EUROPEAn

OFFSHORE
PETROLEUM
conFEREnCE
&EHHIBITIOn

EUR 174
THE DESIGN AND INSTALLATION OF THE BUCHAN FIELD
SUBSEA EQUIPMENT
by

D.B.L. Walker, BP Trading Limited

Copyright 1980, European Offshore Petroleum Conference and Exhibition

This paper was presented at the European Offshore Petroleum Conference and Exhibition held In London, England, October 2124,1980. The material Is subject to correction by the author,
Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words,

ABSTRACT
This paper covers the design and installation of
the Buohan Field subsea equipment inoluding:
template, trees and completions, wireline riser
and BOP staok, subsea manifold, flowlines and
umbilioals, produotion riser and oontrol system.
A brief desoription of the rig modifioations to
enable it to handle the produotion riser is also
inoluded.

With this basio oonoept, BP farmed into the Buohan

Field in July 1977 and with a 54% interest beoame
the operator. Plans were developed for a peak
produotion from 8 subsea wells of 72,000 bbls per
day with an expeoted field life of 5 years. Based
on a oomputer simulation of field operation, it was
estimated that produotion oould be maintained for
65% of the year, giving an average annual
produotion rate of 48,000 bbls per day. The rig
has 3,500 bbls of storage whioh improves the system
performanoe.

INTRODUCTION

With a gas/oil ratio of 56 (310 sof/bbl) exoess

gas will be flared on the rig. Provision has
been made to introduoe a gas lift system to boost
produotion as reservoir pressure deolines.

The Buohan Field lies in blook 21/1 of the North

Sea, 160 km east-north-east of Aberdeen. The water
depth is between 112 and 118 m and environmental
oonditions are similar to those experienoed in
the Forties Field whioh lies 55 km further to the
east. With estimated reooverable reserves of only
50 million barrels of oil, however, Buohan is a
twentieth of the size of its giant neighbour.

Figure 1 illustrates the Buohan Field. Five of the

wells are olustered together direotly under the
rig to faoilitate workover (see Figure 2). Two
satellite wells lie 1.7 km to the south and
provision has been made for a third.

An eoonomio evaluation indioated that the Field

was too small to be exploited along oonventional
lines, suoh as a fixed platform tied into the
Forties pipeline. The development had to be on a
relatively short time soale requiring low oapital
investment. The reader is direoted to Referenoe 1
for a review of the alternative sohemes oonsidered
by the Company.

Preliminary field development plans were based on

an 18 month rig oonversion programme (November
1977 to May 1979) and a oonourrent 19 month
drilling and well oompletion phase. Flowline
construotion was soheduled for summer 1979 with
produotion starting in the autumn of that year.

Field development is based on produotion from

subsea wells to a oentral underwater manifold.
A semi-submersible drilling rig, oonverted to
oarry produotion equipment, is permanently
anohored over the manifold to whioh it oonneots
by a produotion riser. Multiple lines in the
riser bundle oarry the oil up to the rig for
prooessing and baok down to the seabed for export.
A pipeline ties the manifold into a CALM tanker
loading buoy. When bad weather foroes the tanker
to stop loading, produotion oeases. If oonditions
oontinue to worsen, then the produotion riser is
designed to be reoovered and staoked on board the
rig until the weather improves.

THE SUBSEA TEMPLATE

To meet this target it was obviously essential to
build and install the drilling template for the
cluster of subsea wells as rapidly as possible
during the summer of 1977, to enable produotion
drilling to prooeed over the following months.

References and illustrations at end of paper.

275

The template therefore had to be simple and easily

fabricated. Since the layout of the wells had not
been decided, the template had to provide a number
of drilling slots with the facility to support the
flowlines.

and unperforated wells. A nominal 4 x 2 inch

(100 mm x 50 mm) dual completion was specified
with each string carrying a surface controlled downhole safety valve . . In the case of the 4"
production string, this is a tubing retrievable
valve, with the facility in case of failure to
be permanently locked out and replaced by a
wireline retrievable unit. For the operation of
the gas lift, the tubing string has been provided
wi th side pocket mandrels into which gas lift
valves can be introduced by wireline. In the
case of satellite wells, these gas lift valves
are already in place. This, it is hoped, will
avoid the need to bring in a workover rig to
install them during the commissioning of the gas
lift system.

