Subsea Engineering
Subsea Engineering
Subsea Production Equipment includes: subsea wellheads, subsea production trees, subsea manifolds,
subsea well templates and the ancillary equipment associated with these.
A machined, forged steel housing welded to the surface casing of a subsea well to which a
BOP or a subsea tree may be connected for controlling the well and containing well
pressures during drilling and production operations.
Also known as MARINE WELLHEAD
used in subsea drilling applications that require installing the BOP at the seabed and
typically used for drilling wells from a floating drilling rig.
If the pressure is not contained during drilling operations by the column of drilling fluid,
casings, wellhead, and BOP, a well blowout could occur.
to support the subsea blowout preventer (BOP) and seal the well casing during drilling
to support and seal the subsea production tree
to support and seal the well casing.
to support and seal the production tubing hanger.
The subsea wellhead together with the BOP or the production tree:
provides the means to safely contain reservoir pressure during oil and gas drilling
and production operations.
(rarely sees actual reservoir pressure) but rated to withstand this pressure in case of
loss of well control during drilling or a breach of a primary pressure barrier during
production
Standard API pressure ratings in use: 5,000 psi, 10,000 psi, 15,000 psi, 20,000 psi (more recently)
Subsea Wellhead may also be designed to accommodate a surface tie back system to a surface
completion on a TLP, spar or, more rarely, a fixed platform
relies on the use of a surface BOP during drilling, usually from a jackup type drilling rig.
Subsea Wellhead Sizes: (The size designates the nominal bore (I.D.) of the wellhead, in inches.)
An area for further development by wellhead manufacturers is in smaller bore versions of current
wellhead and tree technology. This would help mitigate the increased weight imposed by deeper water
operations. Manufacturers of Subsea Intervention Trees are being pressured to provide higher pressure
rated designs for use within smaller (16-¾ inch) bores. Operators may adopt Slim Hole well technology
that starts with 26-inch conductors.
Profiles are for mechanically connecting and sealing the BOP or tree to the wellhead
Each wellhead profile utilizes a particular style of metal gasket designated “AX”, “DX”, “VX”,
or “NX” depending on the wellhead profile. The gasket provides the seal between the
wellhead and the BOP connector. It is the ultimate barrier between the well and the
environment.
Cameron: developed the double hub style profile. This profile is unique in that either their
new deepwater connector or their standard connector can latch onto it.
ABB Vecto Gray: has also developed a deepwater profile and wellhead. It is similar to their
existing designs except that the wellhead wall thickness is greater and the outer profile
diameter is larger providing more strength than their conventional wellheads.
Tubing Spool Adapters
It is necessary that the wellhead connector on the BOP be compatible with the wellhead on the planned
development well. Therefore, specify the wellhead type and profile of choice, taking into account
compatibility with other existing wells or their preference for the well completion equipment.
Depending on the soil conditions the hole may be started with a large conductor such as 42 inch
or 36 inch. Conventional 30-inch conductor is usually installed if a template is being used it may have a
large sleeve pre-installed.
Again depending on the anticipated loading this may have a 1 inch, 1-1/2 inch, 2 inch, or larger wall
thickness.
1. Started by driving, drilling or jetting-in the ‘surface’ conductor with the low-pressure housing
attached to the top
2. The well is then drilled ahead through this conductor. The 18-¾ inch high-pressure wellhead
(housing) with 20 inch/18-¾ inch or similar sized casing attached is then run through it, into the
pre-drilled hole, landed in the low pressure housing and cemented in place.
3. The subsea BOP stack is then run onto and tested on the high-pressure wellhead housing.
4. Further holes are progressively drilled ahead and the appropriate sized casing is then installed
through the BOP and wellhead. These are selected from a variety of sizes. The following sizes
are the most common; 20 inch, 18-¾ inch, 16-¾ inch, 13-3/8 inch, 10-¾ inch, 9-5/8 inch and 7
inch. The progressively smaller selected casings are suspended in the wellhead. Most wellheads
can accommodate 3 or 4 hangers. If more casing is required, it can be suspended farther down
the well bore as a ‘Liner’.
- enable the wellhead system to have one less hanger than conventional trees normally demand
of wellhead systems because the tubing hanger sits in the horizontal tree rather than the wellhead
as in a conventional tree.
routine practice to include an extra hanger slot available in the wellhead ‘just in case’.
Tubing hanger spool adapters are added to accommodate those tubing hangers
Note: Most wellheads are limited to 3 or 4 hangers. If more are required, secondary hangers can
be installed below the wellhead.
-seal the annulus between casings. Older packoff designs used elastomer seals. Newer designs
employ metal to metal seals. These are, in some cases, actually composite metal and elastomeric
seals designed so that the elastomer provides an initial seal that, with deformation, causes the
metal seal to be forced into place or ‘energized’. The elastomer serves as a back-up seal.
