Well Completion and Production Offshore

Offshore Well Completion
and Production
Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan
Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Basics
• Well completion is a process of making a well ready for production.

• The production technique future workover possibilities, well
productivity, downhole problems and so on all depend on how the well
is completed.
• Generally speaking, immediately after the cementation of the
production casing and liner, the completion process starts.

Well Completion Process
• First, the well is emptied of drilling mud by displacing it with a completion fluid
composed of brine. This brine performs the same pressure control function as
drilling mud while allowing completion work to be done in the wellbore.
• The displacement of drilling mud with brine takes place through a tubing
workstring being run through the wellbore. After the complete displacement, an
operation called perforation of the casing/liner is carried out. The next operation is
gravel packing to stop the production of sand. Then the workstring is replaced by
the completion string comprising mainly tubing along with packer, safety devices,
circulation and communication devices and accessories.
• After setting the packer, the completion fluid is displaced with a permanent,
corrosion-resistant fluid.
• Once the job is done up to this, the surface equipment, that is, the BOP is removed
and in its place the Christmas tree is installed over the wellhead and the flowlines
are connected to it.

Well Completion Methods

• Well completion technique either for production or injection well,
three major aspects are involved:
(1) well completion equipment, both surface as well as subsurface,
(2) completion-specific operations and
(3) well completion design.

The surface completion equipment includes wellhead,
tubing hanger and Christmas tree.
Completion-specific operations
• Perforation and gravel packing
• In certain cases where there is damage to the formation near the wellbore,
stimulation operation (mostly acid stimulation) is carried out though not being a
completion specific operation.
• Out of all these, perforation operation is quite common specially in the case of
cased-hole completion and in all offshore well completions, perforation of the
production casing/liner is a must.
• In case of sand exclusion problems, gravel packing operation is carried out or
alternately slotted/screen liners are lowered below the oil string (i.e. production
casing or liner) opposite the producing zone.

Well Completion Design
Basically, there are three methods to complete a well.
1. Open hole completion
2. Perforated completion
3. Liner completion
In the case of offshore, only the perforated completion technique is
utilized.
The advantages are:
• Various producing intervals can be isolated effectively, which helps in
selective treatment and controlled production.
• Multilayer completion.

Multiple Zone Completion
Factors leading to selection of multiple completions are: higher producing
rate, faster payout and multireservoir control requirements.
• Numerous configurations are possible utilizing single or multiple strings of
tubing.
• Single tubing with single packer – There is both tubing and annulus flow.
This is the lowest cost conventional dual.
• Single tubing with dual packer – Again, there is both tubing and annulus
flow. The advantage is that cross-over choke permits the upper zone to be
flowed through tubing.
• Parallel tubing with multiple packer – It can lift several zones
simultaneously. Concentric tubing and wireline workovers are possible in
all zones.

Offshore Well Completion Methods
• The main differences between the onland and offshore completion are reduction
in weight and to minimise space requirements.
• These can be done by using composite valves and closer spacing between the
wells, with only just sufficient room for safe and efficient operation of the valves.
• Normally the distance between two wells varies from 6–10 ft by making changes
in the construction of wellheads and Christmas trees although functionally they
remain the same.
• For added safety, a SSSV is installed in the tubing string below the mud line (sea
floor) in order to close the well automatically in case of any eventuality.
• The well can either be completed at the deck level or subsea based on which they
are classified as ‘deck level completion’ or ‘platform completion’ and ‘subsea
completion’.

Deck Level Completion
• All the casings are brought to the deck level, and all casing hangers, tubing
hangers, well heads and Christmas trees are located at the deck level.
• All the components of well heads and Christmas trees are of dry type
standard systems.
• The salient features of the system are
1. most preferred completion,
2. well-established technology,
3. field proven equipment,
4. know how is available for drilling, production operations and remedial functions,
5. workover, artificial lift, water injection/enhanced recovery are possible with
standard and established tools and technology,
6. constant monitoring by personnel is possible and
7. higher platform cost.

Deck Level Completion

Subsea Completion
• Corresponding to the increase in the cost of platforms, there is a sharp
increase in the number of wells being completed subsea in recent years.
• This is an indication that the reliability factor of subsea equipment available today
in the market has gone up significantly due to which more and more operations are
opting for the same.
• Contrary to the belief that subsea completion is suitable only for high
water depth areas where platforms are not feasible, it is found that most of the
subsea completed wells are in water depth of less than 100 m.

