Tender Barge for Drillship Operating in Environmentally Sensitive Areas
A tender barge for a drill ship includes a hull internally segmented into compartments. The compartments are for storing wellbore drilling consumables and wellbore drilling waste. The hull has an opening therein for positioning under a moon pool of a drill ship. The barge hull further includes a support structure for contacting a bottom of a hull of a drill ship when the drill ship is positioned over the barge hull. The barge has a mooring system having capacity to either hold the barge in position or hold both the barge and the drill ship when the drill ship is fully supported by the barge out of the water over a wellbore location.
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The disclosure relates to tender barges used in association with drill ship floating drilling platforms. More specifically, the disclosure relates to a tender barge that can store materials used during drilling operations on a drill ship and that can store waste products resulting from such drilling operations until the drilling operations are completed and the drill ship is moved from the drilling location. The tender barge may also act as the mooring facility for the drilling vessel.
Drill ships are one type of floating drilling platform that may be used to drill wellbores through formations below the bottom of a body of water such as a lake or the ocean. Drill ships may be used in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Arctic. Regulations governing drilling activities in such environmentally sensitive areas may require that no formation cuttings or other waste products, e.g, produced water and/or oil from a formation, resulting from drilling a wellbore be discharged into the water. Further, air pollution regulations may require that only a limited number of additional fossil fuel powered vessels be permitted to operated within a predetermined distance from the drill ship.
There is a need for a tender vessel that can store sufficient quantities of consumables for drilling operations at one or more selected well locations and that can store waste products generated as a result of the drilling operations.
SUMMARYA tender barge for a drill ship includes a hull internally segmented into compartments. The compartments are for storing wellbore drilling consumables and wellbore drilling waste. The hull has an opening therein for positioning under a moon pool of a drill ship. The barge hull further includes a support structure for contacting a bottom of a hull of a drill ship when the drill ship is positioned over the barge hull. The barge has a mooring system having capacity to either hold the barge in position or hold both the barge and the drill ship when the drill ship is fully supported by the barge out of the water over a wellbore location.
A method for drilling a wellbore using a drill ship and a tender barge includes moving the tender barge to a well drilling location. The tender barge is moored on location. The drill ship is moved so that a moon pool therein is positioned over a corresponding opening in a hull of the tender barge. The tender barge is deballasted until a support structure on the hull thereof contacts a corresponding structure on a bottom of the drill ship. Thereafter the tender barge is ballasted to maintain the drill ship in a trim condition for drilling operations.
Other aspects and advantages will be apparent from the description and claims which follow.
In the present example, the drill ship hull may be fully supported by buoyancy provided by the barge (10 in
Another example of the barge 10 is shown in end view/cross section in
It is contemplated that when the drill ship 14 is positioned over the barge 10, in either the present example or the previous example, various lines (not shown separately —which may be rigid conduits having suitable swivel and other connections, or may be or may include flexible hose) may be connected between the drill ship 14 and the appropriate compartment (not shown) in the barge 10. Pumps (not shown) to transfer the various materials stored in the barge to and from the drill ship may be located on the drill ship 14, on the barge 10 or both. In the present two examples, deballasting pump(s) may be disposed on the barge 10. Such pumps (not shown) may be powered by equipment on the barge 10, or may be powered, for example by electric power communicated from the drill ship 14.
After drilling operations are completed, the barge 10 may be reballasted to come out of contact with the drill ship 14 (i.e., the drill ship 14 is in free flotation). The drill ship 14 may then move away from the wellbore location, e.g., to a next wellbore location. The barge 10 may then be unmoored, deballasted and moved to another location for emptying the compartments holding waste materials, and refilling the compartments storing the consumables to be used on a subsequent well drilling operation.
A tender barge according to the various examples explained herein may provide wellbore drilling operators with means to eliminate discharge of drilling waste into the water, and may provide enough consumables to avoid the necessity of having any other self powered vessels approach the vicinity of the drill ship during drilling operations.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
Claims
1. A tender barge for a drill ship, comprising:
- a hull internally segmented into compartments, the compartments for storing wellbore drilling consumables and wellbore drilling waste, the hull comprising an opening therein for positioning under a moon pool of a drill ship;
- a support structure for contacting a bottom of a hull of a drill ship when the drill ship is positioned over the barge hull; and
- a mooring system having capacity to at least one of holding the barge in position and holding the barge and the drill ship supported thereon over a wellbore location.
2. The tender barge of claim 1 further comprising ballast compartments having sufficient volume such that when deballasted provide sufficient buoyant force to support the weight of the drill ship completely out of a body of water.
3. A method for drilling a wellbore using a drill ship and a tender barge, comprising:
- moving the tender barge to a well drilling location;
- mooring the tender barge;
- moving the drill ship so that a moon pool therein is positioned over a corresponding opening in a hull of the tender barge; and
- deballasting the tender barge until a support structure on the hull thereof contacts a corresponding structure on a bottom of the drill ship.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the deballasting provides sufficient buoyant force to support the drill ship completely out of a body of water.
5. The method of claim 3 further comprising drilling the wellbore, ballasting the tender barge, moving the drill ship away from the tender barge, deballasting and unmooring the tender barge, and moving the tender barge away from the well location.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 25, 2013
Publication Date: Mar 5, 2015
Applicant: Noble Drilling Services, Inc. (Sugar Land, TX)
Inventors: Hans H. J. Deul (Richmond, TX), Harold Keys (Woodville, TX)
Application Number: 14/389,258
International Classification: B63B 35/44 (20060101); E21B 7/128 (20060101); B63B 21/50 (20060101);