Add Energy/AGR and Trendsetter Engineering Inc (TEI) have been contracted by an oil and gas operator to provide well control expertise and access to their patented Relief Well Injection Spool (RWIS) to a well which is planned to be drilled in the Barents Sea during Q2 of 2018.
The contract will provide the operator with access to the RWIS system that will facilitate high rate kill requirements through a single relief well. This will allow the operator to increase the flexibility and redundancy of well kill operations by relocating pumping and storage off the relief well rig to dedicated pumping vessels.
The RWIS has been designed and built to greatly increase the pumping capacity of a single relief well by enabling the ability to pump in excess of 200 bbl per minute of kill mud through a single relief well, utilizing multiple vessels as opposed to the conventional method of multiple relief wells, requiring multiple MODU’s. The RWIS is installed on the relief well wellhead beneath the blowout preventer (BOP) to provide additional flow connections into the wellbore. Using high‐pressure flex lines, the inlets enable pumping units from separate floating vessels, in addition to the relief well rig, to deliver a high‐rate dynamic kill.
Having access to the RWIS will provide this operator with an additional layer of safety that ensures that a blowout that would typically require more than one intercept, can be killed with a single relief well, which in turn, reduces the risk for the entire well control operation. In addition to this, the RWIS hardware may also permit the operator to increase the size of their completions to increase the production rate, a significant industry development that can make marginal developments sanctionable.
Prior to the award of the contract, Add Energy conducted a blowout and kill simulation study to verify that a worst-case blowout during the drilling of the upcoming well can be controlled by a single relief well. The analysis concluded that the RWIS will significantly increase the kill mud pumping capacity and hence likelihood of a successful kill operation in the event of a blowout.
Morten Haug Emilsen, Senior Vice President at Add Energy commented: “For Add Energy this contract is a good example of technology developed jointly by two leading service providers that will benefit the drilling industry for the years to come. The unique combination of competence and experience from both companies were essential to materialize an idea that has been in our minds since 1989. In 2017, a major milestone was accomplished when the technology was commercialized, and the first contract for the RWIS was signed.”
He added, “We are thrilled to support our client with the optimisation of their well control strategy and implementation”.
Brett Morry, Global Technical Director at Trendsetter Engineering also commented: “For TEI, this contract validates the belief in the collaboration between Add Energy and TEI and gives a clear message that this hardware presents a viable solution to an existing industry problem.”
The RWIS is currently stored at Trendsetter Engineering’s Global Readiness Center in Houston, Texas and can be mobilised in as little as 24 hours in the event of an uncontrolled hydrocarbon release.
