OTC 7634

Marlim-4: A Subsea Production Well Overtaking Deepwater Frontiers —

Part l—Planning and Installation Procedures
M.G.G. Morais, P.A. Bonesio, and Salim Armando, Petrobras S.A.

Copyright 1994, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was presented at the 26th Annual OTC in Houston, Texas, U. S.A.,2-5 May 1994.

This paper was selected for presentation by the OTC Program Committee following review of information cvnlainod {n an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s), The material, as presented, dcas not necessarily reflect
any position of the Offshore Technology Conference or its officers. Permission 10 copy Is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied, The abstract
should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented.

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

Brazilian oil and gas reserves, concentrated offshore Since the discovery of the first o~shore production well
and particularly in deep waters, have led Petrobras to in Campos Basinj several emerging technologies have
establish a careful and strategic plan which has as the been used in order to anticipate oil production as well as
main target to get the technical capacity to produce to implement and test new ideas.
those areas.
Petrobras started its offshore production in 1977 with the
The exploration results have shown a necessity of Early Production System conception, which was
surpassing the technology bam”ers, established in 1000 dedicated for:
meters (3280 ff) water depth since 1988, and it has
involved both Petrobras and Material/Services Suppliers ● anticipating oil and gas production;
in research and development of new equipment and
installation methods. ● reservoir data collection;

The experience gained during the Marlim Field ● producing isolated and marginal areas;
development, putting 10 (ten) production wells on stream
to a Floating Production System named Marlim Pilot Atter the EPS phase and this conception being renamed
System (fig. 1), and 3 (three) production wells to to Floating Production Systems (FPS), the experience
Salema-B~upira Pilot System (fig. 2), has been the main acquired with 27 FPS installed anaYor re deployed ,
element to be used to ingress in a new stage where made it so useful and more cost effective to be adopted
1000 meters of water depth will represent the initial in Brazil’s oil and gas fields.
mark.
This conception has proved to be so applicable to our
The beginning of this new stage is characterized by reservoirs scenario that, during the feasibility studies
putting Marlim-4j a production well located in 1027 performed to define how a new area will be exploited,
meters (3369 ft) water depth, on stream by April 1994. this solution appears as the best one when compared to
other a/tematives.
The constant technological development aimed by
Petrobras in offshore production reflects all efforts The advantages of this conception has been:
applied in producing oil and gas fields located in deep
waters. ● Lower initial investment;

● Flexibility of changing the drainage grid;