An 8 slot template with a 5.2 m spacing between

well centres was chosen as shown in Figure 3. With
the underwater manifold occupying one slot,.there
was provision for 5 template wells with 2 spare
slots in case drilling was abandoned on any
location. The template rested on the seabed on
aO.65 m wide skirt round the base Of each
1.22 m diameter conductor guide. The structure
was held in place by four 12 inch (300 mm) pin
piles. Provision was made to jack the template
up on its piles to maintain it level in the event
of a sloping or uneven seabed.

Two types of subsea dual tUbing hangers were used.

A hydraulically set hanger was used on the converted
production well, providing the facilities for
hanger setting and simUltaneous wireline access
to both bores with one multi-purpose hydraulic
setting tool. The hangers used on the other wells
relied on being mechanically set with drill pipe,
using a second purpose-built aCCess tool for wireline and testing purposes.
'

The 90 tonne template was taken out to the field

on a flat top barge and lifted into the water
by a crawler crane on the deck of a large supply
vessel. It was winched down to the seabed where
divers confirms its orientation and position,
some 7 m from an existing exploration well, later
to be tied in as a producer. The piles were
driven using a small underwater vibro~hammer.
No levelling was reqUired and the template was
secured to the piles by the inflation of
annular packers. Installation time was 4 days.

Dual bore split trees were used, shown schematically

in Figure 4.
Each tree weighs 52 tonnes and was
installed as a single unit. The lower tree contains
a dual manual master valve block; the upper carries
a six valve block - 2 master, 2 wing, and 2 swab
all hydraulically operated and fitted with
external position indicators. A by-pass loop
carrying a further 3 valves is mounted on the
lower tree and provides the link between the dual
4 inch flowlines back to the manifold and the
upper tree.

Design, fabrication and installation of the

template took a total 01'4 months. SUbsequent
drilling and construction work has validated
the basically simple concept and if the structure
were redesigned today, very few modifications
would be introduced.
COMPLETIONS AND TREES

Prior to introducing gas lift, the by-pass valve

can be left open to allow both flOWlines to carry
oil and to permit pigging to remove wax deposits.

Immediately following template installation in

August 1977, drilling commencedon the 4 template
wells. This extended over the next 14 months,
which also included the setting of 90 m of 30
inch (760 mm) conductor to act as a foundation
for the underwater manifold. The wells were
temporarily suspended pending delivery of the
subsea trees.

In the event of major equipment failure, the upper

tree can be recovered leaVing the lower half in
place. This would require diver intervention to
break the connector, flow loop flanges and. control
circuits.

Simultaneously two satellite wells were drilled

by a second rig during 4 months in the summer
of 1978. By mOdifying the original programme
of 5 template wells plus one southern satellite
to become 4 template plus two satellites (one
of which was drilled back into the central
formation) the drilling schedule was maintained.
The layout of the template wells, manifold and
the off-template well is shown in Figure 2.

As each tree became available, the wells were

re-entered, the completions run and the wells
perforated, using one .rig at the template location
and one over the satellite wells. Total time
spent on these operations for the 4 template and
1 off-template wells amounted to 9 months and 3
months for the two satellite wells.
WIRELINE BOP STACK

Contracts for the trees, hangers and associated

downhole equipment were placed in February 1978
and first deliveries were made to the rig in
December of the same year. With a closed in
wellhead pressure close to 5,000 psi (34 MPa),
10,000 psi (68 MPa) rated equipment was specified.
The completion had to provide for the introduction
of gas lift at some future date by wireline
intervention only and had to be capable of being
used in both perforated (i.e. previously tested)

Following the running of the tree, all further

wireline work was conducted through a custom
built wireline BOP stack mounted above the tree.
This carries both a set of blind rams, designed
to seal with or without a wireline in place, and
a set of shear rams. By altering the position of
a spool beneath the rams, it can be run to provide
wire line access to either string. The stack is
used with the dual 4 x 2 inch wireline riser and
is operated from a self-contained service control

276

system, designed to be moved with it from one rig

to another.

To understand the uses of the manifold it should

be considered in the light of the 19 separate risers
which make up the riser bundle (see Table 1). By
opening or closing valves in the manifold it
provides the means to:-

During normal operations the tree and down hole

safety valves are controlled from the production
platform through a 10 line hydraulic umbilical.
For reasons of safety, however, it is desirable
during a workover to control both BOP stack
and tree from a single control panel on the
workover rig. This is achieved by routing the
incoming 10 line tree umbilical through a control
stab on the high pressure cap which seals off
the top of the tree. When the cap is removed
to permit the BOP to be run, the circuit is
broken and a stab on the BOP stack takes the
place of the one on the cap. The stack functions
and tree valves are then controlled from a
single panel via twin 28 line umbilicals to the
service control unit on the workover rig.

