ExxonMobil in icy innovation

FILE - Packice and ice floes are pictured in the Barents Sea, Norway, 29 July 1997. Photo: Hinrich Baesemann

Breaking news: ExxonMobil tests new ice breaking system

Hinrich Bäsemann

By Anthony Guegel

 03 May 2011 20:27 GMT

ExxonMobil has researched a dynamic ice management system for protecting drillships and transiting tankers from drifting sheets of ice in the Arctic Ocean.

It involves two icebreakers positioned apart and away from the drillship in order to react and intercept ice floes before they reach the stationary drillship, according to a luncheon presentation by the US supermajor at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston today.



The first-stage ice-breaking vessel would be situated farthest away from the drillship as the first line of defence, said Luis Garza-Rios, supervisor Arctic, metocean and structures for ExxonMobil Upstream Research. The second-stage icebreaker would be closer to the drillship and intercept ice the first vessel missed.



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