Modular Exploration and Production System Including an Extended Well Testing Service Vessel

Abstract

A modular exploration and production system combined with an oil well testing and service vessel is provided, the vessel comprising equipment for separating hydrocarbons and / or associated fluids and solids by means of a processing plant. The vessel is equipped with suitable equipment packages for all required functionality, so fluid received from wells, piping and installations at sea or inland waters is processed for the separation, control and ecological handling of the mixture (crude oil, gas, solids, chemicals and oily or production water) in a plurality of phases such as exploration, drilling, finishing, repair, stimulation, production, and production measurement. In an extended combination of such technologies, a single well test service vessel is used in conjunction with a field of neighboring self-standing riser systems to serially test well and production processes, resulting in project-scaled synergies between drilling and testing assets that lead to cleaner, more cost-effective recovery of higher quality yields.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to methods and means for safely and efficiently exploiting hydrocarbon reserves, and in a particular though non-limiting embodiment to a modular exploration and production system including an extended well testing service vessel suitable for testing, separating and otherwise assisting in the exploration and production of oil, gas and natural gas reserves.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Innumerable systems and methods have been employed in efforts to find and recover hydrocarbon reserves around the world. At first, such efforts were limited to land operations involving simple but effective drilling methods that satisfactorily recovered reserves from large, productive fields. As the number of known producing fields dwindled, however, it became necessary to search in ever more remote locales, and to move offshore, in the search for new resources. Eventually, sophisticated drilling systems and advanced signal processin...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

At first, such efforts were limited to land operations involving simple but effective drilling methods that satisfactorily recovered reserves from large, productive fields.

Initially, deepwater exploration and production efforts consisted of expensive, large-scale drilling operations supported by tanker storage and transportation systems, due primarily to the fact that most offshore drilling sites are associated with difficult and hazardous sea conditions, and thus large-scale operations provided the most stable and cost-effective manner in which to search for and recover hydrocarbon reserves.

A major drawback to the large-scale paradigm, however, is that explorers and producers have little financial incentive to work smaller reserves, since potential financial recovery is generally offset by the lengthy delay between exploration and production (approximately 3 to 7 years) and the large capital investment required for conventional platforms and related drilling and production equipment.

Moreover, complex regulatory controls and industry-wide risk aversion have led to standardization, leaving operators with few opportunities to significantly alter the prevailing paradigm.

As a result, offshore drilling operations have traditionally been burdened with long delays between investment and profit, excessive cost overruns, and slow, inflexible recovery strategies dictated by the operational environment.

However, since lognormal distributions of recoverable reserves tend to be spread over a large number of small fields, each of which yield less than would normally be required in order to justify the expense of a conventional large-scale operation, these regions have to date been underexplored and underproduced relative to their potential.

Consequently, many potentially productive smaller fields have already been discovered, but remain underdeveloped due to economic considerations.

An ongoing concern during such field exploitations relates to environmentally appropriate disposal of fluids produced during operations, particularly during the completion, repair, stimulation, early production, and production measurement stages; the same problem naturally arises during well service when carrying out off-line production and maintenance of existing facilities.

Controlling reception of resulting products has therefore been a challenge, since by their very nature such products are highly contaminating because they consist primarily of crude oil; gas; oily waters and production waters; chemicals (acids, aromatics, brines, etc.) used in connection with the stimulation and service of wells; and solids, including sands, drilling mud, well cuttings and drilling waste.

In most cases there are no production lines through which the products can be sent for subsequent treatment.

Consequently the effluents must be sent to a burner where the products are burned off, thereby resulting in environmental damage and inadvertent incineration of products with high commercial value such as crude oil and natural gas.

One of the most troublesome circumstances involves exploratory wells, which frequently use semi-submersible movable platforms or drilling ships, which usually do not have production lines or suitable storage capacity.

Thus, the ecological damage to the environment is greater due to the residues that spill into the sea, as well as gases (primarily CO2) that are emitted into the air.

Such solutions are therefore extremely inefficient, costly and highly contaminating.

Many of the foregoing activities are obviously wasteful, ecologically destructive and financially inefficient, and therefore inconsistent with the relatively lower profit margins expected from exploitation of marginal or declining fields.

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