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Unit 04 - I
Unit 04 - I
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Content
Overview
Types, description, and installation
Station keeping methods
Conventional mooring
Dynamic positioning system
Slide 2
Overview
Slide 3
Overview
Slide 6
Overview
Limitation will be the depth.
Jack-up rigs are quite handy and popular for water depth
(350–400 ft.
Submersibles have restriction up to a very shallow depth
(50 ft)
Jack-ups ~50% of the world’s offshore drilling fleet.
Slide 7
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Conventional sized barge with columns
high enough to support a platform at a
safe above-water distance.
Slide 8
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Totally submerged while
operating
Slide 9
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Stability while ballasting – a critical factor
Slide 10
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Pontoons
Slide 11
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Submersibles fading in recent days
Slide 12
Bottom Supported Unit: Submersible
Slide 13
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Slide 14
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Components
1 Footings
Spud cans/tanks
Mats
Purpose of footings:
Increase the legs’ bearing area, thereby
reducing the required capacity of the
soil to provide a solid foundation to
withstand the weight
Slide 15
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Based on the type of footings, jack-up rigs are classified
into two basic categories:
B Mat-supported type
Slide 16
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
A Independent leg type
Separate footing for each leg
Will operate anywhere currently
available
Normally used in area of FIRM SOIL,
CORAL, or UNEVEN SEA BED.
Depends on a platform (spud cans)
at the base of each leg for support.
Spud cans are circular, square or
polygonal, and are usually small.
Slide 17
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
A Independent leg type: Spud Cans
Water jets and piping for washing
accumulated material on top of the can
Drain valves and vents to allow free-
flooding capability
Largest spud can ~ 56 ft wide
Bearing pressures ~ 5000 – 6000 psf
Exception: 10,000 psf in North Sea
Slide 18
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
A Independent leg type: Spud Cans
More weight required for stability in
softer soil (Preloading)
Preload weight
~ 1/3rd greater than the weight of the
platform + allowed variable load.
Obtained by pumping water into tanks.
While installing this load is given and once
the maximum penetration is reached, the
preload water is dumped.
Slide 19
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
B Mat-supported type
Slide 20
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
B Mat-supported type
Advantage:
Minimum penetration of the sea bed takes
place (5–6 ft.)
Requires less leg than the independent jack-up
for the same water depth.
Disadvantage:
Need for a fairly level sea bed (Maximum sea
bed slope ~1½°)
Occurs in areas with coral or large rock
formations.
Uneven bottom can lead to failure
Slide 22
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Components
2 Legs
Slide 24
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
2 Legs Trussed legs
Racks
For engaging with the gears or
pinions in the jacking assembly.
Special high-yield strength steel with
good impact characteristics.
Larger in size
Require a larger deck area.
Slide 25
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
2 Legs Cylindrical / Columnar legs
Hollow steel tubes fabricated from 1½ in. to 2¾ in. thick
structural steel.
10–12 ft dia. and 225–312 ft length.
Six pin holes along its length at intervals of 6 ft
Spaced around the leg at 60° intervals.
Holes are meant for engaging the pins in the jacking
assembly.
Legs require less deck area.
Slide 26
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
3 Jacking System / Elevating System
Rack-and-pinion type
Electro-hydraulic type
Slide 27
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
3 Jacking System Rack-and-pinion type
Designed for manual (individual leg) or fully automatic
Include pairs of pinions to engage a double rack to balance the
spreading forces between the rack-and-pinion gear teeth.
Provides a console in the control room of the rig with function
switches for independent or simultaneous operation of the legs.
Each leg has 3 – 4 leg-guide elevating assemblies, one at each
corner of the leg.
Each assembly includes 3–6 motor gear units
Electric motor equipped with a spring-loaded brake which
engages automatically when the motors are not energized.
Slide 28
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
3 Jacking System Electro-hydraulic type
Manual, semiautomatic, automatic, semiautomatic
interlock and automatic interlock
Contains ram and yoke assemblies, hydraulic pumps, and
electrical control system
Controlled from a console located in the control house
which includes pump controls, jack controls, function
switches, operation selection switches and pressure
gauges.
Slide 29
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Components
4 Hull
Slide 30
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
4 Hull
Watertight structure to support or house the equipment,
systems and personnel
When the jack-up unit is afloat, the hull provides buoyancy and
supports the weight of the legs and footings equipment and
variable load.
