Sea State Characteristics of Bonny Offshore in Nigeria

Abstract

The sea state characteristics of the wave system in Bonny location in offshore Nigeria is studied. The wave data used in this study covers a duration of 1979 to 1982 and the data was analysed by means of statistical measures mainly focusing on the probability distributions, number of peaks and return cycle for extreme wave condition. Though the data for the study is not sufficiently large, the result of the work identified the Weibull distribution as reasonably appropriate for short term and long term prediction of the extreme wave heights which is relevant to most offshore designs and marine operations. Moreso, there was lack of evidence of low frequency Swell components in this location. Instead, a high frequency wave system with period not exceeding about 10 seconds is noted.