References and Figures at end of paper

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 2 MARLIM-4, A SUBSEA PRODUCTION WELL OVERTAKING DEEP WATERS FRONTIERS
● Possibility of being completely reused in another
area;
. Possibility of having the oil and gas cash flow
anticipated;
● Possibility of increasing or reducing the number of
wells;
● Anticipationof reservoir information.
The main milestones established by Petrobras
offshore productionhave been:
● Enchova Field with a single well producing to EPS
by means of a BOP, test tree, completion riser and a
dry x:mas tree (1977);
● Enchova-Leste Field where the first subsea tree was
installed in 189 meters (620 ft) water depth as a
satellite well of a EPS and flexible pipes were used
as dynamic structures (1979);
● Garoupa Field composed of a gathering system
with a manifold center and dry wellhead tree both
based on atmospheric chamber conception, installed
in an average water depth of 125 meters (410 tt)
(1979);
● Pirauna Field had the deepest well, RJS-294, put on
stream in 411 meters (1348 ft) water depth and
having the layaway operation performed with a
subsea tree with guide lines (1987);
● Marlim Pilot System had the first semi-submersible
operating as stationary production unit anchored in
625 meters (2050 ft) water depth, the deepest
production well in 781 meters (2562 fi) and the
deepest Single Buoy Mooring System installed in
400 meters (1312 fi)(1991A12).
The Marlim Pilot System was considered a major
breakthrough and it provided different ways for going
deeper in offshore production. At that time the Marlim
Field exploitation was being defined and several points
were considered in advance, during the Pilot phase, to
develop the capacity of producing in a water depth of
7000 meters. Such points were:
. The laying vessel capacity was adapted to handle
the expected loads during the bundle installation;
● The flexible pipes and control umbilical were
specified, designed and supplied for that water
depth;
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OTC 7634
● The laying methods such as layaway operation 1,
vertical connection 2, overboarding of intermediate
connections of flexible pipes and umbilical were
analyzed, specified and tested;
● The guidelineless subsea tree ‘ was specified,
developed and supplied;
● Even a new laying vessel has been hired to lay well
bundles up to 2000 meters (6562 ft) water depth and
it will be available by January 1995.
in
Since Petrobras classifies as proved reserves only those
that are within the technology limits and there is a strong
potential beyond 1000 meters water depth in Campos
Basin (fig. 3) as well as in Santos Basin, it was
mandatoty to start working on the depth considered as a
technological frontier for Petrobras present capacity.
The philosophy adopted is based on experiments which
have been designed, installed and monitored for specific
areas and in conjunction with the field feedback they
were adjusted and became part of the technical memory
used for offshore production development.
This paper will present the planning activities for the
Marlim-4 Project highlighting the flexible pipes and
umbilical installation.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIELD
The Marlim South is a field discovered in f 987 by the
exploration well 4-RJS-382 drilled in 7?50 meters (3773
R) water depth.
The resetvoir is located on South of Marlim Field (fig. 4),
between 1000 and 2000 meters water depth, and has
approximately an estimated area of 250 km2 and oil in
place volume of 943 million cubic meters (5.93 billion
barrels).
The reservoir mechanism is water drive and its depth is
about 2800 meters (9186 ft) horn the mud line with an
estimated recovering factor of 25%.
INSTALLATION PLANNING
The Marlim South is considered as a promising area and
is supposed to be developed as soon as the technology
applicable for that water depth is available in Petrobras.
A preliminary feasibility study has split the reservoir into
two areas, the north and the south, where the premises
considered for this division were the reservoir
configuration and the water depth (north area from 1000
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 OTC 7634 M.G.G. MORAIS, P.A. BONESlO, S. ARMANDO
to 1500 meters (4921 i?) WD and south area kom 1500
to 2000 meters WD).
The north block, according to reservoir drainage studies,
will have about 45 wells being 32 production wells and
12 water injection wells.
FPS will be anchored in 1100 meters (3609 ft) WD
having an oil processing plant which capacity is
estimated in 120.000 bpd.
The overall investment will be about US$ 1.1 billions and
the system will be on stream by the year 2000.
The Marlim Pilot System (FPS) had the oil production
well MRL-20 shut-in. This action resulted in a complete
set of subsea production equipment available to be
reused in another area (x-mas tree, flexible pipes and
umbilical, production adapter base, etc.) as well as
production capacity and facilities on the FPS to receive a
new production well, which could provide Petrobras with
some extra information about a new reservoir.
Petrobras Production Department started looking for an
interesting and unknown area that could be elected for
using those facilities already available. Then, the Marlim-
4 (fig. 1) was chosen in order to provide Petrobras
technical group with answers for the questions raised
when this challenge was established. They can be listed
as follows..
● The long term test of a new reservoir in Marlim
South Field;
● To incorporate the new reservoir accumulation in
Brazil’s reserves;
● The consolidation of concepts gained throughout the
extension of existing technology;
● The control operation of a subsea tree about 19 km
(11. 8 miles) far from the FPS. The maximum
distance up to now is 13 km (8.08 miles) in Albacora
Field.
For this challenge come true it was necessary a program
planning (fig. 5) comprising of the following main steps:
● Recovering, commissioning and hydraulic adaptation
of the subsea tree from MRL-20 well;
● Recovering of the MRL-20 bundle, commissioning
and pre-abandonment in an offshore location;
● Acquisition of the complement flexible pipes and
umbilical to be added to the original MRL-20 bundle;
● The bundle installation procedure;
421
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● MRL-4 completion program and execution;
● The bundle installation including layaway operation,
pipe and umbilical laying and pull-in operation at the
FPS;
The budget for this program is estimated in US$ 24
millions with operations such as completion, bundle
installation accounting for 35% of this total and the
difference (65%) spent on flexible pipes and umbilical.
The expected production is 1000 m3/d ( 6.300 bpd ) and
gas lilt will be used.
CRITICAL POINTS DETECTED
During the planning for this installation some activities
were considered critical and an special care was
dedicated to them.
Those main expected points for the installation and
production are:
● The guidelineless layaway operation;
. The control of the bundle during the layaway and
laying operations in such water depth;
● The response time for the subsea tree operation
with a direct hydraulic control 3;
● The loading capacity of the laying vessel for carrying
all the MRL-4 bundle.
For those reasons the installation plan was prepared to
avoid them. The following points were considered:
● Layaway operation will be followed up by ROV
allowing the perfect coordination of laying vessel and
completion rig;
● The bundle will be laid full of water and its behavior
monitored until reaching the sea bottom;
● Regarding to the laying vessel capacity, bundle
onloadings and offloadings will be done offshore in
a shallow waters (180 meters) area close by Marlim
Field;
● To reduce the operation risk and cost for bundle
reloading in Vitona Base, a shuttle vessel will bring
the pipes and umbilical tiom onshore base and
another will perform the laying operation;
FLEXIBLE PIPES AND CONTROL UMBILICAL
INSTALLATION
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 4 MARLIM-4, A SUBSEA PRODUCTION WELL OVERTAKING DEEP WATERS FRONTIERS OTC 7634

