A Large Rig Carrying Ship

[XJSJohn]

think it's about $800 / ton for MGO (although may be up to $1k now.

[vtgts300kw]

Where do you guys see the big leaps in technology coming from within the sector? Is there anything "revolutionary" in the pipeline ( excuse the pun )?

[DH01]

The Saipem S7000 as she went through the Dover Straits , Autumn this year.
Amazing bit of kit as it is self propelled.
We kept a long way away !

[Lefty]

scottyegg said:

i also wonder if there fuel comes direct from the refinaries, i.e no govenment taxation ect

No chance! Offshore production installations often use fuel gas direct from the wellstream and conditioned to burn in their turbines for power gen but an HLV or other working vessel would never get access to "free" fuel...

[Lefty]

vtgts300kw said:

Where do you guys see the big leaps in technology coming from within the sector? Is there anything "revolutionary" in the pipeline ( excuse the pun )?

This:

http://www.allseas.com/uk/19/equipment/pieter-sche...

Maybe.

[Parsnip]

vtgts300kw said:

Where do you guys see the big leaps in technology coming from within the sector? Is there anything "revolutionary" in the pipeline ( excuse the pun )?

Rigs will just keep getting bigger as the water gets deeper and rougher - doesnt matter how quick you can work if you spend half of your time waiting on weather - Aker Spitzbergen and Barents (now Transocean) are absolutely huge - they also have twin derricks, so they can work very, very fast - one derrick running casing/making up tubulars while the other is drilling away.

On the drilling side of things, things will start getting more and more advanced - more tools in a string, better telemetry etc. Anything to try and do more during drilling to limit the number of runs in hole between spudding and production.

[shalmaneser]

Anyone seen this? mooted replacement for the mighty servant ships...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEtJOKDvUfY

[vtgts300kw]

Lefty said:

This:

http://www.allseas.com/uk/19/equipment/pieter-sche...

Maybe.

Is this going to take jobs away from those ridiculous floating cranes?

What's currently the deepest place where they are drilling/ exploring? Is the shaft ( technical term ) of the thing that drills into the seafloor exposed in the sea? How do they eliminate the force of the sea on this? Or is it not an issue as it's encased in a sleeve or something?

[Parsnip]

vtgts300kw said:

What's currently the deepest place where they are drilling/ exploring? Is the shaft ( technical term ) of the thing that drills into the seafloor exposed in the sea? How do they eliminate the force of the sea on this? Or is it not an issue as it's encased in a sleeve or something?

Don't know what the deepest is, but the water here is 925ish meters deep, which is on the deeper end of the spectrum. As far as the well (hole) goes, depth is relative - very few wells are drilled straight down, most will have a fair bit of turn and inclination to them - so a well could be 3000m deep, but 5000m long.

For the top of the well (i.e when you start drilling your hole) the "shaft" (drillstring - lots of hollow pipe and some fancy tools at the business end) is often exposed in the sea - cuttings and mud end up on the sea floor. Once you get a little deeper, they use a riser (think a massive steel tube) from the seabed up to the rig, so that the cuttings and drilling fluid get returned to the rig - a requirement if the mud you are using to drill with is anything other than environmentally friendly. It also gives you more control over and information about what is going on in the well - if a kick happens (like Deepwater Horizon) it can be detected and controlled.

How do they eliminate the force of the sea? they can't really - too much in the way of movement and they need to disconnect from the well and float about waiting for better weather. Usually though, the rig is either fixed or anchored over where you are drilling, or positioned dynamically using thrusters - either way, there is a flex joint in the riser, and when you have a couple of kilometers of pipe, it is surprising how much it can bend - its not like if you move a little, something will break.

Edited by Parsnip on Tuesday 6th December 23:38

[vtgts300kw]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

IMHO - Oil / Gas is now deep water - and the re-usability nature of the FPSO versus the conventional sub sea & Topside nature of things if driving towards a huge shift in the Offshore Fabrication market.

What's the shift? Shift towards FPSO?


And thanks for your reply Parnsip. What/ where was the first offshore rig?

What's the industries opinion/ thoughts on oil itself? Is it self replenish able, or will we truly run out?

[texan]

Most deepwater equipment was designed for 3,000m / 10,000 feet until a few years ago, now everyone is looking even deeper!

Great thread btw!

[Parsnip]

vtgts300kw said:

And thanks for your reply Parnsip. What/ where was the first offshore rig?

What's the industries opinion/ thoughts on oil itself? Is it self replenish able, or will we truly run out?

Veslefrikk in the Norwegian sector was mine (you never forget your first ) As for the first one ever, no idea - there are plenty of rustbuckets going around that are probably in with a shout depends when you start officially calling it offshore.

Will it run out? Difficult question.

It will become less economical as things go on - rather than blasting straight down with a mom & pop land rig onshore, they are now drilling crazy wellbores (sometimes past horizontal, so they are essentially drilling upwards) with $1m+ a day rigs using super complicated toolstrings (can easily clear a couple of million USD + and the bother of dealing with radioactive sources in our tools alone) in very deep water and the costs will keep climbing. The days of simply drilling a hole and oil coming out are long gone - the technology is just mindblowing - the idea that you are aiming for a target in the range of meters, several kilometers away, that you can't see still amazes me.

Basically, there may still be plenty of recoverable oil down there, but the profit in it won't be enough to produce it - the short term answer is that the industry is healthy for a while yet - they have had 2 huge discoveries over here this year and we are still drilling plenty of wells.