Generally built of stiffened plate.
Configured to efficiently transfer loads acting on the various
hull locations into the legs.
Axial and horizontal loads are transferred into the legs through
the hull leg interface connections and chords.
A bulkhead terminates at each leg chord location.
Slide 31
Bottom Supported Unit: Jack-up Rigs
Slide 32
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
1 Transportation
Slide 33
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
1 Transportation
Wet tow
For moving long distances, it is recommended to remove the legs and tow
them on deck.
Slide 35
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
2 Arriving on Location
Preparations
Removing any wedges in the leg guides
Energizing the jacking system
Remove any leg securing mechanisms installed for the transit
(transferring the weight of the legs to the pinions).
Slide 36
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
3 Soft-Pinning the Legs
Also called Standing off location.
If an independent leg jack-up unit is going to be operated next
to a fixed structure, or in a difficult area with bottom
restrictions, the jack-up unit will often be temporarily
positioned just away from its final working location.
Coordinate with the assisting tugs
Run anchor lines to be able to ‘winch in’ to final location
Power up the positioning thrusters on the unit (if fitted),
Check the weather forecast for the period of preloading and
jacking up.
Slide 37
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
4 Preloading
Helps assure the suitability of the sea floor as a foundation.
Reduces the likelihood of a foundation shift or failure during
a storm.
Possibility of occurrence of a soil failure or leg shift during
preload operations
To alleviate the potentially catastrophic results of such an
occurrence
Hull is kept as close to the waterline as possible without
incurring wave impact.
Slide 38
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
4 Positioning the Platform
Legs on bottom
Jacking crews elevate the drilling floor to the height above wave action
anticipated to be safe for the season and the area.
Unit reaches its operational air gap and jacking system is stopped
Slide 40
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
Installation
Slide 41
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
Installation
Slide 42
Bottom-supported Unit: Jack-up Rig Installation
Installation
Final position of
a jack-up.
Slide 43
Floating Units
Not only float in transit mode but also during any oilfield
operation like drilling or production.
Sometimes called Floaters.
May be grouped as Neutrally Buoyant or Positively
Buoyant.
Slide 44
Floating Units
Neutrally Buoyant
Buoyant force = Gravity force
Structures like semisubmersibles, ships or ship-shaped
vessels, barges and spars fall under this category
Positively Buoyant
Slide 45
Floating Units
Slide 46
Floating Units: Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit
Conducive for increased water depth
Concurrent to the change in floating structures
Changes with respect to process of drilling (new tools and
equipment).
Difference between fixed and mobile structures
Slide 48
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Multilegged floating structures with a large deck
COMPONENTS
1 Deck
2 Bracing
3 Stability Column
4 Pontoon
Slide 52
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Various designs of semisubmersibles
Triangular design in
the Sedco series
French-designed Pentagone
rig with five pontoons
Slide 53
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
At least two floatation states
Afloat on the columns
Afloat on the pontoons (raised at the surface of the water)
While the structure is raised or not semi-submerged, the pontoons
are the principal elements of floatation and stability.
Pontoons or hulls are used as ballast compartments to achieve the
necessary drilling draft.
Slide 54
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Deck provides the working surface for most of the drilling
functions along with other auxiliary functions.
Space frame bracing - Weight transferred to the columns
through the structural connections.
Bracing systems - expensive to build and are a costly
maintenance item regarding inspections and repairs.
Permit drilling to be carried out in very deep water beyond 1000
ft of water depth
Held on location either by a conventional mooring system or by
dynamic positioning.
Slide 55
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Motion that causes problems for the semisubmersible is heave or
the vertical motion.
Because of forces on the drill string when the vessel is heaving,
these semisubmersibles with a low heave response are
considered to be the most suitable.
Heave is generated in response to exposed waterplane and is
expressed as
𝟐𝛑
𝐓=
𝐠𝐭
𝐝
Slide 56
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
𝟐𝛑
𝐓=
𝐠𝐭
𝐝
Smaller the waterplane area, or ‘t’, the lower the heave response.
Achieved in the semisubmersible by submerging the lower
pontoons and floating at the column or caisson level.
With the loss of the waterplane area to reduce the heave
response, a reduction in stability follows.