The total length of this bundle will be 19300 meters ● Pull-in operation of the flexible risers at the FPS
where 18480 meters are of static structure and 820 (PETROBRAS 20);
meters of dynamic structure.
● Hydrostatic and functional tests;
The composition of the MRL-4 bundle will be as
following: ● Bundle as laid survey;

- PRODUCTION LINE ARRANGEMENT - (fig. 6) ● Well pre-operation.

● 4“ riser - deep water structure; CONCLUSION

● 6“ flowline - deep water structure insulated pipe;
- ANNULUS ACCESS LINE ARRANGEMENT - (fig. 7)
. 2 1/2” riser - deep wafer sfrucfure;
● 2 1/2” flowline - deep water structure;
- CONTROL UMBILICAL ARRANGEMENT - (fig. 8)
The Marlim-4 Project is considered the milestone for
Brazil Offshore Production in ultra deep water depth,
establishing a new era in Petrobras technical capacity
and development.
By achieving this goal, Petrobras will not only improve
the state of the art in producing in such water depth but
also will set a new world record as a result of need,
creativity, perseverance and commitment.

● Electric-hydraulic Umbilical riser and flowline. NOMENCLATURE

The installation will begin at the subsea tree side by ● EPS - Early Production System
transferring the flowline hub and well bundle to the ● FPS - Floating Production System
completion rig. It will end at the FPS with risers pull-in ● BOP - Blowout Preventer
operation. ● WD - Water Depth
● MRL-4 - Marlim-4 production well
The installation will be composed by the following main ● Riser - Dynamic Flexible Pipe Structure
steps: ● Flowline - Static Flexible Pipe Structure
● PETROBRAS 20- Floating Production System
● Track survey; ● PETROBRAS 13- Floating Production System
● FHL - Subsea Tree Flowline Hub
● Flowline hub and flexible bundle transference to the ● ROV - Remote Operated Vehicle
completion rig;
REFERENCES
● The flowline hub and subsea tree assembly and
tests at the completion rig moon pool; 1. Moreira, J.R.F. and Viegas, A. F.; “Guidelineless
Completions Offshore Brazil”; OTC 5975, 1989
● The layaway operation; OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE.

● Flowline bundle heading orientation check, subsea 2. Nagle, F.J. M., Mendonca da Silva, J. E., Costa
tree landing on the production base and tests; L.A. G., Capllonch R. W.; “Vertical Connection
System for Flexible Pipes: Offshore Tests and
● Flowline bundle laying operation, including Pioneer Installation’: OTC 7260, 1993 OFFSHORE
intermediate connection overboarding and tests; TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE.

● Abandonment of the bundle extremities with 3. Dias, R.; “Marlim-4 - A Subsea Production Well
fishing/recovering devices; Overtaking Deep Water Frontiers Part II -
Installation Procedures’? OTC 7635, 1994
● Reloading of the laying vessel offshore; OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE.

● Recovering of the pre-abandoned bundle

extremities;

● Intermediate connections testing and bundle laying

422

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 M.G.G. MORALS, P.A. BONESIO, S. ARMANDO 5

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 MARLIM-4, A SUBSEA PRODUCTION WELL OVERTAKING DEEP WATERS FRONTIERS OTC 7634

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FIGURE 3

MARLIM-4 PROJECT

3[ October 1993 I November1993 I L7ecmber 1993 I JmuaIY 1994 I Febmary f994 I March 1994 I April 1924
TASKS 2Cl SllO1lT 12411117 [14121121 1611211912612191 t6123[SO16 113(201 27 16113120 IZ7I3I1OII7 124
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1 -WELL PREaPERAnON

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