DRILL SHIP FOR DEEP SEA INTERVENTION OPERATIONS
A drill ship is provided for conducting subsea operations, including intervention, maintenance and workover operations. The ship includes a hull having a substantially wide beam-to-length ratio and a deckspace. An automated system for handling tubulars and risers is mounted to the deck space, along with a pipe racking system. The deckspace includes a heavy-lift heave crane for handling seafloor operations and a medium duty crane mounted over the deckspace. The ship is configured to provide heavy lift subsea construction operations including 16-inch riser well intervention and workover programs, connected riser completion operations, and riserless tophole drilling and casing operations. The ship is also able to perform connected riser remedial drilling and slim hole well construction. The ship maximizes environmental efficiency in both construction and use, and provides a stable and safe work and living environment for operations personnel.
In one embodiment, the drill ship is configured to operate in multi-tasking environments for subsea oil and gas field development and maintenance, including various subsea operations up to 7,500 feet of water depth. The drill ship includes capabilities for connected 16″ riser well intervention and work over programs, heavy lift subsea construction programs, connected 16″ riser small outer diameter tubing hanger completion programs, riserless tophole large outer-diameter drilling and casing batch programs, and connected riser remedial drilling and slim hole well construction.
The design of the drill ship incorporates elements to ensure safety of personnel and environmentally efficient and “green” operation and construction. In particular, the ship exceeds the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) Passenger Vessel Intact and Damage Stability regulations. The design also incorporates concepts for protected temporary safe refuge muster concepts. Provisions on the ship are also made to form exhaust NOX emission reactors.
The design of the ship's hull incorporates a small force “hull form” which provides low fuel consumption within an environmental class. Furthermore, the hull is double-hull compliant and includes nitrogen-blanketed hull methanol and helifuel storage capability.
The deck of the ship includes automated deck tubular handling systems along with pipe racking systems and a riser handling system. Furthermore, knuckle-boom cranes are implemented on the deck for above-deck and subsea operations. Finally, a regulation-sized helipad is provided on the bow section of the ship.
In the present embodiment, the light displacement hull includes a variety of operational areas and systems, including a blowout preventer (BOP) handling system, a 13⅝″ subsea BOP, a 16″ pressurized riser system, a box tower hoisting and lowering system with a top drive and an active heave compensated drawworks, the heavy-lift heave crane, and the medium duty deck crane. The power systems on the ship include a plurality of 2,200 horsepower fluid pumps and 2,200 horsepower cement units.
As shown in
As shown in
The main hull 10 of the drill ship 1 is shown in the drawings at
The hull has a DP-3 stationkeeping with +15 knot transit rating. The parameters for the hull are as follows:
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- DP-3 Rating for 57 Knt wind, 2.5 Knt Current in Combined Beam Condition
- 4 Independent Engine Rooms, 22.6 MW combined generating power
- Design Transit Speed+15 Knts
- +30 Day F.O. Capacity in High Load Conditions
- Panamax Compliant
As shown in
A perspective view of the deck 12 is shown in
As shown in
The hull design in the wide-beam of the ship allows for relatively large and comfortable crew quarters 7, the configurations of which are shown for example in
In general, the cross-sectional layouts of the crew areas in relation to the hull 10 of the ship 1 are shown in
The drill ship 1 includes a specialized and efficient handling system for the BOP as shown in
The Subsea BOP system utilized in the present embodiment is a 13⅝″, 10 ksi, NACE-compliant BOP stack. The BOP stack will be a conventional wellhead connector, double ram, annual ram, LMRP configuration. Optionally, a craneretrievable BOP/LMRP system may be provided with an infield wet storage of the deployed riser. Furthermore, 3, 4 or 5 ram stack options are available, dependent on the subsea test tree requirements in the program implemented. The riser may be a 16″ slender riser implementation.
