Offshore composites: Transition barriers to an enabling technology

The success of ultra deepwater exploration and production depends on developing innovative, economical drilling and production concepts at an overall system level. At present, composites are considered as an enabling technology at a component level to be incorporated into existing concepts. In the last 25 years, significant advances in designing and manufacturing composite tubulars have brought great attention to their potential positive impact but did not transition to in-field operations. Herein, we will review significant accomplishments and challenges in designing, fabricating and testing composite risers to illustrate the seamless interdependence between constitutive behavior, structural response, optimization, similitude and inspection. The novel concept of composite theters will be presented to illuminate the range of composite primary structures that can make ultra deepwater an economical reality. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.