Offshore Drilling and Petroleum Production Practices

Unit 01: Introduction to Offshore O&G

Operations

Raj Kiran, PhD

Assistant Professor

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Content

 Historical Background of Offshore O&G Industry

 Offshore O&G Operations

Slide 2
Surface O&G in Olden Days
In antiquity

For warfare

For lighting and heating

Worshipping at gas shows

Early methods of collecting oil

As medicine

Early records

Slide 3
Surface O&G in Olden Days
Antiquity era
• Mortar for water-proofing and building purposes
• Heavy residue of bitumen from oil seepages for
repairing boats and furniture
• Treatment of leather and sometimes for
preservation
• Several cities along the Red Sea, used for lighting
For warfare
• Naval warfare
• Mixture of naphtha and quicklime as incendiary
• Naphtha filled hand grenades
• For preparing war paint
Slide 4
Surface O&G in Olden Days
Worshipping at gas shows
• Eternal Fires
• Fire worshippers
• Jawalamukhi Temple

Slide 5
Surface O&G in Olden Days
Methods of Collecting oil

• Fishing in water pools with floating oil

• Directly in buckets or pots or by dipping blankets,
feather bunches, tree branches, and linen towels

Oil as medicine

• As an ointment for the treatment of rheumatism, burns,

sprains
• For treating sores on horses
• To alleviate and cure allergies

Slide 6
Surface O&G in Olden Days
Oil for lighting and heating
• Samaritan oil lamp
• Heating from random occurrences
• Kerosene lamps

Slide 7
Surface O&G in Olden Days
Early records in some parts of the world
• In China in 347 AD (depth was
800 ft and was drilled using bits
attached to bamboo poles)
• Baku (Azerbaijan), oil fields in
the 9th Century

Slide 8
Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
• First offshore well producing oil drilled in 1897
1897
• Santa Barbara Channel at Summerland, off the
coast of California
• Drilled from a 250-ft wooden pier extension.

1937 • First successful well in 14 ft of water ( ~over a

mile from the Louisiana coast.
• Completed by Kerr McGee on November 14,
1947.

Slide 9
Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
• World’s largest offshore oil discovery, Saudi
1951
Arabia’s Safaniya

2008 • <1500 ft as shallow water

• >7000 ft as Ultra Deepwater

Slide 10
Recap

 About the use of O&G in olden days

 How the offshore operation has evolved over time?
 Some offshore discoveries..
 Offshore in India..

Slide 2
Some Offshore Discoveries
• North Sea Brent – 460 ft of water and Ekofisk – 250 ft of
water.
• Ormen Lange – 3900 ft
• Brazil’s Campos basin – 10000 ft
• West Africa – 5500 ft
• Chevron’s 2006 Jack No. 2 well in the Gulf of Mexico – 7000
ft water and 20000 ft depth

Slide 11
Offshore India
• 10 offshore basins with area of 0.39 Mm sq. km in shallow
water offshore
• Sedimentary area in deep waters – 1.35 Mm sq. km

Slide 12
Offshore India
• First Indian Offshore spudded on May 19, 1970 in Aliabet.
• 24 legs for 6 platforms.
• Rig set on heavy timber planks.
• Designed with the help of Russians to withstand wind
velocity of 150 km/h.
• First mobile offshore rig – Sagar Samrat.
• Oil in first well in the L III horizon of Bombay High.

Slide 13
Offshore India
Many fields in Bombay High like Ratna, Heera, Panna, Bassein,
D-18, Neelam, D-1

Map of Bombay
offshore basin of
India

Slide 14
 Five Oceans
Pacific Ocean – contains more than half the water in the
hydrosphere and averages about 3.9 km in depth
Atlantic Ocean – narrow twisted body of water averaging 3.3 km in
depth and is adjacent to many shallow seas such as the Caribbean,
Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas, the Gulf of Mexico
Indian Ocean – averages 3.8 km in depth and receives fresh water
from large rivers such as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra
Arctic Ocean – 70% of this ocean’s surface permanently covered
with ice
Antarctic Ocean – connected with first three water bodies and
induces a deep ocean circulation.

Slide 15
Physiographic features of an Ocean

Slide 16
Physiographic features of an Ocean

Slide 17
 Offshore Oil and Gas Operations
 Carried out in an offshore environment, hence called offshore oil
and gas operations.
a) Exploration
b) Drilling
c) Production
d) Transportation.
 Geologist and geophysicist gather and analyze data to establish
existence of resources
 Transportation of oil and gas from the source to its destination

Slide 18
 Exploration
 Carried out by integrating process involving geology, geophysics and
geochemistry
 Objective – To find a structure suitable for storing an economically
sufficient quantity of hydrocarbons (oil or gas)

What is the difference between onshore

and offshore exploration??
Onshore – in situ testing in conjunction with geophysical work
Offshore – geophysical method (primarily the seismic method)

Slide 19
 Exploration Methods in Offshore
 Geological
 Survey aerially or through satellite to identify the formations,
study the stratigraphy, sedimentology and the structures like
fold and fault
 In offshore, coring is done from core-drilling ships
 Geophysical
 Gravimetric, magnetic, electromagnetic, electrical (resistivity)
and seismic

Seismic is based on the principle of the propagation of seismic

waves underground or under the ocean bed
Slide 20
 Exploration Methods in Offshore
 Seismic
 For mapping geologic structures by creating seismic waves and
observing the arrival time by the waves reflected from acoustic-
impedance contrasts or refracted through high velocity layers.

