Summary
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a comprehensive-test
program conducted with five different sets of deepwater-landing string-handling
equipment consisting of both conventional and unconventional technology. A
thorough presentation will be made detailing initial testing at elastic loads
approaching yield and final high-load testing beyond yield. All stages of the
test program will be discussed including original testing protocol, test setup,
testing performed, test results, and overall conclusions. This is one of the
first standardized-test programs used across five different designs of handling
equipment. This overall presentation of the test program is made to identify
stress levels associated with the extreme loads that occur when landing very
heavy casing strings in deepwater wells.
Introduction
While landing-string designs have progressed (Breihan et al. 2001; Wilson
1997), the design of the handling equipment, until recently, has been based
upon conventional slip technology. This conventional technology (Sathuvalli et
al. 2002) and new technology (Simpson et al. 2005) has been studied previously.
On the basis of the increasing loads being placed on landing strings and the
associated handling equipment, a group of test participants including BHP
Billiton, BP, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Nexen Petroleum, and Oil & Gas
Rental Services arranged for Mohr Engineering Division (Mohr), a division of
Stress Engineering Services, to perform an array of tests intended to increase
the level of knowledge in the industry and help better understand the handling
equipment currently in use for landing heavy loads. After developing an overall
scope of work and understanding of the requisite testing, the field of handling
equipment to be tested was determined to include a variety of designs used with
landing-string loads up to 2-million lbm. Five different sets of handling
equipment were tested. These included conventional slips referred to as Slip A,
Slip B, and Slip C; conventional power slips referred to as Slip D; and an
unconventional slipless system (Adams et al. 2002a; Adams et al. 2002b; Adams
et al. 2002c; Adams et al. 2003; Adams et al. 2006) referred to as System E.
Mohr provided the testing services and coordinated the machining and
test-sample preparation required to complete the tests. After testing was
completed, Mohr also reviewed and post-processed the data and prepared a
majority of the information contained in this paper. The manufacturers were
requested to provide handling equipment for this test. After testing, test
results for equipment provided were made available to each manufacturer.
The main conclusion drawn from this test program was that all
handling-equipment/test-sample combinations, except for the modified System E,
had locally measured peak strains that were beyond yield at much lower loads
than typical landing-string working loads.
© 2009. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
15 November 2006
- Meeting paper published:
20 February 2007
- Revised manuscript received:
24 May 2008
- Manuscript approved:
2 June 2008
- Published online:
16 March 2009
- Version of record:
1 March 2009
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