Offshore drilling
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Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a
Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both offshore and onshore from the produced
There are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These include bottom founded drilling rigs (jackup barges and swamp barges), combined drilling and production facilities either bottom founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) including semi-submersibles or drillships. These are capable of operating in water depths up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). In shallower waters the mobile units are anchored to the seabed; however, in water deeper than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft), the semi-submersibles and drillships are maintained at the required drilling location using dynamic positioning.
History
Around 1891, the first submerged oil wells were drilled from platforms built on piles in the fresh waters of the
Around 1896, the first submerged oil wells in salt water were drilled in the portion of the Summerland field extending under the Santa Barbara Channel in California. The wells were drilled from piers extending from land out into the channel.[3][4]
Other notable early submerged drilling activities occurred on the Canadian side of Lake Erie in the 1900s and Caddo Lake in Louisiana in the 1910s. Shortly thereafter wells were drilled in tidal zones along the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast. The Goose Creek Oil Field near Baytown, Texas is one such example. In the 1920s drilling activities occurred from concrete platforms in Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo.[5]
One of the oldest subsea wells is the Bibi Eibat well, which came on stream in 1923 in Azerbaijan.[6][dubious ] The well was located on an artificial island in a shallow portion of the Caspian Sea. In the early 1930s, the Texas Company developed the first mobile steel barges for drilling in the brackish coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1937,
In 1938, Humble Oil built a mile-long wooden trestle with railway tracks into the sea at McFadden Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, placing a derrick at its end – this was later destroyed by a hurricane.[7]
In 1945, concern for American control of its offshore oil reserves caused President
In 1946, Magnolia drilled at a site 18 miles (29 km) off the coast, erecting a platform in 18 feet (5.5 m) of water off St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.[9]
In early 1947,
When offshore drilling moved into deeper waters of up to 30 metres (98 ft), fixed platform rigs were built, until demands for drilling equipment was needed in the 100 feet (30 m) to 120 metres (390 ft) depth of the Gulf of Mexico, the first jack-up rigs began appearing from specialized offshore drilling contractors.[11]
The first
The first offshore
As of June 2010, there were over 620 mobile offshore drilling rigs (jackups, semisubs, drillships, barges, etc.) available for service in the worldwide offshore rig fleet.[14]
One of the world's deepest hubs is currently the
Drilling platforms
Offshore drilling is usually done from platforms generically known as mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), which can be of one of several formats, depending on the water depth:
This section needs expansion with: More on types of drilling platform and summary descriptions of each. You can help by adding to it. (June 2023) |
Main offshore fields
Notable offshore fields include:
- the North Sea
- the )
- California (in the Los Angeles Basin and Santa Barbara Channel, part of the Ventura Basin)
- the Caspian Sea (notably some major fields offshore Azerbaijan)
- the Campos and Santos Basins off the coasts of Brazil
- Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (Atlantic Canada)
- several fields off West Africa most notably west of Nigeria and Angola
- offshore fields in South East Asia and Sakhalin, Russia
- major offshore oil fields are located in the Persian Gulf such as Safaniya, Manifa and Marjan which belong to Saudi Arabia and are developed by Saudi Aramco.[17]
- fields in India (Mumbai High, K G Basin-East Coast Of India, Tapti Field, Gujarat, India)
- the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand
- the Kara Sea north of Siberia[18]
- the Arctic Ocean off the coasts of Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories[19]
Challenges
Offshore oil and gas production is more challenging than land-based installations due to the remote and harsher environment. Much of the innovation in the offshore petroleum sector concerns overcoming these challenges, including the need to provide very large production facilities. Production and drilling facilities may be very large and a large investment, such as the Troll A platform standing on a depth of 300 meters (980 ft).[20]
Another type of offshore platform may float with a mooring system to maintain it on location. While a floating system may be lower cost in deeper waters than a fixed platform, the dynamic nature of the platforms introduces many challenges for the drilling and production facilities.
The ocean can add several thousand meters or more to the fluid column. The addition increases the equivalent circulating density and downhole pressures in drilling wells, as well as the energy needed to lift produced fluids for separation on the platform.
The trend today is to conduct more of the production operations
Offshore manned facilities also present logistics and human resources challenges. An offshore oil platform is a small community in itself with cafeteria, sleeping quarters, management and other support functions. In the North Sea, staff members are transported by helicopter for a two-week shift. They usually receive higher salary than onshore workers do. Supplies and waste are transported by ship, and the supply deliveries need to be carefully planned because storage space on the platform is limited. Today, much effort goes into relocating as many of the personnel as possible onshore, where management and technical experts are in touch with the platform by video conferencing. An onshore job is also more attractive for the aging workforce in the petroleum industry, at least in the western world. These efforts among others are contained in the established term integrated operations. The increased use of subsea facilities helps achieve the objective of keeping more workers onshore. Subsea facilities are also easier to expand, with new separators or different modules for different oil types, and are not limited by the fixed floor space of an above-water installation.
Effects on the environment
Offshore oil production involves environmental risks, most notably oil spills from oil tankers or pipelines transporting oil from the platform to onshore facilities, and from leaks and accidents on the platform (e.g. Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Ixtoc I oil spill).[21] Produced water is also generated, which is water brought to the surface along with the oil and gas; it is usually highly saline and may include dissolved or unseparated hydrocarbons.
See also
References
- ^ Compton, Glenn, 10 Reasons Not to Drill for Oil Offshore of Florida, The Bradenton Times, January 14, 2018
- ^ "Drilling on Grand Lake St Marys in 1891". Energy Global News. 2019-06-30. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
- ^ History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Development in Louisiana at the Mineral Management Services, Dept of the Interior
- ^ "National Ocean Industries Association". Archived from the original on 2010-08-06. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
- ^ "About Offshore Drilling | Engenya GmbH". www.engenya.com. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
- ^ "Oil in Azerbaijan". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ^ Morton, Michael Quentin (June 2016). "Beyond Sight of Land: A History of Oil Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico". GeoExpro. 30 (3): 60–63. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ "Overview– Convention & Related Agreements". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
- ^ "Offshore Drilling: History and Overview". Offshore Energy. 2010-06-25. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
- ^ "history of offshore oil wells – Google Search". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ^ "About Offshore Drilling". www.engenya.com. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
- PennWell. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
- ^ "Géosciences Montpellier – The project Mohole in 1961". www.gm.univ-montp2.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-08-20.
- ^ "RIGZONE – Offshore Rig Data, Onshore Fleet Analysis". Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ^ Hays, Kristen (31 March 2010). "UPDATE 1-Shell starts production at Perdido". Reuters. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ^ "Off-Shore Drilling". IssolareEnergy Available?.
- ^ "Contracts let for Marjan oil field development. (Saudi Arabian Oil Co. Bids out offshore development contracts) (Saudi Arabia) – MEED Middle East Economic Digest". Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
- ^ "Russian Rosneft announces major oil, gas discovery in Arctic Kara Sea". Platts. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
- ^ "Year 2006 National Assessment – Alaska Outer Continental Shelf" (PDF). Dept Interior BEOM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
- ISBN 978-0-08-087819-5.
- ^ Debate Over Offshore Drilling (internet video). CBS News. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-08-24. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
External links
- Center for Biological Diversity v Dept of the Interior 17Apr2009 DC Appellate Decision stopping offshore Alaska Oil Leases.
- IODP-USIO: Publications: Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
- "New Oil from the Deep Ocean Floor." Popular Science, October 1975, pp. 106–108.