Slide 57
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Propulsion
Slide 58
MODU: Semisubmersible Platform
Preparatory operations before the drilling rig arrives on location
1. Bottom soil conditions determined
2. Prevailing winds and sea states known
3. Surveys made and buoy markers placed for exact anchor locations
4. Equipment conditioned and supplies inventoried
5. Lines of communication established: operating company, drilling
contractor, anchor handling boat and special crew
Slide 60
MODU: Drill ships
Shipshape vessel used for drilling purposes
Slide 61
MODU: Drill ships
Shipshape vessel used for drilling purposes
Slide 62
MODU: Drill ships
Turret System
Contains a bearing system that allows the vessel to rotate around the fixed
geostatic part of the turret attached to the mooring system.
Can be combined with a fluid transfer system that enables connection of
subsea pipelines to the vessel
Slide 63
MODU: Drill ships
Advantages
Can only be considered for use in areas of small wave heights and low
wind velocities
Slide 64
Floating Production Unit
Borrowed the concept for drilling engineers
Viable option for deepwater exploration
Different types used for oil and gas production
Slide 65
Floating Production Unit
Differ from fixed structures with respect to concept of use of buoyancy
Common elements
1 Hull
2 Top Sides
3 Mooring
4 Risers
Slide 66
Floating Production Unit
1 Hull
Steel enclosure that provides water displacement
Shapes: Ship shapes, pontoons and caissons, or spar
2 Top Sides
Decks:
All the production equipment used to treat the incoming well streams
Pumps and compressors needed to transfer O&G to their next destinations
Drilling & Workover equipment
Accommodations
Export lines
Slide 67
Floating Production Unit
3 Mooring
Combination of steel wire or synthetic rope with chain
Steel tendons
4 Risers
Steel tubes that rise from the sea floor to the hull
Transports the well production from the sea floor up to the deck
Oxymoron export risers: from the deck down to pipeline on the sea floor
Slide 68
Floating Production Unit: TLP
Slide 69
Floating Production Unit: TLP
Buoyancy of a TLP comes from a combination of pontoons and columns.
Vertical tendons from each corner of the platform to the sea floor
foundation piling hold the TLP down in the water.
Vertical risers connected to the subsea wells heads directly below the TLP
bring oil and gas to dry trees on the deck.
Dry trees on the deck control the production flow through the conductor
pipes.
Can receive production from risers connected to remote subsea wet tree
completions.
Most TLPs have subsea riser baskets, structural frames that can hold the
top end of risers coming from subsea completions.
Slide 70
Floating Production Unit: Monocolumn/Mini TLP
Slide 71
Floating Production Unit: Monocolumn/Mini TLP
Used in shallower water or for smaller deposits in deepwater, and where
no more drilling is planned.
Name comes from the underwater configuration of the floatation tanks, a
large central cylinder with three star-like arms extending from the bottom.
The cylinder measures about 60 ft in diameter and 130 ft in height.
The arms reach out another 18 ft.
Tendons secure the substructure to the sea floor, in this case two from each
arm.
The mooring system, risers and topsides are similar to any other TLP,
except for the modest sizes.
Absence of drilling equipment on board helps lower the weight of the
topsides and allows for this scaled-down version.
Slide 72
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Floating Production Storage and Offloading
Slide 73
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Floating Production Storage and Offloading
Ship-shaped structure with several different mooring systems
Do not provide a platform for drilling wells or maintaining them.
Do not store natural gas, but if gas comes along with the oil, facilities are
onboard and the FPSO separates it.
If there are substantial volumes, they are sent back down a riser for
reinjection in the producing reservoir or some other nearby consumer.
Slide 74
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Where is it used??
At sea where no pipeline infrastructure exists
Where weather is no friend, such as offshore Newfoundland or the
northern part of the North Sea
Close to shore locations that have inadequate infrastructure, market
conditions, or local conditions that may occasionally not encourage
intimate personal contact, such as some parts of West Africa
Slide 75
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Principal requirements that drive the size of a typical FPSO:
Sufficient oil storage capacity to take care of the shuttle tanker turnaround
time
Sufficient space on the topsides for the process plant, accommodation,
utilities and so on
Sufficient ballast capacity to reduce the effects of motions of process plant
and riser systems
Space for the production turret (bow, stern or internal)
Slide 76
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
As an FPSO sits on a station, wind and sea changes can make the hull want
to weathervane, turn into the wind like ducks on a pond on a breezy day
As it does, the risers connected to the wellheads, plus the electrical and
hydraulic conduits, could twist into a Gordian knot.
