OTC 24447

Practical Experience Gained Operating a Compact Ultradeepwater Drill Ship

D. Roodenburg, J. Roodenburg, D. Wijning, Huisman Equipment BV

Copyright 2013, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference Brasil held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 29–31 October 2013.

This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not
been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Offshore Technology
Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited.
Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC
copyright.

Abstract

This paper describes the practical experiences gained during the first year of operation of a new Panamax-size ultra
deepwater drill ship. The vessel started operations in the Gulf of Mexico in July 2012. The practical experience is offset
against the vessel’s design expectations: improved safety, an increased drilling efficiency and reduced operational costs.

The drill ship is of an integrated design covering vessel, drill tower and equipment handling. The drill ship offers an equal
payload compared to other ultra deepwater drill ships but at half the displacement. This paper details the effects of the highly
automated onboard material and equipment handling on the vessel’s drilling efficiency and on the operational cost.

The material and equipment handling is designed around the box girder drill tower that has no V-door limitation and features
a drilling side and a construction side, thus minimising flat time. Stands built on one side of the tower can be stored in two set
back drums, one on each side of the tower, and taken out when needed. Four pipe handlers are available for handling
purposes.

This paper covers the field experience with all features of the drill tower that are designed to save time and/or increase
efficiency and/or enhance onboard safety. These include the drill tower’s dual drawworks eliminating slip-cut procedures, the
passive and active heave compensation on the drawworks, and the splittable blocks. The latter allow increasing the block
speed for lighter loads.

Introduction

The tendency in rig building has been an evolutionary trajectory to larger and larger units – currently up to approximately
100,000mt displacement - to enable operations at remote locations, in extreme water depths and under difficult drilling
conditions. The building costs and thus the day rates of these units are high. Given their size, the fuel consumption and
associated costs and emissions can be significant compared to smaller units. Furthermore, their large sizes limit their field of
operation as they are not able to pass certain canals or bridges.

In 2007 Huisman started to design a revolutionary unit. The design objectives were to create a compact drill ship capable of
drilling complex wells in ultradeepwater. Huisman utilized its integrated design approach: a team of engineers with various
disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture, Electrical Engineering etc. worked simultaneously together
with clients, Noble Drilling and Royal Dutch Shell, who delivered valuable operational input. After approximately 10 months
of engineering and various discussion sessions with the clients, Huisman presented the HuisDrill 12000 design.
2 OTC 24447

With the design features of the Multi Purpose Tower, Huisman could limit the displacement of the HuisDrill12000 design to
a modest 54,000mt while competitors with a similar capacity have a displacement of approximately 100,000mt. The variable
deckload of the HuisDrill12000 is 20,000mt, which is identical as the competitors. Further the available deck space (effective
lay down area for tubulars, containers etc.) of the HuisDrill 12000 is 3600m2, while the competitors have only 2700m2.

Figure 1; Comparison between traditional drillship (left) and HuisDrill drillship (right) (photos on same scale)

The first drill ship based on the HuisDrill12000 design, the Noble Globetrotter 1, is currently in operation in the Gulf of
Mexico by Noble Drilling, working on a multi-year contract for Shell. The second unit is being finalized (as per January
2013) along the Huisman quayside in The Netherlands and will start operations later this year.

Design Concept of the Noble Globetrotter 1

Concept of the drilling equipment

The operational process is utilized as the starting point for the Huisman design process. With the operational procedures in
mind, first the drilling equipment is designed with the Huisman Multi Purpose Tower (MPT) as key element. The MPT
consists of a box girder type drill tower featuring two hoisting blocks on the outside and all the machinery, protected against
the environment, on the inside. Since there is no lattice type derrick around the well centers, the drill floors can be easily
reached by cranes and skid carts, improving the safety during heavy equipment handling enormously.

The forward “drilling” hoisting block is dedicated to drilling operations, while the aft “construction” hoisting block is
dedicated to various (heavy) offline construction operations. For example stands can be built on the construction side and can
be stored in two set back drums, one on each side of the tower, and taken out when needed. Four pipe handlers are available
for handling purposes.

