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Subsea Technology
For several years, after the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), I have had Jacques B. Saliés, SPE, is Drilling
the opportunity to address the JPT audience and comment on subsea technolo- and Completion Manager of Petrobras
gies and field applications that came to the forefront. This year, however, before America for the Gulf of Mexico. His
getting to business, I would like to comment on the major event that hovered 28-year career at Petrobras spans engi-
over OTC and the questions that could not stop being asked: “What happened?”
“What consequences will the industry face?” “How should we get prepared for neering and management positions in
the day after?” I waited until the day before my review was due to put thoughts E&P, including coordination of the
on paper. During this period, I closely followed developments and efforts to solve Petrobras Technological Program on
the catastrophe. Nevertheless, more time is necessary to cap the well and much Ultradeepwater Exploitation Systems—
more time will be necessary to recover the environment. How long it will take PROCAP 3000. Saliés holds a BS degree
us to be back in business is another question that we all would like to answer.
in mechanical engineering from the
As we find the answer, our industry will be revisited comprehensively—from
regulations and drilling procedures to equipment construction, safety, and envi- Military Institute of Engineering, Brazil;
ronmental response. Time will tell. an MS degree in petroleum engineering
Now, let us address subsea technology and the papers of this issue. It was from the Federal University of Ouro
pleasing to see new fields implementing subsea boosting in different parts of Petro, Brazil; and a PhD degree in petro-
the world. Three fields particularly caught my attention: Perdido, Parque das leum engineering from the University of
Conchas, and Azurite. The Perdido field, in the ultradeepwater Gulf of Mexico,
combines a spar with a subsea-boosting system—an engineering master piece. Tulsa. He has served on the SPE Board
The Parque das Conchas (BC-10) field, in ultradeepwater Brazil, uses a subsea- of Directors for Brazil and has authored
boosting system. The Azurite field, in ultradeepwater West Africa, uses a subsea- or coauthored several papers. Saliés
multiphase-pumping system. Subsea boosting attests that the operators have serves on the JPT Editorial Committee.
been looking attentively into this type of solution as the technology evolves into
the ultimate subsea-to-shore production systems.
I am pleased to suggest a collection of papers that addresses such solutions and
their significant benefits to the field. I hope you enjoy it! JPT
Surface BOP
The wet-tree DVA concept minimizes
the size of the host, while maximizing
the number of subsea wells with DVA
from the spar. For the DVA subsea
wells, drilling, completion, and work-
overs are performed with a rig on the
spar. The rig stays in a fixed position
over the dedicated drilling/completion
slot, and the host is moved around the
well pattern by use of the active moor-
ing system to provide vertical access to
all the wells in the working area.
A custom wellhead/riser/BOP system
was developed for this project. The sur-
face BOP is a 163/4-in. 5,000-psi-rated
The XNX Universal Transmitter stack. It is connected to a top-tensioned,
supports all Honeywell gas high-pressure drilling and completion
sensing technologies and riser (DCR). It has a 17.25-in. outside
works with virtually all diameter and a 15-in. drift, and it is rated
communication protocols. for 5,000-psi internal pressure at surface
with 10.1-lbm/gal fluid in the riser.
The XNX can be easily integrated with Honeywell’s leading
gas detection sensing technologies—catalytic bead,
Unlike surface-BOP operations from
electrochemical and Infrared. It also supports HART® floaters, no subsea-isolation device will
Communication Foundation’s latest digital communications be installed on the bottom of the riser
protocol and provides optional MODBUS®, or up to because the spar rig is considered a per-
three relays for alarm and fault. This interoperability gives manently moored structure and because
manufacturing plants a wider range of transmitter options the DCR is designed to stay connected
for their gas monitoring applications. In addition, the unit
offers faster startup and commissioning and better status
during hurricane abandonment. Well
indicators for predictive maintenance. Ideal for use with operations are in general very similar to
dedicated gas monitoring controllers or industry standard dry-tree DVA wells for most drilling and
PLCs, the XNX is a cost-effective, all-in-one gas transmitter completion activities (e.g., drilling, run-
solution, upgradeable as your needs grow. ning casing, wellbore cleanout, perforat-
Honeywell Analytics. Experts in gas detection. ing, and gravel packing).
The most significant challenge for
subsea-well completion with a surface
BOP is running and landing the subsea
tubing hanger without a subsea isola-
To learn more, or to obtain a free copy of Gas Book, tion device. The main issues that must
our 84-page guide to gas detection, call 1-800-538-0363, be addressed for this operation are
visit www.XNXHoneywellAnalytics.com or email detectgas@honeywell.com double terminations of the umbilical
© 2010 Honeywell International Inc. All rights reserved.
lines if a surface spanner joint is used,
pressuring up the annulus for testing,
600+
for future production. In addition, the design allows production
from any branch hub to be directed to either header for full
operational flexibility. The manifolds are in the center of the
DVA cluster, surrounded by 22 subsea wells, including water subsea trees
injectors and production wells.
Flowlines
100+
The flowline infrastructure includes two 8-in. production
flowlines, three 10-in. production flowlines, one 10-in. water-
injection line, one 10-in. water-injection line/riser, and one
6-in. service flowline/riser. The production flowlines are coated floating systems
with 3 in. of insulation. The water-injection lines are internally
and externally coated with fusion-bonded epoxy.
The Perdido pipelines and flowlines required a combi-
nation of installation methods to address the challenges.