(a)

Shut in the flow subsea when the risers

are disconnected.

(b)

Manifold the production or gas lift flows

subsea in the event that some of the risers
are not run.

(c)

Cross connect the service risers to the

crude carrying risers to allow flushing
with water prior to disconnect.

(d)

Provide the return path for pigging the

flowlines via the high pressure service
riser.

(e)

Provide a link between the high pressure

riser and the flowlines to create a flowpath
for well killing. This is an alternative
route to the normal means of killing a
well through the wireline riser.

THE SUBSEA MANIFOLD

The biggest piece of subsea equipment in the Field
is the underwater manifold which weighs 110 tonnes
(See Figure 5). This assembly of valves and
connectors is mounted on the template directly
under the platform. The valves and pipework are
mounted between two horizontal frames, the upper
being supported 5 m above the lower by 4 corner
posts and a central 30 inch column.

It should be noted that the manifold contains no

subsea chokes.
INSTALLATION AND HOOK-UP

Passing vertically through the manifold are a

12 inch line to carry the exported crude, eight
4 inch (production) and eight 2 inch lines for
gas lift.

The manifold base was installed in June 1979. Prior

to that the divers had jetted out the drilling spoil
and installed pipe supports on the template for the
pipe spools which would run between the trees and the
base. The operation was conducted from a semisubmersible diving vessel anchored over the template.
Spools of pipe were fa:bricated on the deck of the rig
to measurements taken. by the divers using special
jigs. The spools were then lowered on winches over
the side to the seabed. Hydraulic bolt tensioners
were used for making up the flanged and clamped
connections subsea. 25 m spool pieces were laid
on the seabed at the edge of the template to act as
expansion loops for the incoming flowlines from the
satellite wells.

11 female riser connectors are mounted face up on

the top frame to receive the production riser and
projecting below the lower frame are 17 stabs
and two connectors. The main centrally mounted
18~ inch wellhead connector connects on to a
dummy wellhead and is the principal means of
securing the manifold to the seabed. The connector
is welded to the 30 inch column which runs up
through the middle of the manifold and transmits
the riser loads imposed on the top frame down to
the foundation. The second connector is mounted
on the 12 inch export line.

A combination of good weather and careful planning

by the contractors, SUb Sea International, and the
BP construction team resulted in an exceptionally
successful diving operation. This included 22
spoolpieces being measured up, fabricated, installed
and pressure tested in 45 days, during which time
the average time in the water was 22 hours per day.

A third horizontal frame of similar dimensions

and known as the manifold base, is mounted on the
30 inch conductor below the manifold itself. Apart
from a 12 inch manually operated valve in the
export line, there are no other valves on the base;
it merely serves to support the short spools of
pipe linking the template pipework to the female
receptacles which receive the manifold stabs.

FLOWLINES AND UMBILICALS

By using this means it was possible to install

the manifold base in advance of the manifold and
to make up and install the flanged pipework spools
between it and the trees.

The second major construction job in the Field during

the 1979 summer was the laying and connecting of the
pipelines and the umbilicals. Each of the two
southern satellite wellS had to be tied in back to
the manifold by twin 4 inch flowlines and a control
umbilical, and the 12 inch export line had to be
laid to the loading buoy. Originally it had been
intended to lay all the lines from the new Santa Fe
reel ship, Apache, but due to delays in her
construction programme, the 12 inch line was laid
first from the semi-SUbmersible, Choctaw 2, with the
Apache arriving later in the Field to lay the
flowlines and umbilicals.

The base is not designed to be recovered to the

surface. Components in the manifold can be
recovered for maintenance .and in the event of
major problems, the entire structure can be
lifted into the moonpool of the production platform.
As in the case of the trees, this would require
diver intervention.

