ISO 19906:2019

Overview

ISO 19906:2019 - Petroleum and natural gas industries - Arctic offshore structures provides requirements, recommendations and guidance for the design, construction, transportation, installation and decommissioning of offshore structures in Arctic and cold regions. The standard covers complete structures - substructures, topsides, floating production vessel hulls, foundations and mooring systems - in locations subject to low ambient temperatures, sea ice, icebergs, icing, persistent snow and/or permafrost. The objective is to ensure appropriate reliability for personnel safety, environmental protection, and asset value across the structure life cycle.

Key technical topics and requirements

• Design philosophy and reliability: Limit states design, life‑safety and consequence categories, exposure levels, and alternative design methods to achieve required safety and reliability.
• Physical environment and metocean data: Site‑specific requirements for air temperature, wind, waves, currents, daylight hours, visibility, ice accretion and polar lows; guidance on environmental data monitoring programmes.
• Ice and iceberg actions: Principles for evaluating ice loads, local vs global ice actions, dynamic ice interactions, ice properties and ice monitoring; operational measures such as ice management (IM) to reduce ice actions.
• Foundations and seabed: Geotechnical investigations, permafrost, ice gouging, strudel scour, representative soil properties and design considerations for gravity‑based and piled structures.
• Floating systems and mooring: Design of anchors (drag, suction, piled) and anchoring systems; provisions for positioning and disconnection equipment.
• Man‑made islands and coastal engineering: Site‑specific construction, slope protection, and seismic considerations for islands in cold regions.
• Serviceability and decommissioning: Vibration, inspection and monitoring, decommissioning and reclamation guidance.
• Scope limits: Excludes mechanical/process/electrical equipment requirements except where needed to support structural integrity; excludes routine operation/maintenance unless imposed by design strategy.

Practical applications - who uses ISO 19906:2019

• Offshore structural and geotechnical engineers designing platforms, gravity‑based structures, piles, anchors and man‑made islands in cold regions
• Project managers and operators developing Arctic oil & gas fields and floating production units
• Regulators, classification societies and permitting authorities assessing compliance and safety in arctic offshore design
• Contractors, surveyors and environmental specialists responsible for site investigation, installation and decommissioning planning
• Asset owners and risk managers evaluating reliability, ice risk and environmental protection strategies

Related standards

• ISO 19905‑1 and ISO 19905‑3 (operation/maintenance and mobile units are referenced in ISO 19906)
• Also used in conjunction with other industry metocean, geotechnical and offshore design guidance for Arctic offshore structures

Keywords: ISO 19906:2019, Arctic offshore structures, arctic offshore design, ice actions, permafrost foundations, mooring systems, gravity‑based structures, ice management.