Petroleum Engineering Department, UTP

Chapter 3 Offshore Drilling

3.1 Offshore Platforms

AP Dr. Xianhua Liu

Xianhua.Liu@utp.edu.my

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PCB4213 Advanced Drilling Engineering 2016

Contents
• Types of Offshore Platforms
• Station Keeping of Floating OPs
• Safety and Control Equipment
• Drilling Rig Selection
• Mooring Systems
• Drilling Risers

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 Learning Outcome
• Know types and how to select the types of offshore drilling
rigs
• know the requirement for station keeping of floating offshore
platforms during drilling and non drilling operations.
• Understand the safety requirement and safety and control
equipment for floating offshore drilling.
• Know the types of mooring systems and their work
principles.
• Understand drilling risers in terms of its structure, connection
and usage.

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Offshore Platforms

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 Classification of Drilling Rigs

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 Fixed platforms were the first offshore drilling units .

 They are used in areas with water depth up to 300-400m.
 Usually from these platform one well is drilled vertically, and all others
are drilled directionally, in order to cover the interest zones.
 Fixed platforms are usually steel modular structures, installed in the
operational site using piles driven into the sea bed. Fixed platforms may
be of the type “tender–supported” or “self-contained.

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 Compliant Tower

 A kind of bottom supported

platform, where its structure looks
linearly.

 Used in up to 1000 m water depth.

 Platform complies with wave

motion

 It is one of the newest generation of

offshore platforms
 Compliant towers are much like
fixed platforms. (fixed at bottom,
flexibility on top)

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• They are towed by tugboats to the location and are ballasted

until the flat hull grounds on the waterbed, generally smooth
and horizontally flat.
• The platform rests on bottom with the whole weight of the
platform transferred to the ground.
• They are also called “gravity platforms” and may be steel
made of concrete mat

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  A bottom supported platform
with high mobility.
 Some of them are self propelled
to location but most moved by
tugs (tugboats)
 The most common designs use
3 independent legs.
 Some jack-ups have 4 legs or
more.
 Limited to max 100 m water
depth
 Are used mainly for exploration
drilling in the continental ledge
(may also be used for
development drilling and even
temporary production).

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 Barge is brought to the

position, sunk by filling
ballasting components.
 Mast raised & drilling
starts.
 Once finished, mast is put
down, empty water & move
barge.
 Used for very shallow/flat
water (less than 3m) like
river or lakes. Contains all
equip. from land rig

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  They came into play as modifications
of submersibles.
 They have pontoons and columns that
when flooded cause the unit to sub-
merge in the water to a predetermined
depth.
 Semi–submersible rigs are either self-
propelled or towed to a drilling site
and either anchored or dynamically
positioned over the site, or both.
 It can drill resting on bottom (platform
floats to position & ballasted to lower
in shallow waters) or in a floating
position (pontoons float & anchored in
place)

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Drill Ship

 Ship floats to position & drilling

starts. Not ballasted
 Ship is free to move at 6 degree
of freedom. So always facing
incoming waves to dampen
wave motion
 Very fast to move, less stable &
everything locates above water
level
 Used preferably in exploratory
wells.
 It can drill in deep water

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 Tension legs platforms (TLP)
 Generally are used for deep
water but kept in place using
tendons (pipes) which are
connected to sea bottom.
 Tendons are in tension (i.e.
forcing rig lowering in water)
but buoying force applies
upward so as a result the
platform is stable

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Spar-buoy (caisson)

 Huge hollow steel

cylinder shape (40 m
diameter, 400 m height!)
 Floats horizontally &
brought into position.
Then placed vertically &
anchored in place.
 Rig assembled on top
 Very stable but
expensive & difficult to
move it.
 Limited to 1000 m
water depth. Few of
them are in use

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 Some of world’s spars:

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Station Keeping of Floating Vessels

A coordinate system fixed with

the vessel, six motion
components are defined, three
translational and three rotational

Translation motion:
Z
– Surge (X–axis, horizontal,
along the navigation direction);
– Sway (Y–axis, horizontal
perpendicular X
to the navigation);
– Heave (Z–axis, vertical);

Rotation motions:
– Roll (X–axis);
– Pitch (Y–axis);
– Yaw (Z–axis) Y

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Station Keeping

The angular motions (roll and

pitch) are very significants in
operations like tripping, which can
jeopardize the sections stacking
The horizontal motions are not
compensated but reduced to a
minimum by the anchoring system
or dynamic positioning system
They are not measured in absolute
displacement but in percentage of
the water depth.
The maximum offset for drilling
operation is usually 5% to 6% of
the water depth.
In some operations like casing run,
the limit is reduced to 3%

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 Station Keeping of Floating Vessels

If weather conditions
causes an offset larger
than the maximum for
the operation, it must be
interrupted, but the riser
may remain connected to
the marine BOP.
The limit to keep the riser
connected depend on the
type of the connection
but is usually between
8% and 10%

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Safety and Control Equipment

Depending on the casings

program and the vessel
capacity, a single set BOP
stack (heavier) or a double
set of BOP stacks (lighter)
is used.

The advantage of the single

system is that the complete
system is run connected to
the riser.

On the other hand, the

weight of the assembly to
be run is high

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 Choke Line and Kill Line
These lines can operate at 5000psi
or 10000psi, depending on the BOP
stack used.
They are usually integral with the
riser, and are tested during the run
of the riser.
The connection and seal is obtained
during the assemblage of the risers.
Close to the point where the lines
connect with the BOP, “safety
valves” spring
loaded, are hydraulically kept open.
Any pressure drop in the control line
causes the closing of the choke and
kill lines.