Heavy strings (conductor string, surface casing string, riser and BOP string) can be built on the construction side.
Subsequently the heavy strings can be hung off in the moonpool skid cart and skidded underneath the MPT to the forward
side. There the drilling hoisting block can pick up the load and land the strings in or on the well head. This makes it possible
to move the fully build up riser string and BOP from the construction side into the main firing line, directly after landing and
cementing of the surface casing string, saving valuable time.

Because of the open character of the MPT and a hoistable part of the construction side drill floor, the subsea BOP and X-trees
can be easily skidded underneath the construction hoisting block. The hoistable construction floor is guided by the travelling
block rails, when raised for skidding the BOP and trees underneath. Since this hoistable construction floor, in theory, can be
hoisted to the towers crown, there is no limit to the height of the BOP-stack or Tree with its running tools (LRP and EDP).
Because of this feature the drill floor can be lowered approximately 15m towards the vessels main deck (there is no need any
more to have the drill floor situated above the parked BOP or X-tree). This lower center of gravity allows for a significantly
smaller sized vessel compared to other ultradeepwater drill ships of similar capacity.
 Figure 2; BOP skidded under hoisted construction floor

Vessel design

The complete vessel is designed around the described drilling equipment concept and process. Some specific items worth
mentioning:

 The moonpool is sized big enough to handle strings on both sides of the tower and enable skidding underneath.
 Tubulars are primarily stored on the side of the tower on which they are handled (i.e. risers aft).
 All mud tanks and related equipment and spaces are located close to each other in order to keep piping short and
efficient.
 The four (DP3 separated) engine rooms are located partly underneath the accommodation block with a high exhaust
stack sticking above the accommodation block. In combination with the low elevation drill floor, no exhaust gasses
appear on the drill floor. Further the vessel has a large flat aft deck since there is no exhaust funnel sitting on the aft
deck.
 Aft end of the vessels hull is utilized for storage of risers and tubulars below deck.

Together with the lowered center of gravity, the above mentioned items allow for a compact vessel with the following
characteristics:

 Length of 189.0m
 Width of 32.2m
 Displacement 54,000mt
By having a lot of storage capacity below deck, the main deck was kept as clear as possible. Only the substructure, crane
pedestals and the accommodation block are situated above. The main deck can be efficiently used for storage or for mounting
job specific equipment.

Since a lot of variable loads are stored below deck at a low elevation, the GM (stability) value remains constant at a low, but
sufficient, number. This resulted in smooth motions in all loading conditions. Since the drill floor is located at a low elevation
roll motions of the vessel result in a lower the transversal accelerations on the drill floor.

The novel Huisman vessel design was built at the STX yard in Dalian. The complete topside was designed and built by
Huisman in The Netherlands and installed in a late phase of the building project on the vessel. The complete unit was built
according the original Huisman Basic design.

Construction

Also the building method is different from the traditional approach. The drilling equipment builder, Huisman, also built the
complete substructure. The demarcation was just above main deck level. All drilling switchboards and ring line HPU are
fitted in the substructure. This created a much easier interface between the Shipyard and the equipment builder.

Figure 3; Single lift installation of tower onboard Noble Globetrotter 1

Also it allowed fully offline testing of the drill tower, its machinery and substructure on the quayside prior to vessel arrival.
Before the vessel arrived in the Netherlands all essential systems on the drilling equipment set were tested. The vessel was
thoroughly tested during sea trials and the transit from China to Europe. Therefore, before the vessel and the drilling
equipment set met, it was clearly known that all essential systems were working and a smooth integration of both was
expected. Late summer 2011 the whole topside, weighing around 2,350mt was lifted on board in a single lift, in less than 12
hours. In December 2011, the vessel left the Huisman quayside, mobilized and set sail to the Gulf of Mexico for final
acceptance testing. She started commercial drilling operations in July 2012.
 Figure 4; Noble Globetrotter 1 during sea trials

Features and Advantages

MPT Layout

The MPT tower stands in between the main well center and construction side firing line and it separates the drilling activities
from the construction activities with a physical barrier. The repetitive nature of the operations on the drilling activities are
well suited for automation (automated tripping is currently being developed). Now the more labour intensive operations (riser
running, stand building etc.) are being performed on the safe construction side of the tower while repetitive and/or automated
operations are performed on the drilling side of the tower, safely separated from each other.