Most of the casing weight is suspended at the mud line by the wellhead. Some casing strings are
anchored deeper in the well. Later when the production tubing is installed, it is suspended either in the
wellhead or tubing hanger adapter spool or in the tree above. Each method transfer the loads back to
the wellhead.
During well production thermal and pressure effects on the tubulars can reverse the hanger loads and
push up against the wellhead. Therefore lock down of the hangers is recommended for production
wells. Some ‘Exploration’ wellheads do not apply the lockdown feature so as to facilitate dismantling
and abandonment of the well and because this feature can sometimes be troublesome to install.
Casing Hanger
These are supporting shoulders. Located at the top of each casing (and the production
tubing) is a forging with an external, tapered shoulder that lands on a mating shoulder
within the wellhead and transfers the weight of the casing to the wellhead.
provides a machined surface to seal against.
Once the casing is landed and locked in place, the annular cavity is sealed by a Pack-Off or
seal assembly mechanism.
Wellhead Guide Structures:
A. Guideline Drilling and Completions
traditionally used for starting the well, although modern equipment has made the TGB
largely unnecessary.
a gravity-stabilized guide structure
normally with a 42 - 46 inch diameter central hole that is lowered to the seabed on four
guide wires.
lies on bottom at the angle of the seabed and holds the guide wires in place to enable the
30-inch conductor to be easily guided through the central hole. The housing at the top of
the 30 inch has the PGB attached to it, to take over the guidance function after the 30 inch
conductor has been secured. The term “temporary” in the name is misleading in that it is a
permanent fixture to the well once deployed.
This guide base is used if it is known beforehand that the well is to be a production well, and
the guide base may incorporate piping, flowline connections, and tree piping interface
hardware
Virtually all CGBs are application specific designs. Sometimes a CGB is deployed on top of an
existing PGB if it cannot be easily removed.
Guideposts are normally designed to accommodate guide wires latched to the post tops.
Post tops are generally designed to enable easy latching or unlatching of the guide wires and
include a means of reestablishing new guide wires onto the post top.
B. Guidelineless Drilling and Completions
Guidelineless PGBs
used in deeper water where guidelines become cumbersome and less effective.
usually deployed from dynamically positioned drilling vessels.
used at shallow depths but are not normally used in less than about 2,000 feet
typically have a funnel-up design for capturing the guidelineless BOP or subsea tree and
guiding it onto the wellhead.
Loads on Wellheads:
Wellheads:
must be designed for high structural loads imposed during drilling, workover, or well
completion operations
must support the weight of the BOP, drilling riser loads, casing weight and forces imposed
by internal pressure.
wellheads are of such robust construction that, as far as external loads are concerned, they
are rarely the weak point of the wellhead system.
The 15M wellheads can generally sustain greater external loads than the 10M wellheads.
For deep water and other special applications, manufacturers must engineer the
wellhead equipment to meet the specified load requirements. A heavy duty deepwater
wellhead with a heavy duty connector engaging two profiles instead of the one for more
strength.
To improve the transfer of loads from the wellhead to the low-pressure conductor
housing and reduce fatigue stresses and fretting at critical wellhead interfaces, a rigid
lockdown system may be employed. This mechanism locks the wellhead housing securely
into the lowpressure conductor housing. It may be engaged automatically with the
installation of the wellhead (passive), or it may require an externally applied preload
(active).
Casing Hangers:
- centralize and suspend the casing strings inside the 18 3/4 inch wellhead
housing.
- provide seal surfaces for the pack off assembly to isolate the casing annuli.
- normally supplied with a casing pup joint pre-installed. The casing pup
usually terminates with a pin connection.
The pack off or seal assembly should generally provide the following features:
The following are features that should generally be expected in wellhead equipment:
Bore Protector
- used to protect the casing hanger sealing surfaces inside the 18 ¾ inch
wellhead housing during drilling operations associated with the subsequent
setting of the surface casing string.
- normally mechanically held in place by shear pins or o-ring friction.
- usually be deployed with the bore protector installed.
- Additionally, most systems have tools designed that do not transfer
pressure end load into the protector and therefore allow the BOP stack to
be pressure tested without retrieving the bore protector
Wear Bushing
- protects the bore of the packoffs and casing hangers from mechanical wear
associated with drilling activities subsequent to the setting of the
intermediate casing string
- deployed and retrieved on drill pipe and set using a wear bushing running
and retrieval tool.
- often used for several functions and called multi-purpose or multiutility
tools.
- normally designed to allow BOP testing to be conducted without retrieving
the bushing.
