Lee C Moore issued US patents for drilling rig design, Dual Offset Derrick
Lee C Moore, a Woolslayer company that designs and manufactures drilling structures, has been issued two patents by the US Patent Office. The first covers a new drilling rig design for land-based operations, while the second covers a new arrangement for its offshore oil derricks.
The first patent is for the HMR SlotBox, an adaptation of the company’s HMR Highly Mobile Rig, designed to facilitate faster rig moving times by adapting proven and reliable industry practices to create new outcomes.
The HMR SlotBox features an innovative substructure design with a built-in Rig Rover moving system for popular pad drilling application, a hydraulically raised mast, a BOP handling system with maintenance platform, and integral stairs in the substructure boxes.
“Designed with the bottom section of a three-piece mast nested inside of the substructure and raising cylinders that remained pinned during drilling operations, this design is already improving site-to-site rig moving times by up to three days following delivery of the first two SlotBox rigs into a US shale drilling market,” Thomas Wingerter, CEO of Lee C Moore, said.
Technical specifications of the HMR SlotBox drilling rig include a 142-ft hydraulic raised cantilever mast with a 600,000-lb to 1,000,000-lb static hook capacity and a box-on-box substructure for ease of handling and winterization.
The second patent is for the company’s Dual Offset Derrick, a derrick and drill floor arrangement designed specifically for the jackup drilling market.
“Our new Dual Offset Derrick working-floor design offers a much improved drilling operations visibility for offshore drilling cabins, while increasing drill string setback weight distribution,” Mr Wingerter said. “The patent offers a much safer view of the rig floor area, which, statistically, is the location of most recordable personal injuries on a drilling rig. The new design also allows for additional extension of a jackup rig cantilevered over well centers.”
The patent covers the arrangement in Lee C Moore’s offshore derricks where the well center is offset in both x- and y-axes about the centerline of a derrick. The setback area is larger compared to similar designs and accommodates drill pipe, drill collars and casing simultaneously.
HMR SlotBox, HMR Highly Mobile Rig, Rig Rover and Dual Offset Derrick are registered trademarks of Lee C Moore.
