Successful Real Time Instrumentation Of The Conductor And Surface Casing Of An Exploration Subsea Well In The North Sea To Measure The Actual Loads Experienced During Drilling Operations

摘要

In recent years, proper documentation of adequate wellhead fatigue capacity for a planned drillingrnoperation became progressively more important while simultaneously challenging to achieve withrntraditional wellhead design and existing fatigue analyses methodologies applied. These challenges haverndeveloped as a result of the increase in size of drilling rigs and Blowout Preventers (BOPs), longer drillingrncampaigns on wells, and operations in harsher environments. In response, the industry started directing itsrnefforts in two main areas:rn1. Design side-with the fatigue enhanced well head designsrn2. Analysis side-increasing the activities toward calibration of the analytical tools.rnAker Solutions which recently developed their Slimline Rigid Lockdown (SRLD) wellhead system andrnStatoil, at the forefront in well head fatigue studies and instrumentation campaigns, decided to cooperaternon a pilot project. Together they sought to achieve their combined goals of assessing the SRLDrnperformances in the field and producing a data set of full scale measurements during drilling operationsrnwhich could be used to validate and calibrate the theoretical wellhead fatigue calculation methodologies.