We all know that things have changed significantly for offshore drilling and completion in the last 3 years. Regulations have been reviewed, and operational procedures and requirements have changed. Requirements for the well design to be reviewed by independent parties and new equipment testing procedures and certification were just a few additions that regulators brought to the scene. Several initiatives were launched to develop equipment to cap flowing wells offshore, new ways to record and control testing of critical equipment, and new systems to assess and monitor the barriers present in the well more effectively.
The industry has shown a significant creativity, as usual, to demonstrate to society in general that we can continue to drill and produce hydrocarbons offshore in a responsible manner. And, by offshore, we now mean wells located in waters as deep as 10,000 ft. In the industry’s move toward these challenging environments, most of the time we use technology known and proved for shallow waters and just resize the equipment. However, the challenges are not restricted to a deeper column of water. Many wells are facing additional challenging situations such as being subsalt or presalt, having high-pressure/high-temperature prospects, and having total depths in excess of 25,000 ft. Many specific conditions must be addressed in these new environments, and simply extending the envelope of current solutions to more challenging conditions may not be enough or suitable anymore. The lack of riser margin and the challenges posed by a long chokeline during well control operations are just two examples of the new conditions that did not exist 30 years ago and, therefore, require a shift in the thinking process to allow wells to be drilled and completed more economically in these new challenging environments.
After a period of uncertainty for offshore operations, wells are now being drilled again, albeit under more strict rules and guidelines. Most of the new rules and guidelines have been applied to well design and the preoperational phase. It is important also that operations be conducted under proper conditions, providing people on the job with all the means and tools necessary for them to conduct their jobs successfully.
Additional reading
SPE 152861 A Solution to the Problems Associated With Tight-Clearance Boreholes: The Close-Tolerance Press-Fit Stop Collar by J.A. Wimberg, Chevron, et al.
SPE/IADC 151182 Blowout Preventer Health Monitoring by Jim McKay, BP, et al.
SPE/IADC 150047 Successful Qualification and Deployment of a High-Pressure Drillpipe Riser in West Africa by Mathieu Camus, Total, et al.
