SITING AND DESIGN OF OFFSHORE STRUCTURES IN SEISMICALLY ACTIVE AREAS.

Anticipated development of offshore oil fields in seismically active areas will be accompanied by significant problems in platform siting and design. In these areas both siting and design will be subject to extensive regulatory review which, if not handled appropriately, can lead to substantial delays and to unnecessary increases in development costs. The most efficient way to confront these problems is to conduct a thorough investigation into the nature and severity of the seismic hazard, and to use the results as the basis for siting and design. In doing this, strong consideration should be given to severity of the hazard, project economics, and prudent evaluation of acceptable risk. This paper presents an overview of the various factors that should be considered when addressing this problem.