277

The 4 inch flowlines were epoxy powder coated and

THE PRODUCTION RISER
welded up into 300m strings at the Santa Fe base
at Leith. Tests earlier in the year had demonstrated Like the Argyll design, the Buchan production riser
the ability of the coating to survive the reeling
is not designed to stay connected in all weathers,
and unreeling process. the pipe was welded up into
but must be recovered and stacked. in the derrick in
a continuous 7,500 m length as it was spooled on to
severe conditions. It was designed to survive 12 m
the 25 m diameter drum, vertically mounted midships
maximum waves with the associa ted rig offset and
on Apache.
current, but recovery of the riser will have to be
initiated at a considerably lower threshold.
During the reeling process a supply boat was
Nevertheless it is the ability of the tanker to stay
installing dead man anchors in the vicinity of the
connected to the loading buoy rather than the riser
satellite wells to prepare for the initiation of
which will determine the production from the Field.
pipelaying. A submersible was also present during
the laying operation to assist in surveying the
The riser is shown in cross-section in Figure 6 and
line.
in elevation in Figure 7. Prior to the introduction
of gas lift, the bundle consists of a central 12
A 'pull-in' technique developed by BP was used to
inch export riser surrounded by ten 4 inch risers connect the flowlines to the satellite trees.
one production riser from each of8wells and two
After the lines were laid, the ends of the flowlines
service risers (see Table 1).
were held off the seabed by buoyancy tanks and
drag chains
and were pUlled in to the lower trees
The risers are independent of each other and are run
by a hydraulic winch clamped to the 30 inch
and tensioned separately. The 4 inch risers are,
conductor. Divers then installed the short make-up
however, constrained to deflect with the 12 inch
spool to complete the connection. At the template
riser by being spaced out from it by passing through
end, the pre-installed spoolpieces served as the
guide funnels. These are supported on arms mounted
target for the lay down operation and using
every 7.6 m along the length of the export riser.
manipulator frames, the flanges on the spoolpieces
Hence although each riser in the bundle is independent
and pipeline were brought into alignment. The
in the axial direction, horizontally the bundle tends
laying rate reached 440 m per hour including the
to deflect as a single composite beam.
time taken to fit an anode every 70 m. The best
total time recorded fOr initiating from the
To reduce bending stresses at the base .of the risers,
dead man anchor, laying 1.7 kmof flowline and
a universal joint is mounted in the export riser
laying downthe line at the template (recovering
directly above the manifold. For the same reason,
and.adjusting to length if required) was 14 hours.
the bottom 15 m joint on each production riser is
made from extra heavy tubular.
The two control umbilicals were laid simultaneously
from reels on the stern of the Apache. Each
With the introduction of gas lift, facilities exist
umbilical consists of ten ~ inch (6 mm) hydraulic
to cIampa 2 .inch gas lift riser to each production
hoses packed round a central 1s inch (29 mm) steel
riser and the guide funnels are sized to accommodate
cable which provides both strength and weight.
the pair.
Adequate tension was not maintained, however, during
the abandonment of the two ends at the template and
This riser concept offers the advantage of operational
entanglement resulted. This was picked ~p by the
flexibili ty. Only SUfficient risers need to be run
submersible survey and subsequently straightened
to accommodate flow and i f required, individual
risers can be' pUlled and replaced without haVing to
out by divers.
recover the entire bundle. On tpe other hand, riser
MANIFOLD INSTALLATION
handling time during the running or recovering
operation is increased by the need to handle
Only the manifold remained to be installed during
individual lines sequentially.
September. 1979 after Apache had cleared the Field.
The semi-submersible rig Dundee Kingsnorth was
The riser was the subject of an immense amount of
brought in to the shelter of Largo Bay in the Firth
design analysis. Model tests were conducted on the
of Forth where the flat top barge carrying the
bundle to establish drag and inertial coefficients
manifold was manoeuvred between her twin hulls.
on individual risers. This data was then used in
Using the draw works and a string of drill pipe,
the stress analysis programme to predict the bending
the manifold was lifted up into the moonpool where
behaviour of individual risers as well as the gross
it was secured during the tow to the Field. After
behaviour of the bundle. A spectral fatigue analysis
a long wait on weather and delays caused by last
was conducted to determine fatigue life and this
minute equipment problems, the actual running of
was supported by fatigue testing of a threaded riser
the manifold was completed in 6 hours. Extreme
connector. In addition, during operation riser
care was required during the landing of the manifold
behaviour will be continually monitored by
on the base to avoid .damage to the stabs and
instrumentation measuring parameters such as the
connectors. All went well except for the connector
deflection of the universal join and the pipe wall
on the export line which would not close and has
strain at two locations on the riser.
sUbsequently had to be replaced. Although in theory
the repair could have been carried out by
recovering the manifold to the surface, in practice
subsea replacement of components is very much
simpler because of the size and weight of the
structure which makes handling extremely weather
dependent.