Subsea Completion
• Beside cost, some other technical advantages are enumerated below:
(a) Allows economic exploitation of relatively small reservoirs or marginal fields,
where a fixed platform may not be feasible.
(b) Allows production from infill locations in a field that has already been
developed.
(c) The only proven method of completion in deep waters.
(d) Allows early production from a reservoir which is yet to be developed.
(e) Can be tied back to the platform in the future if the need arises.

Subsea Xmas Tree
• A subsea Xmas tree is basically a stack of valves installed on a subsea wellhead to provide a
controllable interface between the well and production facilities. It is composed of a variety of
valves, which are used for testing, servicing, regulating, or choking the stream of produced oil, gas,
and
liquids coming up from the well below. Different types of subsea Xmas trees may be used for
either production or water/gas injection.
• Functions of a subsea Xmas tree can be listed as the following:
• Enable flow of the produced fluid from the well or the injection of water or gas from surface
facility into the formation (called injection tree), including protection fluids, such as inhibitors for
corrosion or hydrate prevention.
• Stop the flow of fluid produced or injected by means of valves in a safe way.
• Control the fluid flow through a choke (not always mandatory).
• Monitor well parameters at the level of the tree, such as well pressure, annulus pressure,
temperature, sand detection, etc.
•

• Vertical tree types: Conventional dual bore vertical tree and Mono
(large bore) vertical tree Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE
• Vertical Xmas Tree
The master valves are located above the tubing hanger and swab valves
together with master valves are stacked vertically.
• The production and annulus bore lays vertically on the body of the tree.
• The well completion is finished before installing the vertical Xmas tree.
• Since the tubing hanger rests on the wellhead, Xmas tree can be recovered
without having to recover the downhole completion.
• This type is generally applied in subsea fields due to their flexibility of
installation and operation.

• Horizontal Xmas Tree
In contrast to vertical Xmas tree, the valves of horizontal Xmas tree
are located on the lateral sides of the horizontal Xmas tree, allowing
for easy well intervention and tubing recovery, thus this type of tree is
very feasible for the wells that need many interventions.
• The tubing hanger is installed in the tree body instead of the wellhead.
Consequently, the tree is installed onto the wellhead before completion
of the well.

Important Features of Dual Vertical
Subsea Trees
Conventional dual bore trees have a 5 in. production bore and a
2 in.annulus bore through the body of the tree.
•The completion tubing is landed in the high pressure wellhead

housing.
•Two vertical bores allow access to the tubing and
tubing/production casing annulus.
•Workover can be performed with a dual bore lower riser
package, emergency disconnect package and riser.
•Each bore has a swab valve and a master valve; therefore, these
provide two independent barriers to flow.\
•Most trees can be run and recovered with ROV intervention.
•It requires the BOP to be nippled down only one time after
landing a completion string

• A typical vertical subsea tree consists of the following valves:
• Production lower and upper master valve – Its function is to open or close the main bore
containing hydrocarbons. Typically, a subsea tree has two master valves for a safety reason. The
lower production master valve is designed for ROV operation.
• Production wing valve – Its function is to control the flow of hydrocarbons into a subsea flow
line.
• Production swab valve – Its function is to provide access to the production bore during well
intervention.
• Crossover valve – Its function is to control flow between the production tubing and annulus.
• Annulus master valve – Its function is to open or close the annulus bore.
• Annulus wing valve – Its function is to control flow from the production flow line or control
umbilical to the annulus.
• Annulus swab valve – Its function is to provide access to the annulus bore during workover
reentry.

Vertical Single Bore X-Tree
• The introduction of large bore vertical trees has combined
most of the advantages of horizontal and vertical trees.
• A large through bore allows large tubing (typically up to 7

in.) to be run without having to reverse taper below the
hanger.
• A dedicated riser system is not needed; the tree can be run on

drill pipe.
• Intervention access is possible with a mono-bore

• riser system, available as a rental package when required.
• The riser system allows circulation with fluid returns

through a large bore hose in the control umbilical

Vertical Subsea Christmas Trees
• Advantages
• Vertical trees require only one time BOP nipple down.

