FPSO Weather Monitoring ELF Girassol - Muir Matheson recently commissioned a complete weather monitoring system for South Korean Shipbuilders Hyundai

The weather package supplied was our PACE NT system. This is a Windows based product that has been developed over the past 10 years. PACE NT displays real time weather information as data is fed from sensors located on or around the platform or vessel.

The Girassol vessel built by Hyundai was equipped with anemometers to measure wind speed and direction together with the standard air pressure, temperature and humidity sensors. Additionally an infra-red sensor for wave height was used together with a current sensor buoy which was deployed by a winch, which allows it to be recovered for maintenance purposes.

Environmental Monitoring Systems Petrobras - Two projects currently in progress are Environmental Monitoring Systems, designed and manufactured by Muir Matheson for Petrobras.
One system is to be installed on the P38 FSO; the other on the P40 Semi-Submersible vessel. Both are part of the current intensive program of building/conversion work being undertaken by Petrobras, under construction in Singapore, and destined for the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. The systems are similar in design, utilising proven and reliable meteorological and oceanographic sensors.

Both P38 and P40 environmental monitoring systems are turnkey systems, designed to auto-start once power is applied which means that no user intervention is required to initiate the system. The display and sensor interfacing are housed within a screened equipment rack, and back-up power is provided to the system by means of an Uninterruptible Power Supply.

Remote displays are available at LAN workstations and include graphing and alarm features of real time weather data and access to archived information. To calculate the wind direction, PACE NT utilises directional information supplied from the vessels gyrocompass. The user can configure alarms for certain weather parameters, for example, wind, wave height and cloud base.

BP Schiehallion - The BP Schiehallion PACE NT system commissioned in February 1998 was the first FPSO to be incorporated into Muir Matheson's HeliMet METAR reporting system, and was also the first system to report from the West of Shetland area.

The HeliMet system is a network of fully automated aviation weather observations sent in METAR code (aviation weather reports) from offshore installations in the UK Oil & Gas sector.

In these deeper regions of Western Shetland all production, drilling and support facilities are floating vessels and have limits on helideck motions for safe helicopter operations. Therefore in addition to the standard wind, wave and temperature measurements, the system incorporates a vessel motion sensor. PACE NT analyses helideck heave, pitch and roll outputs to produce summary statistics of magnitude and period which are transmitted real-time through the HeliMet network.

These vessel motion measurements are also presented on a Civil Aviation Authority CAP 437 printout, this shows current conditions and three-hour trends in a format suitable for faxing through to helicopter operators. This feature is useful in corroborating forecast conditions and planning departure of helicopters for long duration two stage flights.

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