Saying that, I deal with a small part of the whole operation in a service company, so the decisions are made very far above my head and usually by a different company - I just call it by the rig count, and we are as busy as ever

[dr_gn]

Parsnip said:

vtgts300kw said:

And thanks for your reply Parnsip. What/ where was the first offshore rig?

What's the industries opinion/ thoughts on oil itself? Is it self replenish able, or will we truly run out?

Veslefrikk in the Norwegian sector was mine (you never forget your first )

Veslefrikk semi-sub? I designed the pontoon cast corner inserts for that (and we made them at the foundry where I used to work). Still afloat is it??

[Parsnip]

dr_gn said:

Parsnip said:

vtgts300kw said:

And thanks for your reply Parnsip. What/ where was the first offshore rig?

What's the industries opinion/ thoughts on oil itself? Is it self replenish able, or will we truly run out?

Veslefrikk in the Norwegian sector was mine (you never forget your first )

Veslefrikk semi-sub? I designed the pontoon cast corner inserts for that (and we made them at the foundry where I used to work). Still afloat is it??

The semi-sub is now called Veslefrikk Bravo and is attached to a fixed platform called Veslefrikk Alpha - still running - the semi is the production/accommodation side of things and the fixed platform is the drilling side of things. Still one of my favourite rigs - has pretty much everything - even if it is a 10 minute walk between the drillfloor and the galley

[XJSJohn]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

It was once regaled to me that it is the equivalent to taking and flattening out a Paperclip. Connecting it end on end to others until it is the length of a football field.

Twist that paperclip and guide it to puncture a Lemon at the end of the football field.
From the other end of the football field.

that makes my brain ache just thinking about it ......

[motomk]

Think we have a deep one near where I work. Maersk Discoverer, no idea how deep, but it is a long way offshore. It zooms around a bit!
Another question, The big tankers with crane looking things on the front of them, Do they just roll up to a tap in the sea and offload stuff from the well? and then feed it to other tankers? A oil rig has found a well and just left a tap behind for these tanker things to suck the gas/oil from?

[vtgts300kw]

motomk said:

Think we have a deep one near where I work. Maersk Discoverer, no idea how deep, but it is a long way offshore. It zooms around a bit!
Another question, The big tankers with crane looking things on the front of them, Do they just roll up to a tap in the sea and offload stuff from the well? and then feed it to other tankers? A oil rig has found a well and just left a tap behind for these tanker things to suck the gas/oil from?

6,168 ft apparently.



How long does it take to build a big oil rig? Are new ones constantly been churned out? ( ie: is the demand there to be constantly making the things? )

Do all rigs have anchors? Are the anchors there to support the thrusters? Or are they in some cases there as opposed to thrusters?

[Parsnip]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

It was once regaled to me that it is the equivalent to taking and flattening out a Paperclip. Connecting it end on end to others until it is the length of a football field.

Twist that paperclip and guide it to puncture a Lemon at the end of the football field.
From the other end of the football field.

The one I like is imagine you are standing on top of a 10 story building. There is a can of coke on the floor at the bottom. You need to connect drinking straws together until you get it in the top of the can. You can't see the can

vtgts300kw said:

Do all rigs have anchors? Are the anchors there to support the thrusters? Or are they in some cases there as opposed to thrusters?

Not all rigs have anchors - some (like the drillship I posted above) just use the thrusters to keep the rig positioned over the well. Some will just have anchors - depends on the type of rig and what it was designed for.

[dr_gn]

Parsnip said:

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

It was once regaled to me that it is the equivalent to taking and flattening out a Paperclip. Connecting it end on end to others until it is the length of a football field.

Twist that paperclip and guide it to puncture a Lemon at the end of the football field.
From the other end of the football field.

The one I like is imagine you are standing on top of a 10 story building. There is a can of coke on the floor at the bottom. You need to connect drinking straws together until you get it in the top of the can. You can't see the can

vtgts300kw said:

Do all rigs have anchors? Are the anchors there to support the thrusters? Or are they in some cases there as opposed to thrusters?

Not all rigs have anchors - some (like the drillship I posted above) just use the thrusters to keep the rig positioned over the well. Some will just have anchors - depends on the type of rig and what it was designed for.

Quite a few 'permanent' rigs have suction pile anchors - long metal tubes that suck themselves into the mud with chains attached.

I've never really understood how you can drill with a metal tube of such a huge aspect ratio. Does the tip of the tool rotate itself via hydraulics or something? Surely they dont turn the entire string of drilling pipes??

[Parsnip]

dr_gn said:

I've never really understood how you can drill with a metal tube of such a huge aspect ratio. Does the tip of the tool rotate itself via hydraulics or something? Surely they dont turn the entire string of drilling pipes??

It is possible to rotate just the bit using a downhole motor - mud flow powers it - this is still done in a lot of scenarios - if you are trying to get away from vertical, you can use a motor with a bend in it to start building your angle for example.

Usually though, the whole string will rotate - this is the preferred way of doing things, it makes for better hole cleaning and reduces the risk of you getting stuck. The motor tuning it all is generally a beefy electric affair with massive torque, geared right down - depending on the bit you are using and the formation you are drilling, usually 60-180 RPM

The drillstring is pretty bendy over its length, but it is stabilised and much stiffer at the business end, so as long as you control the weight being put on the bit you shouldn't break anything - your string could weigh 100 tons+, but you are only drilling with 5 ton on the bit - if you put the whole 100+ tons on it, all sorts of stuff would go wrong. The only way you get away with it is because the majority of the pipe is in tension.