Also, the layout of the MPT and the firing lines doubles the distance between the two well centres compared to conventional
rigs. This reduces the chance that the tubular strings suspended in the main and construction side rotary might entangle.

Main hoist system

The main hoist system is designed with redundancy in mind. The system is designed such that even with a failure of one
piece of machinery operations always can continue with full load but reduced speed. Therefore, the main hoist system for the
drilling side travelling block consists of the following elements:

 Two drawworks drums with Active Heave Compensation (AHC), one Starboard (SB) and one Portside (PS), each
drum driven from a different power switchboard;
 Two Passive Heave Compensators (PHC), one SB and one PS;
 Adjustable rigging, splittable blocks (4-8-12-16 lines)
 Single drill line
 Figure 5; Reeving of main hoist system, showing drawworks, heave compensators and splittable blocks

Dual drum drawworks

One end of the single drill line is attached to SB drawworks drum. The drill line passes the SB PHC cylinder, the crown and
travelling block sheaves, the PS PHC cylinder and finally the second end of the drill line is attached to the PS drawworks
drum. The dual drum drawworks, installed inside the tower, allow continued operation if one drum fails with 50% of the line
speed and 100% of the load capacity. Further both drums are designed for a certain over length of drill line, allowing the drill
line to shift from one drum to the other, shifting the drill line from PS to SB (and vice versa) moving the fatigue hot spots to
another location. This eliminates the need for a dead end and slip-and-cut. By having two drawworks drums, the fast line
speed is halved (there are two fast lines) reducing wear and tear.

Active Heave Compensation System

Both the drawworks drums are outfitted with Active Heave Compensation (AHC). During Active Heave Compensation the
vessels heave is measured and counteracted by moving the drums in such a way that the travelling block is kept stationary in
relation to the seabed. On top of this compensation motion a controlled hoist or lowering motions can be superposed. The
AHC system will deliver excellent heave compensation performance. When one drum is out of service, the other can perform
heave compensation at half the capacity of the full system (the same heave compensation speed can be achieved, only with
half the load). The AHC system however uses power and controls.

Passive Heave Compensation System

For redundancy reasons the tower is also equipped with dual Passive Heave Compensation (PHC) cylinders. These cylinders
are pressurized by high pressure nitrogen bottles. Might for whatever reason the complete power and control system fail,
there is still a compensation means not relying on power and controls. The PHC system can be used in three different modes:

 As a pure Passive Heave Compensation system, when the string is connected to the seabed (e.g. a riser with landed
BOP or a production riser during well testing).
 As an overload/underload system with controllable settings, protecting overload of the drill string and protecting
buckling and shearing of the drill string.
 As a back-up to the AHC system described above. For this purpose one cylinder is setup as shock absorber
(overload) and the other cylinder as slack rope protection (underload).

Also when one cylinder is out of service the PHC system is still able to compensate the 100% load capacity but only with
50% stroke.
 Combination of AHC and PHC

Both heave compensation systems can be utilized in various modes stand alone or together, providing a large operational
flexibility. For example the BOP can be landed with relative large waves. AHC is utilised to keep the BOP stationary above
the wellhead. The PHC (together with the riser tensioners) are pre-set to provide sufficient pull on the riser. Once the BOP is
landed and locked to the wellhead the PHC system instantly takes over the heave compensation function.

Splittable blocks

The MPT is outfitted with splittable blocks on both the drilling side and on the construction side. Since the tower is rarely
used up to its full capacity during drilling or casing operations, the splittable block system is utilized to optimize speed and
load bearing capacities during all operations.

One 2.4 mln lbs travelling block is outfitted with two fixed sheaves and six detachable sheaves. The drill line is strung around
all sheaves at all times. The detachable sheaves can be remotely detached from the travelling block and parked under the
crown. This can only be done when the travelling block is just under the crown and the load in the block is sufficiently low.
When the detachable sheaves are parked under the crown the drill line is still strung around the sheaves but it does not help
lifting the load in the travelling block. With remote controls from the drillers cabin the travelling block reeving can be
changed within minutes from 16 lines to 12, 8 or 4 lines. The driller can now choose at anytime from the following
capacities:

 16 lines, 2.4 mln lbs with 100% speed

 12 lines, 1.8 mln lbs with 133% speed
 8 lines, 1.2 mln lbs with 200% speed
 4 lines, 0.6 mln lbs with 400% speed
The higher speeds enable fast operations, such as tripping in or out of the hole.