278

RIG MOUNTED EQUIPMENT

As well as the installation of production equipment
the rig conversion programme incorporates several
modifications in the region of the moonpool. These
include:-

In addition to the main control panel on the rig, a

second smaller unit on the drill deck floor provides
for local control of the riser connectors on top of
the manifold. This is used during running and
recovering the production riser.

enlargement of the moonpool to accommodate

both production and wireline riser
provision of four new 36 tonne riser tensioners
(in addition to the eight existing 27 tonne units)

All subsea valves are fail safe closed. In addition

the subsea control system is tied into the main rig
control panel to ensure that in the event of a
shutdown subsea valves will be closed.
CONCLUSIONS

installation of four hose reels to carry the

main control umbilicals (see below)

The Buchan Field development can be seen as the

natural successor to Argyll. While similar in
concept, it represents the extension of the
floating production principle to a field with more
subsea completions, but no radical departures in new
technology. In terms of field size, however, it
comes close to the limit of what can be achieved by
the conversion of a standard drilling rig. The next
step is likely to be custom built f10ating production
platforms.

modifications to the derrick to permit handling

the wireline riser through a second opening in
the drill deck floor
proVlslon in the derrick for stacking 30 m
lengths of riser
provision of additional sheaves for tensioning
lines and guide wires. All systems are designed
to accommodate 5 m of rig heave. Flexible
rubber hoses are used to connect the top of the
risers into the moonpool pipework.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge BP Trading Limited,
BP Petroleum Development Limited and their Partners
in the Buchan Development, namely St. Joe Petroleum
Corporation, CanDel Petroleum Limited, Natomas
International, Gas and Oil Acreage Limited,
Charterhall Oil Limited, Lochiel Exploration (UK)
Limited, CCP North Sea Associates and City Petroleum
Corporation for permission to produce this paper.

CONTROL SYSTEM
All the subsea equipment is controlled hydraulically
via 4 hydraulic umbilicals deployed from the
production platforms. Two 65 function umbilicals
are run to twin control pods mounted on the base
to control the trees and downhole safety valves
and two 62 function umbilicals control the manifold
operation through pods mounted on the upper manifold
frame (see Figure 5). Total duplication of all key
subsea functions is provided between rig and control
pods.

REFERENCES
1.

A 10 line hydraulic umbilical is run to each tree

from the subsea tree pods. ~ inch hydraulic lines
are used throughout.
The main umbilicals are deployed from 4 hose reels
situated at the edge of the moonpool. A guide line
system is used to run and recover the control pods.

279

Darnborough E.. "The Buchan Field

Development". Europec Paper No. 230.
October, 1980.

TABLE 1
The production riser bundle
Operating Pressure
MFa
psi

Number

Nominal
Size Uns)

5000

34

Low Pressure Servioe

225

1.5

High Pressure Servioe

7500

52

3250

22

12

225

1.5

Risers
Produotion

Gas Lift
Export

FUTURE
NORTHERN
SATELLITE
WELL

FLOATING
PRODUCTION
PLATFORM

CALM
BUOY

SUBSEA
TEMPLATE
5 WELLS

SOUTHERN
SATELLITE
WELLS
Fig. 1 - Layout of the Buchan Field.

II
SPIDER SUPPORTPRODUCTION RISERS
UMBILICALS
SUB-SEA

CENTRAL EXPORT
RISER

CHRISTMAS~ I~

TREES

MANIFOLD

SAT WELL
FLOWLINES

SEA BED

TEMPLATE-~

CONTROL
UMBILICALS

Fig. 2 - Layout of the template, wells and manifold.

Fig.3 - The template.

PRODUCTION
STRING
(4 11 NOM.)

UPPER

TREE

'I J"

........ ,

I
I

LOWER
TREE

1
01 L PRODUCTION

PROPOSED
GAS
INJECTION

Fig. 4 - Schematic of a subsea tree.

MANIFOLD
CONTROL
PODS

RISER
CONNECTORS

MANIFOLD
UPPER
FRAME

I4-I--I-------E XPO RT

LINE
MANIFOLD
LOWER
FRAME

TREE
CONTROL
PODS

~-MANIFOLD

BASE

Fig. 5 - The subsea manifold.

GUIDE FUNNELS

~-EXPORT

RISER

GAS LIFT
RISER

PRODUCTION
RISER

SERVICE
RISER
Fig. 6. - Cross-section of the production riser.

TO TENSIONERS

12"EXPORT RISER

4" RISERS 10 OFF

2" RISERS 8 OFF

'GUIDE FUNNELS

UNIVERSAL JOINT

MANIFOLD
TEMPLATE

Fig. 7 - Elevation of the production riser.