Slide 21
 Exploration Methods in Offshore
Seismic
 Seismic refraction – This method is essentially used for shallow
investigations (applied as a reconnaissance tool)
 Seismic reflection – Used as a day-to-day exploration tool
to map shallow as well as deep subsurface geologic
structures.
Three stages of Seismic exploration
 Data acquisition
 Data processing
 Data interpretation

Slide 22
Seismic Data Acquisition
 Source creating seismic waves
 Recording echoes from underground that result from the source
disturbances
 How to generate artificial seismic waves??
 Chemical explosives such as dynamite, mechanical
vibrators, and compressed air guns

Mechanical Vibrator Trucks Compressed air gun Slide 23

Seismic Data Acquisition
 Geophone – Transducer to detect earth’s motion at land

Geophone
Slide 24
Seismic Data Acquisition
 Hydrophone – Pressure detector to detect earth motion at sea

Hydrophone Piezoelectric Hydrophone

Sensing element in piezo-electric crystal is Barium Titaniate and Lead Zirconate

Slide 25
Seismic Data Acquisition
 Magnetostriction Hydrophone
 Pressure wave induces hoop-stresses in the core that changes its
permeability and thereby the flux linking the coil wrapped around it.
 The change of flux induces a voltage that is proportional to the
derivative of the pressure-wave signal.

Magnetostriction Hydrophone Slide 26

Seismic Data Acquisition
 Signal transmitted by cable or by telemetry to a recording unit
 At recording unit, signals are combined and recorded on magnetic
tape
 Digital recorders are used these days
 Capable of recording entire seismic signals
 Dynamic range (ratio of the largest recoverable signal, A to smallest
signal, B) of system
𝐴
𝑑𝑏 = 20 log10
𝐵

Slide 27
Seismic Data Acquisition
 3D Vs 2D data acquisition
 Trace positioning
 Velocity control
 Signal to noise ratio
 Data redundancy
 Cost
 Well location
 Reserve estimation
 Drilling success ratio

Slide 28
 Seismic Data Processing
 Sequence of operations to extract useful information from
raw data
 Type of processing governed by software
 Execution dependent on system capability
 Observational data act as input to processing system

Observational Processing Useful

Data System Information

Slide 29
Seismic Data Interpretation
 Used to locate structures conducive for presence of oil and
gas
 Goal is to minimize the uncertainty

Slide 30
Geochemical Method
 Aim – To find traces of hydrocarbons
 Spectrography of the heavy components (C15 – C30) –
information about type and degree of maturation
 Integration with Petrographic analyses

Reflectivity of organic compounds

Slide 31
Drilling
Exploratory
 Don’t use fixed platform
 Use mobile units (Jack-up rig, submersible unit, floating unit)
Development
 Mostly done by fixed platform
 Multi-pad

Slide 32
Production
 Production tubing lowered to establish communication
between downhole to surface
 Before production – completion (perforation, setting packers,
Christmas tree at top of wellhead)
 Two types of operations:
 Downhole operation (workover, wireline, stimulation, artificial lift)
 Surface operations (separation, treatment, storage and transport)

Totally
different from
onshore

Slide 33
Production – Surface Operations
 Well platforms: many wells are completed in a single platform
 Well fluids flow to a process platform
 Multi-decked, separators, treatment facilities, storing facilities,
auxiliary equipment, material handling equipment, safety devices,
telecommunication devices
 In deep water, Floating Production System (FPS) used
 Receive well fluid from subsea completed well through different
production risers
 Surface facilities for separation and treatment, safety devices,
auxiliary support systems
 Hull of these ships for storage of oil and facility to offloading
(FPSO)
Slide 34
 Transportation
 Well platform connected to process platform by production
riser and flowline

Top Tensioned Self-Standing Hybrid Steel Catenary

Risers (TTR) Riser (SSHR) Risers (SCR)

Slide 35
 Transportation
 Ships used to transport separated oil
 Major mode of transportation – flowlines, risers, ships or
barges
 Worker transportation – Boats/Helicopters
 Material/Equipment transportation – Work boats
 Offshore Supply Vehicle

All fixed platforms where boats are to anchor must be provided with mooring bitts,
bumpers, cranes, and stairs Slide 36
 Offshore India History

First well Oil struck in

First Early Western
India’s first spudded in Kutch offshore,
Production offshore
offshore well Godavari Godavari
system (EPS) production
spudded in the offshore. OIL offshore and
commences in reaches a peak
Gulf of Cambay. becomes a GoI Changmaigam
Gujarat of 21.72 MMT
enterprise in Assam

1983 1984 1986 1989 1989

1970 1974 1981 1984 1984
-84 -85 -87 -90 -90

ONGC strikes
Gas struck at
Drillship Sagar Gas was struck oil in the Tapti South Heera
Razole in
Samrat strikes at Gotaru in offshore area field discovered
Andhra Pradesh
oil in Bombay Rajasthan by and Namti in Mumbai
and Gotaru in
High ONGC structure offshore
Rajasthan
(Assam)

Slide 37
History of OIL

Slide 38
History of OIL

Slide 39
History of OIL

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History of OIL

Slide 41
History of OIL

Slide 42