Other MPT features

The MPT is fitted with a parking facility for the topdrive. A retractable frame can move out of the tower and is utilized to
pickup the topdrive. Once the topdrive is disconnected from the travelling block it can be moved into the tower with the
service loop and kelly hoses attached. Once the roller door is closed, safe maintenance can be performed on the topdrive
while the travelling block still can be utilized to trip in and out of the bore hole.

Figure 6; Topdrive being picked up by retractable frame Figure 7; Topdrive in parking facility in MPT
The MPT is outfitted with a bolted flange connection just above the pipe rackers and setback drums. After reeving out the
drill lines, the vessel’s own crane can be utilized to remove the tower top section and park it on the main deck. With the top
section removed, the air draft of the vessel is approximately 58m, allowing the vessel to pass under the bridges of the Panama
Canal, the Bosporus and the Suez Canal enlarging its commercial operational area.

Figure 8; Tower top section being lifted

Safety

The system is designed with safety in mind from the very first moment. Therefore safety lies within the core of the design.
Because of the box girder type tower design of the MPT, the drill floor is completely open and most of the machinery is
mounted on the inside of the tower. The MPT is a fully welded construction and has no primary structural bolts on the
outside of the tower. These features diminish the risk of dropped objects.

Figure 9; Looking up in a traditional derrick Figure 10; Looking up on the drill floor of the MPT
Because of the hoistable construction floor the drill floor is only 4.9m above the main deck. A limited height improves the
safety.

Figure 11; MPT with hoisted construction floor and low elevation drill floor

Further, many features enhance the safety on board, to mention only a few:

 Fully mechanized vertical pipe handling (in the future upgraded to fully automated);
 No slipping and cutting of the drill line
 Open character of the MPT allowing heavy equipment to be deployed directly to the drill floor using cranes
 Drill floor fully separated from construction floor, safely separating two independent work areas;
 Independent drillers cabins, providing redundancy to each floor
 Topdrive parking facility and various machinery inside tower for safe maintenance;
 Gantry crane with telescope avoiding swinging loads;
 Two passage ways under main deck level from forward to aft of the ship, for safe escapes.
 Transport cart for transportation of materials from forward to aft deck (and vice versa)

Performance during the first year of operations

In this section the performance during the first period of operations will be described. In general it can be said that the vessel
operated in line with expectations. The MPT performed even beyond expectations during the first year of operations.

After the sea trials at the North Sea and final mobilization, the vessel sailed to the Gulf of Mexico to do final acceptance
testing at a test well.

Vessel motions

Based on a 5 month observation in the Gulf of Mexico during fall and winter months (August 1 st 2012 – January 1st 2013) the
vessel motions can be summarized as follows:

 Heave: The maximum heave is 1.0m.

 Roll: The maximum roll is 1.0 dgr.
 Pitch: The maximum pitch is 0.3 dgr
 Station keeping: 99% of time less than 1.0m offset. The maximum offset is in the range of 2.8m.
 LTA

The vessel operated from its start of commercial operation up to the moment of the writing of this paper, approximately 115
days, without a lost Time Accident.

Downtime

The first commercial job comprised an ultradeepwater well. All systems were utilized to their maximum capabilities and
performed well. The downtime during the first 115 days of operation can be subdivided as follows:

2.0%0.8%0.7%0.6%
2.6% 0.5%

2.6%

90.2%
Rig Uptime 3rd Party Equipment NPT Other NPT
Huisman Equipment NPT Mud PumpIron
NPTRoughneck & Top Drive NPTWaiting on Weather NPT Riser System NPT

Figure 12; Pie-chart showing up time and down time of various components during first 115 days

Open character drill floor and MPT layout

The open character of the drill floor proved its value from the beginning. Various items, such as the riser spider, bushings,
tools etcetera, were hoisted easily and safely by the vessels cranes or with the small knuckle boom crane mounted on the
forward drill floor. It has saved many hours and dangerous operations, such as dragging heavy tools through the V-door by
tuggers.
 Figure 13; Open character drill floor with small knuckle boom crane (white, on the left hand side)

Dual drum eliminating slip-and-cut procedure

By having the ability to shift the wire from one drawworks drum to the other drum there is no need to slip the wire through
the system and cut a certain overlength (slip-and-cut). Calculations and operational experience have shown that by shifting
the wire continuously from one drum to the other and back, up to now it was not required to replace the drill line. By
eliminating slip-and-cut procedure, precious time is saved and safety is enhanced.