• No wireline plug to be removed from a tree for a well intervention program.
• Better for fields that don’t expect to do workover or have small chance of doing the workover
• Simpler and cheaper to change a vertical tree when compared to a horizontal tree
• Disadvantages
• If the workover operations such as recompletion, changing tubing, installing extra downhole
tools, etc. are required, a vertical tree must be removed in order to install BOP on top of the well.

Horizontal Subsea Christmas Trees
• Advantages
• Better for fields that expect to do workover quite often because a tree does not need to
be removed.
• Can have a larger bore tubing for a horizontal tree than a vertical tree
• Lower total height of a tree
• Disadvantages
• Less flexibility for operation if the delivery of a tree is delayed.
• Two runs for subsea BOP and riser are required
• Completion string must be removed if replacement of a tree is needed.
• Two wireline plugs (crown plugs) must be removed before starting any well
intervention program. There have been several cases when people have faced a lot of
difficulty for removing the plugs. This can lead to extra time and cost for the
operation

Subsea Tree Considerations (Vertical vs Horizontal)
• The cost of a vertical tree is similar to a horizontal tree based on similar
specification.
• Changing out horizontal trees is more cost and time consuming than replacing a
vertical tree because whole completion string must be removed. Vertical subsea
trees can be replaced by using rig or specially equipped light well intervention
vessels. However, horizontal subsea trees are required only rig to replace the trees.
This results in big expenditure. Therefore, horizontal trees should be used when
there is very low possibility that a tree must be changed out. It is very imperative
to do extensive probabilistic study prior to selecting the horizontal trees.
• Two BOP and riser runs are required for a horizontal tree, whereas only one time
of BOP and riser run is needed for a vertical tree.
• For wells requiring several completion changes during the life cycle of a well, a
horizontal subsea tree will save time and cost since there is no need to remove a
tree or flow lines. Modern vertical trees are connected to a flow base which allows
the flowlines to remain connected when removing the tree.
Subsea Well Construction Sequence For Vertical X-mas Tree: Subsea Well Construction Sequence For Horizontal X-mas Tree:
1. Spud well. Drill top hole 1. spud well. drill top hole
2. Run BOP stack on marine riser 2. deploy BOP stack on marine riser
3. drill to TD. Run and cement liner 3. drill to TD. run and cement liner
4. run downhole completion and tbg hanger 4. install temporary barriers
5. install temporary barriers 5. recover BOP stack
6. recover BOP stack 6. deploy and test xmas tree
7. deploy and test xmas tree 7. redeploy BOP stack on marine riser
8. remove temporary barriers 8. remove temporary barriers
9. connect flowline jumpers and flying leads 9. run downhole completion and tbg hanger
10. flow test well 10. test completion and interfaces
11. recover intervention package 11. flow test well
12. run xmas tree cap 12. install TH plug and internal tree cap
13. commission well from platform 13. connect flowline jumpers and flying leads
14. install protective cover 14. recover intervention string
15. recover BOP stack
16. commission well from platform
17. install protective cover

Types of Subsea Completion
In general, there are two types of subsea completions:
1. Single-well completion or satellite completion
2. Multiwell completions
• Clustered Wells
• Subsea Production Templete

Types of Subsea Completion
• In cases where exploratory or developmental wells need to be completed for
early production or where deviated wells drilled from a platform cannot reach
the outer fringes of a shallow reservoir or in cases of injection wells, the satellite
completions are made. In fact, a system proposed by British Petroleum, single
well offshore production system (SWOPS), allows intermittent production to a
dynamically positioned tanker through a flexible riser connected to the sea floor
satellite tree.
• But the second type, that is, the multiwall subsea completion, is more
predominant where after drilling wells from floaters through subsea templates,
subsea Christmas trees are installed on the template and then wells are produced
through a production riser to a floating storage vessel or through flow lines to a
remote tanker loading facility (e.g. SBM) or platform.

