Project Description
As part of the ongoing research to characterise organisms retrieved from Woodside’s Anti-Marine Growth Structure (“AMGS”), this prototype tested the assumption that the marine growth on the AMGS is the same marine growth that currently disables equipment such as underwater connectors.
The project analysed underwater video footage showing Woodside’s subsea equipment that routinely fails due to marine growth and to characterize the nature of the MG on those objects. The analysis of the marine growth on the Anti-Marine Growth Structure (AMGS) and objects currently being used in the field at Angel_AP3 SCM 1 and Pluto SDU1 were compared. The imagery quality precluded a quantitative analysis but the qualitative analysis focussed on identifying a list of candidate organisms, the reason for the candidates, and whether those organisms are capable of producing calcium carbonate deposits around connectors, coupons, half pipes and hempel plates.
This study shows that the marine growth in the field and on the AMGS is different and that it changes from year to year on the AMGS. Therefore, caution should be exercised when interpreting results gained from the objects on the AMGS upon retrieval as they may not necessarily apply to objects in the field.