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Exploration Drilling Rig Selection

1. Jack-up rig exploratory units are suitable for shallow water < 400ft
2. Ships, semi-submersible are generally used in deeper water > 400ft
3. Floating drilling units would require special mooring arrangements
or a dynamic positioning system in deep water > 1000-ft.

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 Floating platform functions

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Mooring Systems

There are numerous mooring systems around the world.

Three main types of mooring methods are:
1. Spread Mooring System

2. Single Point Mooring (SPM) system

3. Dynamic Positioning System (No mooring lines)

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Spread Mooring System

• A symmetrical arrangement of anchors at the bow and the stern

that allow the ship to stay on a fixed location with a fixed heading.
• The simplest way of mooring an FPSO.
• The connections are simple and the overall system does not allow
the floater to “weathervane”.
• Weathervane: ship rotates (yaw) into the direction of
environmental loading (so that the loading is minimal).

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 Single Point Mooring (SPM) system

The ship is weathervaning around a fixed point:

1) Turret Mooring
2) Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM)
3) Single Anchor Leg Mooring (SALM)
4) Tower Mooring

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SPM: Turret Mooring

• A turret mooring system consists of a geostatic part attached to the

seabed and a rotating part integrated in the hull, which are
connected and allow the ship to weathervane around the turret.
• Components:
• Turret and spider
• Turret casing
• Turntable
• Anchor arrangement
• Product transfer system

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 Turret Mooring

• Turret mooring system consists of a (geo)static part attached to the

seabed and a rotating part integrated within the FPSO hull.
• The geostatic part is called “turret” and the rotating part “turret
casing".
• The two parts are connected via a bearing arrangement, which
allows rotation between them, this allows the FPSO to freely
weathervane around the turret.
• The weathervaning can be passive (the predominant industry
practice) or active or combination of them.

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Dynamic Positioning System

Dynamic Positioning is the technique to keep a floating

structure stationary by means of controlling the magnitude
and the direction of thrust, based on position feedback.
Main components:
1) Power management system
2) Thruster system
3) Position measurement system
4) DP-control system

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 Drilling Risers

• The conduits for drilling

operations from the mobile
offshore drilling unit (MODU).

• While connected much of the

time, drilling risers undergo
repeated deployment and
retrieval operations during their
lives.

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• Risers are connected to

a subsea wellhead,
which in turn is
attached to the
supporting sub-
mudline casing.

• Typically these joints

are composed of a
forged tapered section
of pipe that can be
made of either steel or
titanium.

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 Drilling Risers

• As water depths increase for drilling

operations the importance of the drilling
riser grow.

• The cost of the drilling riser can be tens of

millions of dollars; but the cost of
operational downtime for an event involving
the loss of a drilling riser can exceed one
hundred million dollars.

• Effective analytical design of the drilling

riser and the related operations can
substantially reduce the cost and risk of
drilling an offshore well.

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Riser String

• The riser string consists of “joints” (segments) of riser pipe

connected at the drill floor and “run” (deployed) into the water.
• Following figure shows a typical ultra deepwater riser joint that is
75 ft long and has a continuous steel riser pipe down the middle.
• As shown, this riser joint has five pairs of buoyancy modules
strapped on the outside and flange-type connectors at each end.
• The riser joints carry auxiliary lines, and thus are made up with
bolted flange, dog-type or other non-rotating connections

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 Riser String

• This figures show auxiliary lines that are clamped to the riser pipe.
• These lines include choke and kill lines that provide for well
control, a riser boost line that can be used to pump mud into
the riser annulus just above the BOP stack to improve return of
cuttings, a spare line, and a hydraulic line that controls subsea
functions.

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Marine riser systems for exploratory jack-up

and floater drilling operations

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 Drilling Riser Design

• Riser Bending or Tension Stiffness, a non-dimensional number is used:

• To the average tension stiffness,

• L the riser length,
• EI is the bending stiffness
• n the number of half waves.

• If λN,tens= 1, the stiffness contribution from the bending and tension will
be about the same, while for larger values the tension stiffness will
dominate.

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Pipe Cross-section
Wellhead Housing
• The oil and gas industry selected a few standard bore sizes for its subsea
wellhead housings.
• These wellhead bore sizes include 18-3/4 in, 16-3/4 in, 13-5/8 in.
• The bore size determines the size of the casing strings that can be run
through the wellhead and hung off in the wellhead housing.

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 Configuration (Stack-Up)
Connection to Vessel
• The riser is supported by the vessel through the
combination of a tensioned telescopic joint and a top flex
joint in an opening in the vessel called the “moon pool”.

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Configuration (Stack-Up)

Connection to Vessel
• The telescopic joint has an inner barrel
and an outer barrel that allow vertical
motion of the vessel while holding the
riser with near-constant tension.
• The tensioning ring at the top of the
“outer barrel” of the telescopic joint
provides the connection point for riser
tensioner lines, which maintain relatively
constant tension through their
connection to the compensating
tensioner units.

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 Configuration (Stack-Up)
Lower Flex-
Connection to BOP Joint
LMRP

Stack BOP

• At the seabed, the riser

connects to the blowout
Conductor
preventer, or “BOP” stack,
which provides subsea well
control after the well has Casing
been drilled to a depth that
warrants it.
• The lowest riser joint
connects to a riser adapter
on top of the BOP stack.
• This connects to a lower
flex joint located inside the
upper portion of the BOP
called the lower marine
riser package (LMRP).
better connection package LMRCP?
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Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP)

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 The End of Offshore Platforms

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