Heave compensation performance

The AHC system eliminates approximately 95% of the vessel motions. This means that when the vessel is heaving 1.0m, the
travelling block with string attached moves maximum 0.05m in relation to the seabed.

Data of landing operations with Active Heave Compensation instantaneously switching over to Passive Heave Compensation
is not yet available and therefore cannot be published at this date.
 Splittable blocks

The splittable block system is regular used. Drillers often use the 8 line reeving for tophole drilling, 12 line reeving for
intermediate sections and 16 line reeving for landing heavy casing and riser with BOP. Reeving changes are quick and block
speed / load capacity combination is much more efficiently utilized. Further it is observed that the drill line shows less wear
and tear since hoisting/lowering does not lead to bend reversals over the unused sheaves.

Running Extremely Heavy Casing String

During drilling of its first commercial well in the Yucathan North field, it was required to lower an extremely heavy casing
string. The well was drilled to 21600 feet where a 14” casing string was run to 21500 feet in 5900 feet of water. The 15600
feet of 14”, 115 lbs/ft casing was run on 6000 feet of 6-5/8” landing string at a total combined buoyed drill pipe and casing
weight of 1.90M lbs. By our knowledge this is the heaviest casing string ever run from a floating drilling rig. The topdrive
was parked in the tower during this operation in order to lower the load on the tower and its hosting system.

Together with the block and wires the total load on the crown reached a staggering 2.1M lbs. The parties seamlessly worked
together on all design aspects to enable the casing load to be landed safely. The features of the dual drum drawworks and the
Passive Heave Compensators were utilized to perform the job safely.

Aft Deck Gantry Crane Performance

The aft deck Gantry Crane, with its telescope feature, allows for increased flexibility in safe movement of cargo on deck. The
crane allows for easy access to BOPs for maintenance related issues. It also allows for stable and safe handling of risers and
other items during inclement weather.

Sailing Speed and Fuel Consumption

During the transit from Europe to the Gulf of Mexico the Noble Globetrotter 1 has shown a transit speed up to12 knots while
using approximately 48mt marine diesel oil per day. For station keeping only she uses approximately 15-25mt marine diesel
oil per day depending on environmental conditions.

Improvements

During the first period of operations a list of improvements was made. Some small items were already executed on the Noble
Globetrotter 2. Other items need further engineering. Some items worth mentioning:

 Improved BOP running procedure, further speeding up BOP handling.

 Electric Energy Storage system, for storing electrical energy during heave compensation.
 Automated tripping, enhancing safety.
Conclusion

This unit is bending the evolutionary trajectory of drill ships in a different direction. It is proven that a more compact drill
ship can operate more efficient than traditional units. All design features proved their value during the first period of
operation. It can be said that the MPT operated beyond expectations.

Because of her modest size, the vessel can operate much more fuel efficient and therefore reduce the emissions during
operations significantly.

The redundancy of the system proved its value. Since there are very limited single point failures, the down time of the
drilling equipment is very limited. The efficiency is proven by the fact that operations during the first half year of operation
are already as efficient as competing drill ships which are operating already for a long time. Operations are expected to be
much more efficient in the future.

Because of the two, low elevated, totally separated, drill floors the safety of operations is greatly enhanced. Also the open
drill floors allowing easy crane access and the gantry crane with telescope enhance the safety even further. Due to nature of
the design, there is more room for automation which will enhance the safety to a total different level.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the management of Noble Drilling and Shell International Exploration and Production for
their permission to publish the information regarding the operation of the Noble Globetrotter 1, and the management of
Noble, Shell and Huisman and the crew on board the Noble Globetrotter 1 for their support during the writing of this paper.