In today's environment drilling, well workover and well intervention operations call for increased efficiency and safety. Concurrent operations are a method to increase efficiency. However safety should not be compromised. An innovative device has been developed to enable SIMOPS (Simultaneous Operations) from a jack-up.

An analysis has been made to identify which operations, when executed from a jack-up, would benefit from the possibility to be done concurrently. Typically most well operations are done through the rotary table. Those operations are either using drillpipe, wireline or coiled tubing. The operations are thus often sequential and allow for working at one well at the time.

On production platforms with multiple wells it would be of interest to work on more than one well at the time. For example working on one well with drillpipe while working on another well with wireline or coiled tubing. Also the setting and retrieval of temporary plugs can be done faster while not compromising safety.

While the primary load path on a jack-up is through the rotary table some operations do not really require the high lifting and lowering capacity which is offered by the topdrive assembly in the derrick. Especially for wireline and coiled tubing operations the lifting and lowering capacity can be much lower.

So an add-on device with reduced load capacity which enables non-drillpipe operations can be advantageous. Especially when it can be working free of obstructions under the cantilever of the jack-up.

The new add-on device will increase rig efficiency during development drilling, well workover/intervention and plug & abandonment operations. It for instance enables wireline guidance into the well through its moveable arm with the hoisting point below the cantilever. This while other operations on an adjacent well are executed simultaneously through the rotary table.

This content is only available via PDF.
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.