Brage boost for rotary steerable liner-while-drilling system
Statoil has successfully tested The world’s first rotary steerable liner-while-drilling system – jointly developed by Statoil and Baker Hughes – has been successfully tested on the Brage platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
The innovative system, which gives operators the ability to accurately drill and log 3D well profiles with a liner attached directly to the drillstring, is designed to withstand high circulation rates and high torque loads while providing liner connect and disconnect capabilities. A rigorous development process and extensive onshore testing, coordinated by a research group in Statoil’s technology and new energy division (TNE) working with Baker Hughes, preceded the breakthrough Brage platform run. Now, following a second deployment in January at another Statoil field, Statfjord, the new technology will be commercialized.
Gary Rich, president, Europe region, for Baker Hughes, said this development ‘highlights the advantages of bringing together experts from several different disciplines to work collaboratively on a project that encompasses both the drilling and completion well construction processes’.
In conventional drilling operations, it is necessary to pull the drillstring before the casing or liner can be run into the borehole. Liner drilling systems eliminate the need to pull the drillstring to run casing, saving time and drilling costs by minimizing the risk of borehole collapse and reducing non-productive time. The addition of rotary steerable capabilities helps overcome the challenges of drilling in zones with lower pressure and unstable shale/ coal layers and in formations with varying flow and pressure regimes.
Geomagnetic referencing aid for drillers
A means of enhancing geomagnetic referencing by increasing the accuracy of measurement-while-drilling in directional drilling applications has been introduced by Fugro Gravity & Magnetic Services.
The new MagCube technology utilizes the magnetic intensity measured at the surface from an airborne, marine or land magnetic survey. The surface magnetic data is geomagnetically referenced to the magnetic survey data measured in the wellbore to provide a finer subsurface anomaly vector, which provides a more accurate well path to avoid costly side tracks.
Geomagnetic referencing is frequently used by drillers. When enhanced by MagCube, says Fugro, it can lead to significant savings in overall project costs by: providing accurate, real-time data on well position while corrections to trajectory are still possible, minimizing the need to side track; and minimizing the costs of extra rig time required to run a post-drilled gyroscopic survey.
Deepwater scale squeeze for Mars
Chevron recently completed its first deepwater scale squeeze treatment using Cameron’s Mars (Multiple application re-injection system) on well LDN4 in the Lobito Tomboco field offshore Angola.
Hailed as ‘a USB port for wellheads’, the Mars system has previously been used on for deepwater subsea pumping and metering projects for BP and Total and on chemical injection operations for Shell in North Sea (OE April 2005). It has now been extended for deepwater scale squeeze operations up to 600m with further plans for extending the technology to 1500m.
Chevron plans to use the system on 13 specially modified wells within the same asset to maximize production throughout the life of field. The total scope of supply from Mars Production Systems (Mars-PS) included the deployment and chemical handling interfaces in addition to the Mars hardware.
Chevron subsea superintendent Roger Bradley said: ‘The ability to use this technology in deepwater has a significant impact on our ability to undertake subsea well scale squeezes to mitigate scale formation from a MSV support vessel, and allows us to undertake the work without the use of a drilling rig.’
Mars-PS vice president Ian Donald added: ‘The Lobito Tomboco project is our largest export order to date and confirms the Mars system’s ability to provide cost-effective deepwater liquid intervention from an MSV.’
EM casing inspection tool
The EM Pipe Scanner electromagnetic casing inspection tool recently released by Schlumberger combines a slim mandrel with 18 pad sensors that can run through tubing to produce a quantitative scan of the interior surface and thickness of the production casing.
Schlumberger Wireline marketing and technology manager Zied Ben Hamad said the scanner’s ability to measure corrosion in production casing without having to pull completion tubing would save customers significant cost. ‘The service provides a first line of defense in flow assurance. It has been used to identify the precise location of generalized tubing corrosion, grooves and splits, and to monitor corrosion rates to optimize remedial action planning.’
The EM Pipe Scanner has to date been deployed by wireline, tractor and coiled tubing at well deviations up to 90° on more than 100 jobs around the world. Operating in liquid or gas environments, the tool makes a high-speed reconnaissance run as it descends into the well. This run is used to identify places of interest where diagnostic scans are made as the tool ascends to produce images that identify the exact severity and nature of the corrosion. In time-lapse mode, it can provide corrosion rate estimates, identify casing corrosion behind tubing and determine inner tubular radius behind scale.
