Master's Thesis
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Faculty of Science and Technology MASTER’S THESIS Study program/ Specialization: M.Sc. Petroleum Engineering/ Production Spring semester, 2012 Technology Open Writer: Merve Dulger ………………………………………… (Writer’s signature) Faculty supervisor: Kjell Kåre Fjelde External supervisor(s): Claas Van Der Zwaag Titel of thesis: Deep Water Well Intervention and Fluid Selection Credits (ECTS): 30 Key words: well intervention, deep-water, hydrate prevention. Pages: 44 + enclosure: 21 Stavanger, 12/06/2012 Date/year Frontpage for master thesis Faculty of Science and Technology Decision made by the Dean October 30th 2009 Master of Thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................... 1 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... 3 ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................................................................ 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1. WELL INTERVENTION ................................................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Definition ............................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 Types of Well Intervention Methods.................................................................................................. 8 1.2.1 Pumping ....................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.2 Wireline ....................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.3 Coiled Tubing (CT) ..................................................................................................................... 10 1.2.4 Hydraulic Workover (HWO) ....................................................................................................... 11 1.3 Units Used In Intervention Operations ............................................................................................ 12 1.3.2 Semi-submersible and Monohull Vessels with Rigid Riser ........................................................ 14 1.3.3 Category B ................................................................................................................................. 16 1.3.4 Category C ................................................................................................................................. 16 2. SUBSEA WELLS ........................................................................................................................................ 17 2.1 Subsea Well vs. Surface Well ............................................................................................................ 17 2.2 Subsea Wellhead and Xmas Trees .................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Subsea Wellhead ....................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.2 Subsea Xmas Tree ...................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Riser Based Well Intervention .......................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Riser Based Well Intervention in Operation ..................................................................................... 22 3.3 Riserless Well Intervention............................................................................................................... 23 3.4 RLWI System in Operation ................................................................................................................ 25 4. WELL INTEGRITY AND BARRIERS IN WELL INTERVENTION OPERATIONS............................................... 27 5. CHALLENGES IN DEEP WATER SUBSEA WELL INTERVENTION ............................................................... 30 6. SELECTION AND INJECTION OF HYDRATE PREVENTION FLUIDS ............................................................ 32 6.1 Hydrates and Hydrate Formation ..................................................................................................... 32 6.2 Prevention of Hydrate Formation by Inhibitors ............................................................................... 32 6.2.1 Thermodynamic Inhibitors ........................................................................................................ 32 6.2.2 Methanol vs. MEG ..................................................................................................................... 33 6.2.3 LDHI ........................................................................................................................................... 34 6.3 Hydrate Remediation ....................................................................................................................... 34 DEEP WATER WELL INTERVENTION AND FLUID SELECTION 1 Master of Thesis 6.4 Methanol or MEG Injection in Well Intervention Operations .......................................................... 35 6.4.1 Riser Systems ............................................................................................................................. 35 6.4.2 Riserless Systems ....................................................................................................................... 35 6.6 Risks of Methanol and MEG ............................................................................................................. 36 7. EXAMPLES OF SUBSEA WELL INTERVENTION APPLICATIONS IN SHALLOW AND DEEP WATERS .......... 38 7.1 Wireline Operation On a Subsea Well With a Jack Up Drilling Rig ................................................... 38 7.2 Riserless Light Well Intervention Application in Åsgard Field in North Sea ..................................... 39 7.3 Retrieving Coiled Tubing Stuck Due To Hydrate Formation in Ultra Deep Water ........................... 40 8. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 42 9. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 43 APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................................................ 45 APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................................................ 50 APPENDIX C ................................................................................................................................................ 55 DEEP WATER WELL INTERVENTION AND FLUID SELECTION 2 Master of Thesis LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 – Wireline Surface equipment ........................................................................................................ 9 Figure 2 - Types of wireline cables ............................................................................................................... 9 Figure 3 – The system overview for slickline (3a) and braided line (3b). ................................................... 10 Figure 4 – General surface equipment arrangement of coiled tubing ....................................................... 11 Figure 5 – Hydraulic workover unit surface equipment arrangement ...................................................... 12 Figure 6 - Illustration showing the differences between Categories A, B and C ........................................ 13 Figure 7 - Monohull vessel performing RLWI ............................................................................................. 13 Figure 8 - Island Offshore RLWI vessels and their services ........................................................................ 14 Figure 9 - Deep water well intervention Skandi Aker ................................................................................ 15 Figure 10 - Helix Well Ops's LWI vessels and the extra operations that they can perform ....................... 15 Figure 11 - Illustration of future coming Cat B ........................................................................................... 16 Figure 12 - Demonstration of surface wells (12a) vs subsea wells (12b) ................................................... 17 Figure 13 - Cross section of a subsea wellhead designed by Cameron for deep waters ........................... 18 Figure 14 - Difference between horizontal Xmas tree configuration and vertical Xmas tree configuration ............................................................................................................................................................ 19 Figure 15 - Subsea well with a BOP and access by utilizing a drillship and marine risers. ......................... 20 Figure 16 - LWI vessel connected to a subsea