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Watching the offshore drilling from afar
Any drilling that Shell does in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas would be closely scrutinized, not just by personnel on the drillship, but by multiple, expert eyes, thousands of miles from the drilling operation, Cody Teff, Shell engineering team lead in Alaska, told the U.S. Minerals Management Service Arctic Technologies Workshop in Anchorage, Oct. 14.
Originally developed in 2002 to improve drilling efficiency in the Gulf of Mexico, real-time operations centers located in places such as Houston and New Orleans enable expert consultation on drilling decisions to be made without undue delay to the drilling operation, while also improving drilling safety through continuous oversight of what the drillers are doing.
In these centers, far from the drilling operations, computer displays hooked live into the drilling rig control and monitoring systems enable experts to observe drilling data along with the rig crews, advising on actions that the drillers might take and watching for any possibility of a drilling problem. In fact, it is possible for Shell staff to link into the operations center data over the Internet from pretty much anywhere — Shell is considering setting up an operations center hub in Anchorage, Alaska, for example, Teff said.
And technology such as “measurement while drilling,” in which well log information can be transmitted to the surface as pulses in the drilling mud, makes a wealth of drilling and well information available continuously while drilling takes place.
Layers of control The real-time operations centers dovetail into a modern drilling operation involving three layers of well control, to ensure that hydrocarbons are safely restrained within a well bore, Teff said. Layer 1 involves detailed well planning, training of personnel and detailed well design, taking into account potential risks associated with the drilling operation. Layer 2 involves monitoring of the drilling operation both on the rig and in a real-time operations center, looking for unexpected changes in the well parameters to anticipate any potential problems. Layer 3 swings into action in an emergency situation and involves the use of mechanical barriers, including a blowout preventer, to block any oil flow from the well.
Only in the unlikely event of all layers of well control somehow failing would oil escape to the environment, causing oil spill response contingency plans to be activated and the drilling of a relief well to block the uncontrolled well to be started.
—Alan Bailey
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