Slide 77
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Two approaches deal with this problem, that is, the cheaper way and the
better way, depending on the ocean environment.
In areas of consistent mild weather, the FPSO moors, fore and aft, into the
predominant wind.
On occasions, the vessel experiences quartering or broadside waves, sometimes
causing the crew to shut down operations.
Slide 78
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
In harsher environments, the more expensive FPSOs have a mooring
system that can accommodate weathervane.
Mooring lines attach to a revolving turret fitted to the hull of the FPSO.
As the wind shifts and the wave action follows, the FPSO turns into them.
Slide 79
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Oil moves from the reservoir to the FPSO via the turret
Goes through the processing equipment
Then to the storage compartments.
Shuttle tankers periodically relieve the FPSO of its growing cargo.
Some FPSOs can store up to 2 million barrels.
Slide 80
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Mating an FPSO to the shuttle tanker to transfer crude oil calls for one of
several positions.
Slide 81
Floating Production Unit: FPSO
Mating an FPSO to the shuttle tanker to transfer crude oil calls for one of
several positions.
The shuttle tanker can connect to the aft of the FPSO via a mooring hawser and
offloading hose.
The hawser, a few hundred feet of ordinary marine rope, ties the shuttle tanker to
the stern of the FPSO and the two-vessel weathervane together about the turret.
The shuttle tanker can moor at a buoy a few hundred yards off the FPSO.
Flexible lines connect the FPSO through its turret to the shuttle buoy and then to
the shuttle tanker.
Some shuttle tankers have dynamic positioning, allowing them to sidle up to the
FPSO and use their thrusters on the fore, aft and sides to stay safely on station,
eliminating the need for an elaborate buoy system.
The shuttle tanker drags flexible loading lines from the FPSO for the transfer.
Slide 82
Floating Production Unit: FDPSO
Floating, Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading
Attributes of an FPSO plus a drillship or a semisubmersible to do it all in
deepwater.
Technologies still in the nascent stage, are motion and weathervane
compensation systems for the drilling rig.
Slide 83
Floating Production Unit: FSO
Floating Storage and Offloading
This specialty vessel stores crude from a production platform, fixed or
floating, where no viable alternatives for pumping oil via pipeline exist.
Always had a former life as an oil tanker and generally have little or no
treating facilities onboard.
As with the FPSO, shuttle tankers visit periodically to haul the produced oil
to market.
Slide 84
Floating Production Unit: FSO
Floating Production System
FPS can have a ship shape or look like a semisubmersible or TLP, with
pontoons and columns providing buoyancy.
Either way, the FPS stays moored on station to receive and process oil and
gas from subsea wet trees, often from several fields.
After processing, the oil and gas can move ashore via export risers, or the
gas can go into reinjection and the oil to an FSO.
Slide 85
Floating Production Unit: SPAR
Spar ~ nautical term for booms,
masts and other poles on a sailboat,
spars exhibit the most graceless
profile of the floating systems.
An elongated cylindrical structure,
up to 700 ft in length and 80–150 ft in
diameter,
Floats like an iceberg – it has just
enough freeboard to allow a dry
deck on top.
Mooring system uses steel wire or
polyester rope connected to chain on
the bottom.
Slide 86
Floating Production Unit: SPAR
The polyester has neutral buoyancy in
water and adds no weight to the spar,
eliminating having to build an even
bigger cylinder.
Because of its large underwater profile,
the huge mass provides a stable
platform with very little vertical motion.
To ensure that the centre of gravity
remains well below the centre of
buoyancy (the principle that keeps the
spar from flipping), the bottom of the
spar usually has ballast of some
heavier-than-water material like
magnetite iron ore.
Slide 87
Floating Production Unit: SPAR
Because of the large underwater
profile, spars are vulnerable not
only to currents but also to the
vortex eddies that can cause
vibrations.
The characteristic strakes (fins that
spiral down the cylinder) shed
eddies from these ocean currents,
although the strakes add even more
profile that calls for additional
mooring capacity.
Slide 88
Floating Production Unit: SPAR
Components of a Production Spar
Deck
Hard tank
Midsection (steel shell or truss
structure)
Soft tank
Slide 89