Just 2-1/8 inches in diameter, the tool easily passes through tubing to evaluate casing below the tubing shoe and quantify metal loss in percentage and average ID of casing ranging from 2-7/8 inches to 9-5/8 inches OD. In double casing strings a continuous log of average casing ID and total metal thickness is recorded.
Petrobras pilot raises GTL hopes
Having now secured funding from Petrobras for the construction and testing of a pilot plant in Brazil, CompactGTL believes it may be well placed to become the first company to commercialise modular gas-to-liquid plant production. The company says it is on schedule to deliver a 20b/d pilot plant to Brazil in time for onshore testing in the second half of 2010.
CompactGTL has already completed 18 months of continuous testing of a fully integrated pilot plant at its Wilton, UK, facility and under the terms of its development and licence agreement with Petrobras recently completed a conceptual engineering study for a 2000b/d commercial plant to be installed on an extended well test vessel.
Ormen Lange cool for CaTS
Successful installation of Expro’s new large-bore CaTS mandrel system in Ormen Lange phase two wells off Norway was confirmed last month, marking the first introduction of two-way communications functionality into the company’s wireless pressure/temperature monitoring and control products portfolio.
With a growing track record in wireless data transmission from reservoir to surface, Expro said the introduction of duplex communications functionality in CaTS now enabled commands to be transmitted from surface to downhole for the purpose of reconfiguring, or controlling downhole devices – opening the path to the radical redesign of downhole completions.
CaTS mandrel systems were installed in Ormen Lange wells A5 and B7 early last year and commissioned in October. A further four systems are planned for installation during 2010/11.
Steve Hudson, Expro’s wireless well solutions’ technology manager, said described delivering the duplex communications capability from ‘reservoir to beach’ as ‘the most challenging engineering project that we have performed to date’. Brian Champion, general manager of Expro’s wireless business unit, said: ‘The logical next step is to apply the duplex wireless communications capability to selectively command inflow control devices that are located remotely across the producing reservoir interval.’
Shell commented: ‘Having access to high-accuracy sandface flowing pressure data allows determination of damage skin and the possibility of monitoring the sand face completion efficiency and integrity. Actual sand face pressure data also reduces the uncertainty of the drawdown at the sand face in constrained wells, compared to using multiphase flow correlations. An improvement of 1-2% in the calculated drawdown can improve production by 1-2% in drawdown constrained wells.
‘The CaTS data has allowed us to fine-tune our multiphase flow correlations that are used to calculate the frictional pressure drop throughout the completion, resulting in non-CaTS wells also being operated at their full potential (maximum drawdown limitation) as well. In addition, the CaTS data has already proven its value on one of the newly commissioned wells where produced water measurements at the xmas tree were outside the normal operating range. By having the CaTS data available, we were able to demonstrate this was a metering issue, allowing us to continue ramping up the well.’
SCALING UP: Having already demonstrated its suitability for a wide range of vessel types, Alfa Laval’s chemical-free system for ballast water treatment is now heading for the top end of the offshore scale. The Swedish company has received its first order for PureBallast 2500, the largest version of the system, to be installed aboard the arctic ice-class drillship Stena DrillMax Ice.
Featuring a flow rate of 2500m3/h, this system will provide more than double the capacity of any previous PureBallast version. The system was ordered by Samsung Heavy Industries on behalf of Stena Drilling and is slated for delivery to the Geoje shipyard in June 2010.
Leg up for artificial lift
The Artificial Lift Company (ALC) confirmed recently that its Rigless ESP solution developed in cooperation with ConocoPhillips had been approved by the operator for commercialization following final acceptance tests last September.
The artificial lift service company has been working closely with ConocoPhillips for more than five years to develop this technology (OE May 2006). The system will undergo additional testing with ConocoPhillips in Q1 2010 in West Texas, with the first commercial installation for the operator scheduled for Q2/Q3 2010 in Alaska.
ConocoPhillips production engineering advisor John Patterson said ALC had been ‘flexible and responsive to our specific needs, and provided us complete access in the technical development process’. He added: ‘We believe ALC’s Rigless ESP technology is a cost-effective solution for companies facing challenging ESP applications with high intervention costs and in areas where securing a rig can require a long downtime. Our main driver for Alaska was to have a Rigless ESP system to allow replacement of sanded pumps and to clean out sand bridges in the casing below the ESP without using a rig.’
