|
New rig due on North Slope this year Phoenix Alaska Technology’s light automated drilling system expected to arrive in Anchorage this summer, be drilling at Milne Point in December Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
The LADS — Phoenix Alaska Technology LLC’s light automated drilling system — is nearing completion at a construction site in Brady, Texas, and will begin its move to Alaska in late July or early August.
Erik Opstad, vice president and general manager of Phoenix Alaska, told PNA April 10 that general fabrication and all detailing work is expected to be completed in July.
“Functional checkout of numerous rig systems is currently in progress and proceeding without incident,” Opstad said.
Mobilization of the rig to Alaska is expected to begin in late July or early August. The rig will have a 70-80 day transit time, Opstad said, and is likely to come by barge out of Houston through the Panama Canal and by then go by truck from Anchorage to the slope.
Phoenix Alaska, a subsidiary of Nissho Iwai Corp., is building the rig to meet the requirements of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. for its North Slope Milne Point field, where the rig is expected to be drilling in December. New rig design But BP wanted more than just a rig tailored for Milne Point drilling. It wanted a new rig design which would meet changing drilling needs on the North Slope — smaller, safer for workers and for the environment, easier to move and more efficient to run, BP, Phoenix Alaska and NI Energy Development Inc. told the International Association of Drilling Contractors/Society of Petroleum Engineers Drilling Conference in Dallas in February.
BP began conceptual work and all design work for the LADS, beginning with BP’s work, was done with 3-D computer aided design, the companies said, making it easy to alter the layout, and thus optimize the design.
Phoenix said the LADS design combines automated features individually employed on recent land and offshore rigs.
The drill module, with substructure, mast and drilling equipment, moves on 160 pneumatic tires. The other modules are each mounted on four sets of tracks which distribute the weight so that the pressure is 15 pounds per square inch or less.
Phoenix says the LADS can move on the North Slope road system even during breakup without requiring special mats on the roads. Pipe handling critical The companies said in their IADC/SPE presentation that automated pipe handling “was considered to be the most critical aspect to the overall success of the LADS concept.”
No existing pipe-arm assembly fit LADS’ requirements and the rig also needed a feed mechanism to load and unload the pipe arm.
Phoenix finally had to go to the timber industry for some of the technology, working with an engineering contractor who had experience with log conveyor systems.
The pipe magazine stores and transports the pipe and loads and unloads it, with two magazines for drill pipe and additional magazines for casing and tubing.
Pipe conveyors load drill pipe or casing in or out of the magazine and the pipe arm moves the pipe to and from the rig floor where pipe is assembled or disassembled by an iron roughneck. Gradual automation The companies described the rig as “one of the most sophisticated land rigs ever built” and said the level of automation on the rig was expected to progress as it is commissioned and debugged.
Initially, an operator will control equipment through keypads and joysticks.
As the systems are tested out, however, operators will only verify steps in the pipe handling sequence. The companies said that once the software is fully tested, routine tripping of drill pipe should be completely automated.
| 