This is how it looks when the equipment is being connected to a subsea installation on the seabed.
(Illustration: FMC Technologies)
Entering existing wells
New equipment enables drilling of new sidetracks through existing tubing on subsea fields.
The new technology is called "Through tubing rotary drilling" (TTRD) and enables reuse of old wells in a much simpler and more inexpensive way than earlier.
”Now we see the result of 4-5 years of technology development in the company,” says Øystein Arvid Håland, head of subsurface technology in StatoilHydro.
He estimates the drilling operation to produce extra oil worth around NOK 1,4 billion, based on the current price, from the Åsgard field alone.
The new equipment is better adjusted to the task to be performed than the equipment currently used on ordinary drilling rigs.
“The new concept will highly improve the efficiency of this type of operations in connection with subsea well operations, and enables us to produce oil that we would normally not have recovered,” says Håland.
Bid in the autumn
A conventional rig, Stena Don, was used at Åsgard this time, but the result of this technology will be even better on a purpose-built rig.
"In the autumn we plan to invite bids for a rig to be tailored to such operations, and the aim is to get the new rig into place in 2012/2013," Håland says.
The rig will only contain the equipment needed for this type of operations and will be a brand new type of rig.
Øystein Arvid Håland, head of subsurface technology in StatoilHydro.
(Photo: Haagen Tangen Eriksen)
Today more than 40 percent of StatoilHydro's oil and gas production is produced in some 500 wells on subsea fields.
The number of fields utilising subsea concepts is growing, and both StatoilHydro and other companies have a strong focus on improved oil recovery (IOR).
In deep waters
This new technology may be used in waters down to 500 metres. The goal is to reach even deeper.
“In the future we wish to utilise this technology in deep waters, for example in the Gulf of Mexico,” Håland says.
| What is TTRD: StatoilHydro applied new technology this summer. This technology enables the reuse of old subsea wells in a simpler and more inexpensive way than before, by drilling a new well directly through the production tubing in an existing well. This technology is called Through Tubing Rotary Drilling (TTRD). Advantages:
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