An MUX control system is also provided with 3.38″ ID kill-and-choke lines. A riser boost line is also provided and the system includes an EMI-pressurized 500 psi gas buster riser rating (in lieu of a diverter). Finally, the system includes a tensioning slip joint, all of which are shown in
Bog Tower Hoisting and Lowering System with Top Drive
A box tower hoisting and lowering system with top drive and active heave compensation is provided at 26 as shown in
Importantly, the deck 12 of a ship 1 is implemented with a heavy-lift knuckle-boom, seafloor active heave crane 50 as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The exemplary drill ship 1 of the present embodiment is capable of maintaining both large and slender casing schemes, the parameters of which are shown by the schematics of
The following ratings, parameters and specifications are provided for the present embodiments of the drill ship 1:
Design Criteria
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- Multi Purpose Lift Tower
- 400 mt capacity
- Segmented Traveling Block
- 350T Top Drive
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- 4×2200 HP Quintaplex Pumps
- High Volume and High Pressure Capability
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- 250 mt deck mounted, heave compensated, crane for subsea construction, rated to 7,500 ft. water depth
- 50 mt deck mounted, knuckle boom crane with integral fast winch rated for 15 kips at 7,500 ft. water depth
a. One Wellhead Connector, 13⅝″×18¾″
b. Two 13⅝″ Double Ram BOP Units
c. One 13⅝″ Annular Preventer
d. One 13⅝″ Lower Marine Riser Package Connector
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- Crane Retrievable
- Multiple configurations optimized for program
- MUX control with acoustic & ROV backup control
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- Moderate Environment Deepwater, Worldwide
-
- Active Heave Compensated
- 400 mt capacity
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- 2000 hp×7500 psi WP quintaplex fluid pump
- 16″ OD Riser×14.85″ ID
- 75′ Joints Lengths
- Two (2) 3.38″ ID 10,000 psi Choke and Kill lines
- One (1) 1.40″ ID 5,000 psi hydraulic supply lines
- One (1) 3.34″ ID×5,000 psi mud booster/circulating line
- Pup Joints, for any 5′ increment
- Buoyancy
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- Mud Pits 3.000 bbl, minimum
- Brine Pits 3,000 bbl, minimum
- 1,880 gpm 2 Micron Filtration System
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- Bulk Gel/Bar, 3,000 ft3 combined
- Bulk Cement, 2,000 ft3
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- S61 or S92 Capable
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- 100 private staterooms with bath
- 20 double staterooms with bath
It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.
Claims
1. A drill ship for conducting subsea operations comprising:
- a hull having a substantially wide beam-to-length ratio and a deckspace;
- an automated system for handling tubulars and risers, said system interfacing with a pipe racking arrangement mounted to said deckspace;
- a heavy-lift heave crane mounted over said deckspace for handling seafloor operations; and
- a medium duty crane mounted over said deckspace.
2. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the hull incorporates a small force hull form to provide low fuel consumption, and
- wherein the hull is nitrogen-blanketed for storage of methanol and helifuel.
3. The drill ship in claim 1 further comprising at least one exhaust NOx emission reactor.
4. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the hull has a beam-to-length ratio less than three.
5. The drill ship in claim 1 further comprising:
- a helipad; and
- a remote operated vehicle installation.
6. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the automated handling system comprises a hinged rig floor.
7. The drill ship in claim 1 further comprising a blowout preventer stack.
8. The drill ship in claim 7 wherein the blowout prevent stack is a wellconnector, annual ram blowout preventer stack.
9. The drill ship in claim 7 wherein the blowout preventer stack comprises:
- a wellhead connector;
- a double ram blowout preventer unit;
- an annular preventer; and
- a lower marine rise package connector.
10. The drill ship in claim 1 further comprising a box tower hoisting and lowering system with top drive and active heave compensation, the box tower hoisting and lowering system comprising:
- a heave-compensated drawworks; and
- a segmented traveling block.
11. The drill ship in claim 10 wherein the heave-compensated drawworks has a 400 metric ton capacity.
12. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the heavy lift crane is a heavy-lift knuckle-boom, seafloor action heave crane.
13. The drill ship in claim 12 wherein the heavy-lift crane has a two-hour lowering speed to the rated depth at maximum load.
14. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the medium duty crane is a knuckle-boom deck utility crane.
15. The drill ship in claim 14 wherein the medium duty crane comprises a pipe gripper arm.
16. The drill ship in claim 1 further comprising:
- a fluid pump; and
- a cement processor.
17. The drill ship in claim 1 wherein the cement processor comprises:
- a fluid pump;
- a choke-and-kill line;
- a hydraulic supply line;
- a mud booster/circulating line; and
- a pup joint.
18. A method of conducting a subsea operation comprising:
- navigating a ship to a location in a body of water, the ship comprising: a hull having a substantially wide beam-to-length ratio and a deckspace; an automated system for handling tubulars and risers, said system interfacing with a pipe racking arrangement mounted to said deckspace; a heavy-lift heave crane mounted over said deckspace for handling seafloor operations; and a medium duty crane mounted over said deckspace.
19. The method of claim 3 further comprising operating the automated system to move a blowout preventer stack.
20. A drill ship for conducting subsea operations comprising:
- a light displacement hull;
- a heavy-lift heave crane;
- a medium duty deck crane;
- a plurality of fluid pumps;
- a plurality of cement units; and
- a blowout preventer (BOP) handling system comprising:
- a subsea blowout preventer;
- a pressurized riser system; and
- a box tower hoisting and lowering system with a top drive and an active heave compensated drawworks.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 30, 2009
Publication Date: Jul 28, 2011
Applicant: A.P. MELLER-MÆRSK A/S (Copenhagen K)
Inventors: Niels Elmbo (Kokkedal), Thomas Danielsen (Kastrup)
Application Number: 13/001,897
International Classification: E21B 43/01 (20060101); B63B 35/44 (20060101); B63B 35/50 (20060101); E21B 33/06 (20060101);