ALC president Geoff Kimber-Smith said: ‘The commercialization of this technology will allow us to introduce the product to markets where there is real demand for alternative ESP solutions, especially in areas where workover costs consume a large part of the budget. We believe that there will be many worldwide opportunities in key global regions as this system will radically change the costs incurred in deploying ESPs.’
POWER PLAY: Under a contract worth around £200,000 from Diamond Offshore Drilling, Aberdeenbased DE Hydraulics built and installed a new hydraulic power unit on Ocean Guardian as part of the semisubmersible drilling rig’s recent upgrade at Invergordon before heading for the Falkland Islands to drill for Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration.
Now in operation, the ATEX Zone 1 certified unit delivers 378lpm/3000psi. Providing fluid power for the rig’s top drive system and casing stabbing arm, as well as its torque and rider spiders, it replaced two units previously required to power the machinery. Pictured during commissioning of the new unit is DE Hydraulics’ operations manager, Stewart Dalgarno.
Multipurpose roughneck set for Sakhalin service . . .
Parker Drilling has ordered a JIM 20 multipurpose roughneck from Norway’s TTS Sense for deployment on a new ExxonMobil rig built for work at Sakhalin in the Russian far east. The Kristiansand-based firm had earlier also been contracted to provide the rig’s drilling control systems and mud equipment package.
Designed to optimise drill floor safety, the JIM 20 is a four-in-one machine embracing regular roughneck, casing roughneck, mud bucket and dope robot, all served by an easy-to-use control system. Slated for delivery in November, this is the first such unit sold to Parker and Exxon in the US market.
It can handle the full range of pipe up to 20in casing and support a 15-ton stand. Available torque is 185,000ftlbs.
. . . as modified mud bucket brings drill pipe relief
Stabil Drill has sent one of its patented Pneumatic Mud Buckets to Sakhalin to assist on a rig with problems while breaking drill pipe. The Superior Energy Services subsidiary’s president, Sammy Russo, explained that in this instance the rig was having problems when breaking drill pipe with WT-56 threads. If it were not perfectly centered when picked up, it would hang on the thread in the box.
Keeping a 100ft stand of 5-7/8 inch drill pipe stabilized when it is full of drilling mud is problematic, hence the call to Stabil Drill. The company responded by installing stabilization bars inside its Pneumatic Mud Bucket, using a configuration employed in the Gulf of Mexico for several years with documented success. These bars cover the length of the box and pin and are precisely milled to engage the tool joint OD at the same time the mud bucket seals and locks.
When the drill pipe is picked up, the tool joint slides up the stabilization bars, but cannot swing off center.
Current meter package improves drilling control
A new system developed by Kongsberg Maritime for measuring sea current speed and direction at given points on a drilling riser can be integrated with the company’s High Precision Acoustic Positioning and underwater navigation system, HiPAP. The first such sea current meter package has already been delivered to an unspecified user, with Kongsberg Maritime sales manager Roar Hansen enthusing that it will be ‘very useful’ in improving control of drilling operations ‘especially in deep water or where heavy current may cause problems’.
The new package consists of a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) interfaced to a telemetry transponder, which sends the 3D sea current data via acoustics to the onboard HiPAP system. ‘There are virtually no limits to the number of sea current packages that a single rig may utilise, ensuring that drilling teams are able to receive accurate current data from as wide an area as required.’
Hansen added that the Kongsberg Maritime development team had taken account of the fact that sending sea current telemetry takes time, which will influence the HiPAP update rates. ‘However, sea current does not change in direction or speed over short periods of time, so the HiPAP DVL update rate can be set to read current data only every 5-30 minutes, therefore mitigating impact on the update rates and ensuring integrity of position data.’
Space-saving SPS evacuation chute
Close collaboration between Norway’s Brude Safety and Ulstein Design has resulted in a new type of space-saving marine evacuation system (MES) designed to fit offshore support vessels and other special purpose ships. The chute has already been ordered for all six of the new Polarcus vessels currently being built at Drydocks World Dubai.
The Brude MES Chute SPS is designed for safe and efficient evacuation from a ship in international waters with an evacuation height from 3m to 20m. The system consists of the evacuation chute and mooring system, life rafts for 65 and 150 personnel as well as optional additional life rafts for 10, 30, 50 and 150 personnel.
According to Brude, the new chute is easy and cost effective to install and offers improved safety compared to davit solutions. All the system’s operations are can be carried out manually by two people, obviating the need for electrical or hydraulic supply and keeping service costs to a minimum. All components are made of marine aluminium. OE
Issue: February 2010