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D&C Tech Digest
FMC Technologies’ Enhanced Vertical Deepwater Tree (EVDT) is a slimbore subsea completion system designed to provide large-bore system capabilities. It can accommodate 7-in. tubing completions and pressures up to 15,000 psi within a 13 5/8-in. BOP stack. Among other features, it allows ultra-deepwater completions to be performed from a small drilling rig containing the surface BOP.
Versabuild’s heavy lift system, nicknamed “Bottom Feeder,” recently retrieved six hurricane-toppled platform topsides from the seabed. Each of the eight-leg topsides was retrieved as single lifts, with peak lift weights of up to 1,600 tons. This approach results in reduced personnel exposure offshore and is extremely cost-effective.
INTEQ’s MagTrak is a LWD tool that provides a comprehensive range of magnetic resonance answer products, including formation porosity, bound fluid volume, free fluid volume, permeability, hydrocarbon detection, and T1 & T2 distribution spectrums. It’s based on magnetic resonance MR technology so does not require a radioactive source.
OTC Spotlight on New Technology Awards
The Offshore Technology Conference has announced the 14 winning technologies that will receive the 2008 Spotlight on New Technology Awards recognizing innovative technologies significantly impacting offshore exploration and production.
Winning technologies are selected on 4 criteria:
• New and innovative: The technology must be less than 2 years old.
• Proven: The technology must be proven, either through full-scale application or successful prototype testing.
• Broad interest: The technology must have a broad interest and appeal for the industry.
• Significant impact: The technology must provide significant benefits beyond existing technologies.
The Delmar OMNI-Max Anchor is a gravity-installed vertically loaded anchor (VLA) for MODU moorings that can be loaded in any direction, 360º around the axis of the anchor. It benefits design of mooring systems that reduce risk to subsea infrastructure in the event of station-keeping damage or even failure.
Cubility’s MudCube rotates a continuous screen belt, so return drilling fluid will always enter into the clean screen. No mechanical force is given to the screen, providing the milder treatment for fluids and cuttings and the best environment for fluids to be separated in a closed under-pressurized system. The system has been tested in a full-scale test loop at StatoilHydro/Cubility test centre.
Baker Oil Tools’ RAM Rotatable Self-Aligning Multilateral System offers a solution for extended-reach multilateral wells, where getting liners to bottom may require continuous rotation. The RAM system is the first and, so far the only, multilateral system that allows continuous rotation of the lateral liner while simultaneously and reliably landing a completion system that can mechanically support the lateral junction. An offshore RAM installation is pending in the North Sea in 2008, followed by Middle East applications.
ABB AS’ Wireless Vibration Sensor, mounted onto a motor, communicates measurements wirelessly to a central unit. The unit itself comprises a vibration sensor (accelerometer), a temperature sensor, and the means for wireless communication to a central computer. The computer performs the necessary data analysis and storage and makes the data available to potential users.
Schlumberger’s FUTUR active set-cement technology can automatically self-heal in the presence of hydrocarbon leaks through cracks or microannuli created by post-completion changes in the regional stress field. Cyclical pressure or temperature regimes can cause changes in casing stress that damage the hydraulic integrity of well cement. But if the well has been treated with FUTUR active set-cement, any resulting leaks will be repaired, automatically, without any need for intervention from surface.
Schlumberger’s ResInject injection control device removes the flow-control interface from the screen surface to a controlled environment, thereby changing the flow regime from the traditional Darcy spherical flow shape factor to Bernoulli flow, which is viscosity independent. Low permeability zones will receive more injection fluid, thereby increasing ultimate oil recovery.
Welltec’s Well Miller Reverse Circulating Bit (RCB) is a tunnel power drill. The E-line equipment is built to re-establish flow in wellbores by milling out hard materials and retrieving them to surface. The tool includes a basic rotational unit (BRU), which drives an impeller that creates the vacuum flow to circulate through the liquid environment tool, “dragging” sand into the 0.5-in. intake holes where it will deposit in the sand trap bailers.
Weatherford’s MetalSkin monobore open-hole liner system eliminates the slimming of a well profile during well construction to improve well productivity and reservoir recovery. An oversized shoe is run into the hole with the previous string of casing and, after installation, can be drilled out with conventional bottomhole drilling assemblies. Once the next hole section is drilled, the expandable liner extension is run to well TD and expanded back into the oversized shoe. This provides an expanded string of casing with the same drift as the previous casing string; therefore, a string of casing is gained with no loss of hole size.
Recognizing the need for a thru-tubing cutter capable of making multiple cuts in challenging environments and operating globally without the need for special licenses for transportation, storage or usage, Weatherford developed the motorized cutting tool (MCT). The MCT cuts downhole tubulars without the use of dangerous chemicals or explosives and facilitates fishing by displacing tubing cleanly, whether in tension or compression, with no flaring and no debris left in the well.
Expro’s View-Max sideview camera allows switching between the traditional down view and a new side camera with the flick of a switch. The entire camera will then rotate 360º on its motor section to provide a full investigation. This can be particularly useful in wells with suspected casing damage by providing images of the pipe wall.
Yantai Raffles’ Taisun is a lifting device that sits across a 380 m-by-120 m dry dock. It’s made up of two fixed beams placed horizontally across the dock floor on four columns. Spanning an overall length of 120 m, the beams, with lifting capacities of 10,000 metric tones each, are placed at 89 m and 119 m. It has a lifting height of 83m for its lower beam and 113m for its higher beam. The installation of 96 unique lifting devices enables the mating of an entire outfitted deck box of semi onto its hull/pontoons in one activity, reducing work hazards at high altitudes and in the open sea. The one-day mating process, compared with conventional methods, reduces risks and saves time.
