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New rig designs, revamps fill special drilling needs

FLEXIBILITY AND EFFICIENCY are and duration of well construction activi- Fourth, it had to be better suited for
two key goals of rig designers as cost ties performed on the critical path. cross-tundra rig moves.
pressures continue on both operators
A key area in which a contribution can In May 2000, BP chose Phoenix Alaska
and contractors.
be made to this effort is in the handling Technology (PAT) to mature the design,
In the session, “Rig Design,” at the 2002 of drilling and well tubulars. In and build and operate the rig. In March
IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, 26-28 IADC/SPE paper 74450, “Smarter Tubu- 2001, PAT began constructing a state-of-
Feb in Dallas, the focus is on better han- lar Handling on a Jackup Drilling Unit,” the-art, fully automated drilling rig that
dling of tubulars, station-keeping ability authors M Simpson and C J Davidson, is expected to commence operations on
for offshore rigs, land rig versatility and GlobalSantaFe, focus on tubular han- the North Slope in early 2002.
other rig design issues. dling operations.
The rig weighs less than half that of a
The session is chaired by M B Stone, One drilling contractor’s efforts to boost conventional North Slope rig of equiva-
Big 6 Drilling Co and C N Springett, safety and productivity to the next level lent horsepower. A single operator con-
GlobalSantaFe. on its latest jackup units led to the trols all drilling, tripping and horizontal
development of a new solution in tubu- setback operations from a computerized
IADC/SPE paper 74453, “Considerations
lar handling. The result is a system that control station.
Given to Land Rig Design for Versatility
can make up and run stands of drilling
of Operations,” discusses the progres- STAYING ON LOCATION
and well tubulars from the jackup can-
sion of a drilling rig design by a drilling
tilever deck to the well.
contractor to a successful new genera- When the submersible Mr Charlie, the
tion “Super Single” drilling rig. The The authors report that the system world’s first purpose-built MODU, went
paper is authored by R Isinger, Preci- offers time savings by picking up and to its first location in 1954, it initially
sion Drilling Corp. laying out drilling strings off the critical slid off location. Since that time anti-
path and by running stands of well tubu- scouring skirts, small piles, shell pads
lars instead of singles. and other efforts have helped keep sub-
mersibles on location.
The system also, compared to other
industry alternatives, offers reduced However, in severe weather with weak
risk exposure to drill floor personnel by soil conditions the units have often con-
reducing the level of simultaneous drill tinued to slide.
floor tubular handling activity.
In IADC/SPE paper 74452, “Finally, a
NEW NORTH SLOPE RIG Solution for Keeping Submersibles on
Location,” author M A Childers,
A “typical well” on the North Slope is a Atwood Oceanics Inc, describes a new
thing of the past. Twenty years ago a rig design.
would sit on a Prudhoe pad and drill
The Atwood “Richmond” has had an
dozens of 10,000-bopd wells. Today, the
excellent record since returning to the
same rig might drill multilaterals one
Versatile new rig design can be used from ver- Gulf of Mexico in 1988, successfully
month and exploration wells 70 miles
drilling 82 locations. But unfortunately,
tical to slant in a variety of drilling operations. from infrastructure the next.
8 locations had sliding problems and of
These diverse well types and changing those, 2 wells were unable to be com-
The “Super Single” rig design is versa- economic drivers warranted a new look pleted, reports the author.
tile enough to be used in several drilling at North Slope rig designs, according to
In 2000, after the Richmond slid off one
applications, from vertical to slant, from IADC/SPE paper 74451, “Design, Speci-
of the locations, it was decided to use
shallow gas to medium vertical gas or oil fication, and Construction of a Light
the new technology of suction piles in
wells, to shallow TVD SAGD heavy oil Automated Drilling System (LADS).”
shallow water.
wells in varying climates ranging from The paper was prepared by M D Dunn,
Mexico to Venezuela and Northern Phoenix Alaska Technology; P A design basis was developed to hold
Alberta in the winter. Archey, BP Alaska; E Opstad, Phoenix the unit on location in a 10-year hurri-
Alaska Technology; M Miller, BP Alas- cane event with the hull sitting on 100-
TUBULAR HANDLING ka; and T Otake, NI Energy Develop- psf-shear strength soil. To meet this cri-
ment Inc. terion, 4 self-contained and self-instal-
Safety and productivity of the well con-
struction process are key responsibili- lable/retractable piles were located on
Beginning in 1997, BP Alaska began
ties of the well construction team. the 4 outer columns.
researching what the drilling machine of
the future should look like. First, the rig Calculations resulted in the 31-ft long
Drilling contractors can contribute sig-
had to be safer and more automated. piles located in chucks being 10 ft in
nificantly to safety and productivity
Second, it had to reduce well costs. diameter and capable of penetrating to
improvements by reducing the number
Third, it had to be lighter and smaller. 19 ft under the most severe conditions.

16 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R January/February 2002
assessment of drilling structures. The Development Co; M Effenberger,
effort will provide supplementary guide- Stress Engineering Services; and J
lines on how to assess drilling struc- Irick, Consultant.
tures for forces arising from earthquake
The guidelines provide a methodology
loading conditions.
for performing seismic assessments of
IADC/SPE alternate paper, “Seismic offshore drilling rigs. The procedures
Assessment Procedures for Offshore assume that other engineering analysis
Drilling Structures,” summarizes the will have been performed to determine
proposed guidelines. Authors of the the seismic response of the supporting
paper are J W Turner, ExxonMobil deck structure. n

Suction pile system designed for the Atwood


Richmond to prevent sliding proves successful.
Jet nozzles were placed at the foot of
each of the 32-ton, 1 ½-in. thick piles,
allowing them to be jetted in or out of
the soil with the high-pressure mud
pumps.
Four 35-hp variable speed AC pumps
were installed, allowing finite control of
the evacuation (suction installation) or
extraction (pumping the pile out of the
soil) of water.
Suction piles had previously never been
used in this application.
Since installation in late summer 2000,
the system has been used successfully
on over 9 locations with the unit main-
taining location in severe weather up to
a collinear 45-knot sustained wind, 4-7-
ft waves and a 1 ½-knot current.
These conditions far exceed previous
environmental and soil conditions
where the unit had slid, but the Atwood
Richmond held location with no move-
ment.
The suction pile system (patented) has
been an unqualified success.

SEISMIC ASSESSMENT
The API Task Group on Well Servicing
Structures responsible for API Specifi-
cation 4F is working towards providing
improved guidance on the design and

January/February 2002 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R 17

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