Grouping of Platforms- Valhall Field, North Sea
The platforms used in shallow water are small, therefore, deck capacity is limited
necessitating the grouping of several small platforms to develop a field. The
structure on the left is a combination accommodation block and helideck. The
structure in the middle is used for the drilling of wells and to pass the fluids from
the wellhead to the facility on the right of the picture, which is the process
platform.
• Fixed Platforms Production Facilities
• Well Platform
• The function of a well platform is to gather produced fluid from wells, to test
liquid and gas flow rate of individual wells after separation, and to transfer well
fluids to the processing platforms through subsea flow lines.
• 1.2. Process Platform

• This particular platform is equipped with processing, treatment and pumping
facilities which are the primary operations. The other supporting facilities include
living quarters, utilities, control and communication systems.
Most of the process platforms are attached to at least one well platform
The process facilities include the necessary equipment to:
1. Separate oil, gas and water.
2. Treat and pump oil to a subsea off-take pipeline.
3. Clean up and dispose of the produced water.
4. Treat and compress gas to a subsea offtake pipeline.
5. Condition associated gas for fuel.
6. Dispose of excess gas by flaring.
7. Generate power.
8. Make potable water.

Water Injection Platform
This platform can be divided into (1) injection water process

platform and (2) water injection well platform.
Injection Water Process Platform
In offshore, the processing of water for injection is done by a
semi-closed system which comprises the following (Figure
6.27):
1. Sea water lifting
2. Coarse filtration
3. Fine filtration
4. Deoxygenation
5. Dosing of chemicals
6. Pumping of treated water to injection well

Subsea Templete
• Subsea template is a large steel
structure that is used as a base for
various subsea structures such as
wells, subsea trees and manifolds
(same as drilling templates).

Subsea Manifold
• It is a system of headers, branched
piping and valves used to gather fluids
produced from individual subsea wells
or to distribute injected fluids such as
gas, water or chemicals.
• The manifold module provides the
interface between the production
pipeline, flowline and the wells.
• It is referred to as the
‘template/manifold’, since the manifold
is an integral part of the template.
Subsea Manifold
• These manifolds are usually mounted on a
template and often have a protective
structure covering them.
• These vary greatly in size and shape,
though can be huge structures reaching
heights of 30 m.
• Although this equipment often has a
protective structure surrounding it, still
there is a serious risk of fishing gear
becoming snagged on the protruding
elements or within inner cavities.
• For this reason, most subsea templates and
other associated seabed structures are
protected by a 500-m safety zone all around
them.
Scaled model of a subsea manifold and protection structure

JUMPERS
• In subsea oil/ gas production systems, a subsea jumper is a short pipe connector
that is used to transport production fluid between two subsea components (for
example, a tree and a manifold, a manifold and another manifold, or a manifold
and an export sled).
• It may also connect other subsea structures such as PLEM/PLETS and riser bases
and ir can be used to inject water into a well.
• The offset distance between the components (trees, flowlines, and manifolds)
dictates the jumper length and characteristics.
• Flexible jumper systems provide versatility, unlike rigid jumper systems, which
limit space and handling capability.
• They can be chosen in rigid and flexible configurations in sizes from 4 to 18
inches diameter and lengths exceeding 150 feet (50 meters).
• Tie-in connections are either vertical or horizontal, based on system selection.

PLET/PLEM
• A termination unit can be called a “PLEM” or a “PLET.” These units
are connection points between two or several pipelines. The Pipeline
End Termination (PLET) comprises a single pipeline connection only,
while the Pipeline End Manifold (PLEM) is supporting two or more
pipeline connections.
PLEM Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE PLEM

Umbilical Systems
• Umbilicals (bundle of pipes) link surface and seafloor oil and gas
equipment for controls, power or heat. They provide electric and
fiber-optic signals, electrical power and hydraulic and chemical
injection fluids to the subsea unit

• The electrical conductors in the umbilical transmit signals from instrumentation on the
subsea components (temperature, pressure, integrity checks) back to the control centre.
• Electrical power can move through an umbilical to operate solenoid valves on the subsea
control pods, which in turn control hydraulic pressure supplied to the subsea valves on the
manifolds and trees.
• In some cases, power is also supplied to operate well bore or subsea pumps. Combining
multiple services into a single umbilical can save manufacturing and installation costs.
However, distance, depth and weight may require multiple umbilicals.
• A solenoid valve, otherwise known as an electrically-operated valve is an automatic valve

which serves the purpose of removing the need for an engineer to operate a valve
manually. Solenoids operate using an electromagnetic solenoid coil to change the state of
a valve from open to closed, or vice-versa.

