Subsea pipelines originating from offshore fields and approaching land are required to be buried in near shore area to provide protection against environmental loading, marine activity, instability and unfavourable soil conditions.

This paper presents an innovative approach to optimize near shore burial requirements of subsea pipelines. This approach involves use of accurate metocean and bathymetry data to identify true extent of splash zone as well as the use of actual field experience to determine the optimum near shore burial length. The presence of hard/rocky seabed further supports the optimization of burial length which can be challenging and can pose the risk of a major schedule delay. 

The proposed approach was successfully applied to reduce the near shore burial length of a number of subsea pipelines by at least 25% which resulted in significant reduction of capex/opex costs, less environmental impact and project schedule improvement leading to early start up.