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Lecture 5
Lecture 5
Source: Berger, Anderson, Modern Petroleum - A Basic Primer of the industry, 3rd Ed.
Gravity-Based Platforms
Concrete gravity platform steel reinforced concrete is
used to construct the tall, smokestack-like columns, or
caissons (the dominant feature) of the structure. They are
used in areas of very rough seas. The platform is built in a
sheltered location and floated out to sea on its air-filled
caissons. Once the platform is on site, the caissons are
flooded like the hull of a submersible until they rest on the
seafloor. Because they are extremely heavy, the force of
gravity alone is sufficient to heep them in place, eliminating
the need for pilings. Crew quarters, drilling equipment, and
other equipment are installed on a deck on top of the
caissons. Frequently, special concrete cylinders are
arranged around the base of the caissons on the seafloor.
The cylinders can store up to a million barrels of oil.
Steel-caisson platforms caissons made of two layers of
thick steel to prevent ice floe damage from fast moving
tidal currents which carry ice floe.
Steel-Jacketed Platforms
Steel-jacketed platform consists of the legs (steel jacket)
which is a tall vertical section fabricated from tubular steel
members, that sit on the seabed. It is constructed on land
and either floated horizontally or carried on a barge out
into position. It is then floored and rotated vertically. Piles
are driven into the sea bottom and bolted, welded or
cemented to the legs to hold it in position. A crane is used
to lift the deck and modules such as power generation,
crew quarters, and mud storage off deck barges and
position them on the platform. Offshore platforms often
have several decks (flat surfaces) on top of each other to
serve various functions such as power and drilling.
Wellheads are usually located on the lower deck.
Separators, treaters, and gas compressors are located on
the platform. Treated oil and/or gas is then usually sent
ashore through subsea pipeline(s). Deepest water depth is
1350ft.
Steel-jacketed platform
Source: N. Hyne, Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production
Compliant Platforms
A compliant platform is a relatively light platform that is
designed to sway with the wind, waves and currents.
A guyed-tower platform is similar to a rig steeljacketed platform in that it rests on or attach to a pivot
on the seafloor. But it is much slimmer, lighter and less
expensive to build. Several guy wires are attached to
the jacket relatively close to the waterline and
anchored to the seafloor by means of clump weights.
A tension-leg platform resemble a semi-submersible
which floats above the offshore field. But has several
hollow steel tubes (1 to 2 ft in diameter) called
tendons, firmly attached to the ocean floor or heavy
weights on the ocean floor. The platform itself is
buoyant but the tendons pull it down in the water,
applying tension to the tendons. Tension-leg platform
can be installed in water depths up to about 3500 ft.
Guy-tower platform
Tension-leg platform
Source: N. Hyne, Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production
Subsea template
Source: Berger, Anderson, Modern Petroleum - A Basic Primer of the industry, 3rd Ed.
Drill ship
Source: Berger, Anderson, Modern Petroleum - A Basic Primer of the industry, 3rd Ed.
Directional Drilling
In drilling, there are reasons where the drill rig cannot be
placed directly on top of the well to be drilled:
Offshore where multiple wells must be drilled from
the same platform or floater.
Inaccessible location- an area where a rig cannot be
set up, i.e. swamp or heavily populated area.
Directional drilling is required for other reasons:
Shoreline drilling
Avoid drilling along a fault line
Multiple zones
Drilling a relief well,
Horizontal well drillin
Sidetracking and straightening
Salt dome drilling
Inaccessible location
Horizontal drilling
Conventional
well trajectory
Directional Drilling
Starting a straight well out at an angle is called kicking
off the well. If the well has been cased, a hole, called a
window, is cut in the casing mill to kick off the well.
Whipstocking is a method of kicking off a well. The tool,
a whipstock is a long wedge-shape piece of steel
(concave on the inside) designed to bend the drill string.
It has chisel point to anchor the whipstock to the hole
bottom to prevent it from rotating during drilling. A drill
string containing the whipstock is run to the hole bottom
and weight is applied to break a shear pin to disengage
the whipstock and set it firmly on the hole bottom. A
smaller size bit is used to initiate a pilot hole. The pilot
hole is drilled for a distance of 10 to 15 ft and then
surveyed. If the hole is drilled in the required direction, it
is then opened up using a normal drill bit.
Directional Drilling
A modern method used to kick off a deviated well is to
run a downhole assembly comprising a bent sub,
downhole mud motor and a diamond bit.
A bent sub is a short section of pipe with an angle of
to 2 in it. The downhole mud motor or turbine is
driven by the drilling mud flowing down through the drill
string. The mud strikes a spiral shaft or blades in a
turbine motor to activate the motor. The diamond bit is
attached to the motor. This way, only the drill bit is
rotated, not the drill string.
A steerable downhole assembly consists of stabilizers,
bent subs, downhole turbine motor, and a diamond bit
that can maintain, drop or build angle. Some steerable
downhole assemblies have adjustable bent subs in
which the angle in the bent sub can be adjusted from the
surface as the assembly is in the well.
Turbo drill
Bent sub
Dyna-drill
Source: Rabia, Oilwell Drilling Engineering Theory and Practice
Directional Drilling
The orientation of the hole be checked to ensure that drilling
is turned towards the correct direction using a directional
instrument containing a magnetic compass or gyroscopic
compass and an inclinometer (an instrument which
measures the angle of the hole). Drilling must be halted
while the instrumental is run down the bit and retrieved,
leading to downtime.
Most of the downtime can be avoided by using a continuous
readout instrument know as a steering tool to send
directional readout uphole via wireline to a rig-floor monitor.
Instead of using a wireline, a newer device uses the mud
pulse generator, a wireless, self-contained instrument tht
transmits sonic signals uphole, via the drilling fluid in the drill
stem, to a readout device at the surface. This system is
called measurement while drilling (MWD), is useful for
maintaining straight hole as well as for directional drilling.
Source: N. Hyne, Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production
Horizontal Drilling
It is possible to drill wells in which the final sections of
pipe are horizontal to the earths surface (achieve in the
late 1970s).
Horizontal wells provide distinct advantages in reservoirs
where oil is present in relatively flat zone.
Although horizontal wells are much more difficult and
expensive than conventional wells, their economic and
environment advantages have been very pronounced
since the early 1990s.
A single horizontal wells can produce as much oil as
several conventional wells.
Some estimates 5 to 6 times more production than
conventional wells.
Horizontal drilling has revived many older oil fields.
Horizontal Drilling
Some of the benefits of horizontal wells are:
A horizontal well can penetrate more than one reservoir, and
given the greater production capability of lateral penetration
produce six or seven as much oil or gas as a vertical well.
Salt water production due to coning can be minimized.
Far fewer wells are needed to drain a reservoir
The traditional primary recovery lift of a well can be increased
from 25% of the oil in place to 50 to 75%.
Later in the life of the well as production drops, it can be
converted to a lateral injection well for enhanced recovery use.
Hydrocarbons can be produced even while the well is being
extended.
Horizontal drilling has been credited with vastly increased
production in areas long considered to be difficult such as the
heavy oil sand in Western Canada, etc.
Source: Berger, Anderson, Modern Petroleum - A Basic Primer of the industry, 3rd Ed.