Baja LNG Receiving Terminal

Seismic Evaluation

Chevron Corporation was evaluating plans to construct an estimated (US) $650 million offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving and regasification terminal to be located approximately 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The proposed offshore LNG terminal was going to be constructed using a Gravity Based Structure (GBS), a freestanding concrete structure, along with mechanical facilities capable of offloading, storage and regasifying LNG. The terminal will be designed to process 1,400 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, with initial processing of approximately 700 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

SC Solutions was chartered by Chevron and AkerKvearner to conduct an seismic evaluation of this GBS based system.  Important effects needed to be considered included coupling of the soil-structure and fluid-structure interaction in a single global model.  Unique methodologies, developed by SC Solutions, were needed to accurately and efficiently address these complex issues.  These methodologies included the following:

• Development, validation and implementation of the frequency dependent soil analogs into the time domain global models.
• Development, validation and implementation of the simplified yet accurate dynamic fluid analogs into the time domain global models.
• Coupling and validating both soil and fluid analogs, and executing them in a single global production model.

SC Solutions successfully completed this challenging project on schedule and within budget.