessly beating the platforms' steel structure, ships straying from their course still can seriously damage them. Production loss of a platform can easily amount to €100,000 per day.
The majority of the ocean is wide open space, but in some areas platforms are concentrated near or even in between busy shipping lanes where the routes of tankers and cargo carriers come together. This significantly increases the risks involved.
There are two major collision types:
a) a ship can be sailing at a nominal speed and is off-course (ramming);
b) a ship cannot manoeuvre anymore because of power loss or damage (drifting).
HITT supplies automatic solutions that automatically warn for both types of impending collisions. The proven O3000 platform protection system uses a mix of sensors to provide all-weather warning capabilities. The O3000 tracks anything that moves within its area of responsibility and warns when ships become a threat to the platform.
Timely warnings
A norm that oil and gas companies often use is that collisions are warned for 30 minutes in advance. If the collision time is less than 10 to 15 minutes away, personnel will evacuate the platform. The O3000 easily meets this norm. This gives platform operators time to warn the ship by radio.
For any circumstance
The system is not limited to platforms. It is also a suitable solution for the protection of wind farms and shore based installations.
