API RP 2SM (R2020)

This document applies to synthetic fiber ropes used in the form of taut leg or catenary moorings for both permanent and temporary offshore installations such as:

a) monohull-based floating production, storage, and offloading units (FPSOs);
b) monohull-based floating storage units (FSOs, FSUs);
c) monohull or semi-submersible based floating production units (FPUs, FPSs);
d) mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs);
e) spar platforms;
f) catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoys (spread mooring only);
g) mobile offshore units (MOUs, e.g., construction, pipelay, floating accommodation vessels).

This document covers the following aspects of synthetic fiber ropes:
a) design and analysis considerations of mooring system;
b) design criteria for mooring components;
c) rope design;
d) rope specification and testing;
e) rope manufacture and quality assurance;
f) rope handling and installation;
g) in-service inspection and maintenance.


Application of this document to other offshore mooring applications is at the discretion of the designer and operator. This document is not intended to cover other marine applications of synthetic fiber ropes such as tanker mooring at piers and harbors, towing hawsers, mooring hawsers at single-point moorings (SPMs), and tension leg platform (TLP) tethers. Additionally, very little test data are available for large synthetic fiber ropes permanently deployed around fairleads and thus this document is limited to fiber ropes which span freely between end terminations.