Installation of suction anchors in soft deepwater gulf of guinea and gulf of Mexico clays

Abstract

At time of installing suction anchors, the required installation suction is used for verifying the engineering assumptions. In some cases, an engineering or installation concern may turn to not be an actual issue, when e.g. the installation assessment was over-conservative. The paper describes deepwater suction anchors case studies taken from the author’s experience in the Gulf of Guinea, completed with published Gulf of Mexico cases. A different installation behavior can be obtained between the Gulf of Guinea and Gulf of Mexico cases, emphasizing the need to calibrate the installation predictions for avoiding over- or under-conservative installation assessments.