The 30 inch running tool is used to deploy the 30 inch conductor string and
housing. Typical features of this tool are:
The 18 3/4 inch housing running tool runs the high-pressure wellhead housing.
It typically includes the following features:
- typically used for running and retrieving all of the 18-3/4 inch bore
protectors and wear bushings.
- used as a test tool with wear bushings in place or as a washout tool if need
be. The tool typically has a 4-1/2 inch API Internally Flush (NC50). box up by
4-1/2 inch API Internally Flush (NC50) pin down.
Single-Trip Tool
- is used to run, set, and test the casing hangers with its pack off in a single
trip.
- After the casing is cemented in place, the tool hydraulically sets the pack
off. Most tools are designed so that if the pack off should fail to set
properly, the tool will retrieve it. The tool generally has a 6-5/8 inch reg. box
up by 4 ½ inch API I.F. pin down.
- primarily used to run, set, or retrieve the pack off independently of the
casing hanger.
- enable testing of the pack off in the same running trip.
- has a 4-1/2 inch API Internally Flush (NC50)inch box up by 4- 1/2 inch API IF
(NC 50) box down.
- runs the casing hanger without its packoff on casing. Running the casing
hanger and pack off this way is a two-trip operation and in deeper waters is
generally avoided.
- used to test the BOP stack without subjecting the wellhead components
below it to the BOP test pressure. The tool is deployed on drill pipe and
seals inside the housing bore.
- used to clean out the annular area behind the casing hanger neck before the
installation of the pack off assembly. Lead impression blocks can be
provided to enable the elevation of the casing hanger to be verified prior to
running the pack off.
- used when the casing hanger is set high. Height adjustment is built into the
design of the emergency seal assembly enabling it to pack off on the high
set, casing hanger. It can then still provide a landing shoulder for the
subsequent run casing hanger or seal surface for the Horizontal Tree stinger
at the correct elevation.
- Run 30 inch conductor string into open hole with 30 inch suspension joint
attached to the guidance cone.
- Once landed and set to the correct vertical elevation, cement 30 inch
conductor in place according to operator procedures.
- Rotate the drill pipe and pull to release running tool. Pull back to surface.
- Drill the next hole to TD and run the 20-inch casing.
- Attach the 18 ¾ inch wellhead body to the 20-inch casing. Install the bore
protector in the wellhead (if not installed at the factory). Run cement
stinger into wellhead housing sitting on rotary table and make up the
wellhead body to the running tool. Make up running tool to wellhead.
- Run the wellhead body assembly into the suspension joint. Cement.
- Release the running string from the wellhead by rotation and pull back to
surface.
- Place the drilling BOP across the spider beams over the moon pool. Make up
the hydraulic umbilicals and check all the functions.
- Run the BOP on marine riser. Lock BOP connector onto 18 ¾ inch wellhead
- Rig up diverter with choke and kill lines.
- Make up the isolation test tool onto drill pipe string. Run into the wellhead
- Test the BOP stack then retrieve the test tool.
- Drill the hole for the 13-3/8 inch casing. Pull back the string and make it up
to the bore protector retrieval tool. Run in and retrieve the bore protector.
- Run in the 13-3/8 inch casing string with attached cementing equipment.
- Make up the 13-3/8 inch casing hanger and the pack off to the single trip
tool and make this assembly up to the casing string, run in the hole with the
drill string and casing.
- Land the hanger into the 18 ¾ inch wellhead. Slack off the weight and
cement the string into place. Activate the pack off setting mode of the tool
- Slack off the string weight and close the BOP pipe rams.
- Build up pressure above the tool to set and test the pack off. Open the pipe
rams, release the tool from the pack off and then pull it back to the surface.
- Run in the 13-3/8 inch bore protector on the bore protector running tool.
- Land and lock into the wellhead. Release the tool and pull back to the
surface.
- Repeat the above steps to run the next casing strings.
- Start next functions for well – (e.g. Temporary abandonment, permanent
abandonment, completion, etc.).
Definition: a stack of valves installed on a subsea wellhead to provide a controllable interface between
the well and the production facilities
Functions:
1. Sealing the wellhead from the environment by means of the tree connector.
2. Sealing the production bore and annulus from the environment.
3. Providing a controlled flow path from the production tubing, through the tree to the
production flow line. Well flow control can be provided by means of tree valves and/or a
tree-mounted choke.
4. Providing access to the well bore via tree caps and/or swab valves.
5. Providing access to the annulus for well control, pressure monitoring, gas lift, etc.
6. Providing a hydraulic interface for the down hole safety valve.
7. Providing an electrical interface for down hole instrumentation, electric submersible
pumps, etc.
8. Providing structural support for flow line and control umbilical interface.