Technical limitations required both reeled and J-lay installa- INTECSEA is the largest assembly
tion methods for the flowlines and risers. Installation of the of deepwater expertise in an
export pipelines, driven by the distance to existing infrastruc-
ture, was feasible only with S-lay. Because of the tight installa- independent engineering and project
tion schedule of the spar, some flowlines were installed on the
seafloor below the host before host arrival; and a few other
management company, offering global
flowlines and risers were installed after host arrival. full service solutions in the subsea,
In addition to the technical challenges of extreme water
depth and rugged terrain, the project team had to overcome pipeline and floating production
challenges caused by hurricanes Dolly, Ike, and Gustave and arenas.
tropical storm Edouard, which occurred during the instal-
lation phase of the Perdido flowlines in 2008. The storms
affected the offshore-installation schedule and caused exten- Experts seeking employment opportunities,
sive damage to the onshore infrastructure that supported the
offshore operations. JPT
please contact Laura.Irwin@intecsea.com or
apply online at www.INTECSEA.com/careers
That keep
production up
and running.
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Boosting module
The ALMs are equipped with manual-
ly and hydraulically actuated gate valves,
with ROV-override capability. The valves
are controlled through electrohydraulic
multiplexed control systems mounted on
each of the boosting modules. Each pair
of boosting-module control systems at
ALM 1 directly controls half of the mani-
fold valves, with a logic configuration
that enables one of the boosting modules
at each pair to be retrieved, transferring
the manifold-valve control to the remain-
Conductors and liners ing boosting module. At ALM 2, each
boosting-module control system directly
controls all the manifold valves.
Template The ALM is designed to be retriev-
able and reinstallable independently
Fig. 2—ALM 1 layout with boosting modules in place. from the spacer template/conductors
foundation. A gimbaled socket in each
without having to make changes to the subsea retrievable and reinstallable by slot of the ALM engages itself precisely
overall subsea-tree design. The sub- use of a detachable mud-mat-type shal- to its respective conductor cone. These
sea installable/retrievable flow-module low foundation, which remains on the sockets were designed to have sufficient
assembly enables this changeover. It seafloor once installed. flexibility to accommodate conductor
contains several components such as “out-of-vertical position” resulting from
a bolted bonnet choke, a multiphase Artificial Lift the stack-up tolerances relative to the
flowmeter (MPFM), and upstream and Each electrical submersible pump (ESP) spacer-template and conductors arrange-
downstream transducers. is incorporated into a boosting-module ment. Similar to the subsea-tree system,
system. These modules are deployed the ALM incorporates a retrievable flow-
MPFM. Flow from the Ostra and in the seabed caisson, not in the pro- module assembly containing chokes for
Abalone wells is commingled subsea at duction wells. The main challenge is the gas, oil, and service flowlines.
the artificial-lift manifold in the caisson- to commingle the flow from several
separation system. The total flow is mea- wells into a single boosting module. Boosting-Module System. The boost-
sured topside by use of fiscal meters, and The artificial-lift manifolds (ALMs) are ing-module system consists of a top-
the challenge is to back allocate the pro- designed to accommodate these boost- end assembly, closely resembling a sub-
duction to individual wells. Therefore, ing modules, with ALM 1 (four module sea tree and hanger. The ESP comple-
MPFMs are mounted on the Ostra- and slots) serving the Ostra and Abalone tion string hangs inside a 100-m-long
Abalone-well flow modules to measure fields (Fig. 2) and ALM 2 (two module caisson. Each boosting-module/cais-
flow rates of the individual wells before slots) serving the Argonauta-BW field. son/ESP system weighs approximately
the flow is commingled. This measured The 42-in. conductor was drilled and 130 t and lands in one slot of the ALM,
flow stream then is allocated to each installed through the 48-in. conductor with the caisson inside the conductors.
well by use of a mass-balance principle to achieve the final depth. Final adjust- For maintenance, the boosting-mod-
that splits the measured flow to indi- ments to the conductor height were ule/caisson/ESP system can be retrieved
vidual wells on the basis of a calculated made with shims mounted inside the by recovering the entire unit to surface.
ratio derived from the MPFMs. conductor cones deployed on top of The boosting-module top-end assem-
each conductor. Later, the ALM was bly contains the helical/tangential intake
Production-Manifold (PM) landed over these cones. that promotes the gas/liquid separation.
Overview The gas exits from the top of the boost-
PM 1 and PM 2 are four-well-slot flow- ALMs. The design complexities are ing module and flows unboosted to the
through-type manifolds, with flowline related mainly to the boosting module’s FPSO. The liquids flow down to the
connections at the inlet and outlet of operability requirements to enable the bottom of the caisson passing through
each main header. The PMs are equipped recovery of an individual boosting mod- a junk basket before flowing into the
with hydraulically actuated gate valves, ule without affecting the operation of 103/4×133/8-in. shroud section that
with remotely-operated-vehicle (ROV) other units. A key technical achievement houses the ESP components.
-override capability. The valves are con- was the design of a multibore connector,
trolled hydraulically from the electro- enabling all of the process connections Conclusions
hydraulic multiplexed control systems (i.e., inlet, gas outlet, and pumped-oil These subsea systems and components
mounted on each connected subsea tree. outlet) to fit within the tight constraints are critical components of the BC-10
PM 1 has dual main headers and a third of the ALM. In the Argonauta-BW field, Parque das Conchas project and made
header with outlet connection only. the gas content is low; consequently, this development possible. The meth-
PM 2 incorporates dual main headers there is no gas flowline or piping. For ods and technology described can be
with a removable circulation loop fitted standardization purposes, the gas-pro- applied to similar developments in
on the header inlets. The manifolds are cess connection is blanked off. ultradeep water. JPT
We
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