Jumper

Control pod
Assembly of valves and regulators (either hydraulically or electrically operated) that when activated directs
hydraulic fluid through special apertures to operate the BOP equipment.

Flowline and Production Riser
• Depending on whether the wells are produced to a nearby fixed
production platform or any floating vessel anchored over the template,
there can be either flowlines or production risers coming out of the
manifold.
• Production risers are free hanging and flexible types which are
attached to the floating vessel on its outer perimeter for easy access.
These are lowered and connected to the manifold at the vertical stab
provided on it. Here also more than one riser is used for the purposes
mentioned above.

Flowline
• There can be one or two flowlines depending on well conditions and
operational requirements of subsea wells. Their size depends on the flow
rate, pressure drop and the tubing head pressure. To communicate with the
tubing/casing annulus, another flowline is laid, which can help in
monitoring the annulus pressure and for killing the well if required. This
line can also be utilised for pigging, scraping or running TFL tools. These
lines are not buried below the sea bed but rest on the sea floor itself. The
pipes used nowadays are flexible ones made of laminated steel wires and
other materials.
• These are mounted on a reel barge and are laid from that. The flowlines
should be protected from any abrasion or physical damage and normally
expansion loops are provided along the sea-bed to take care of the
temperature changes.
Control System
Normally the tree functions are controlled by the control system which
consists of the following sub systems:
1. Subsea controls
2. Control umbilical
3. Surface controls
The subsea control system basically consists of subsea control pods to
achieve the following:
1. Direct hydraulic control for the well and the flowline
2. Electrical system for measurement of well head pressure and temperature
3. Electrohydraulic system with a sequenced hydraulic backup monitoring
system
4. Variable hydraulic bean control for the well

Control System
• The control umbilical serves as the link between the subsea control
equipment and surface control equipment for transmission of hydraulic
power and electrical signals. It contains electrical conduits, power
supply cables, fibre optics, hydraulic tubes, other pipes and so on. A
separate control umbilical bundle is provided as a spare line to
increase redundancy of the system.
• The surface controls will be housed on a nearby production platform
as a master control panel. This panel will have a hydraulic power
generation unit, individual control for trees and subsea data monitoring
facilities.

Subsea Processing

Subsea Processing
• With production equipment located on the seafloor rather
than on a fixed or floating platform, subsea processing
provides a less expensive solution for myriad offshore
environments.
• Originally conceived as a way to overcome the challenges of

extremely deepwater situations, subsea processing has
become a viable solution for fields located in harsh
conditions where processing equipment on the water's
surface might be at risk.
• Additionally, subsea processing is an emergent application to

increase production from mature or marginal fields.
• The main types of subsea processing include subsea water removal and re-injection or disposal, single-phase and
multi-phase boosting of well fluids, sand and solid separation, gas/liquid separation and boosting, and gas
treatment and compression.

Subsea Processing
• Saving space on offshore production facilities, separation of water, sand and gas
can now be performed subsea.
• Subsea separation reduces the amount of production transferred from the seafloor
to the water's surface, debottlenecking the processing capacity of the development.
• Also, by separating unwanted components from the production on the seafloor,
flowlines and risers are not lifting these ingredients to the facility on the water's
surface just to direct them back to the seafloor for re-injection.
• On deepwater or ultra-deepwater fields, subsea boosting is needed to get the
hydrocarbons from the seafloor to the facilities on the water's surface. Subsea
boosting negates backpressure that is applied to the wells, providing the pressure
needed from the reservoir to transfer production to the sea surface.

Subsea Processing

Reasons to support Subsea Processing
• Most subsea processing will increase the recovery from the field, thus
increasing profits.
• Additionally, by enhancing the efficiency of flowlines and risers,
subsea processing contributes to flow management and assurance.
• Also, subsea processing enables development of challenging subsea
fields, while reducing topside expenditures for equipment.
• Furthermore, subsea processing converts marginal fields into
economically viable developments.

Through subsea processing, the mature Tordis oil
field increased recovery by an extra 35 MMbo and
extended the life of the field by 15 to 17 years.
Expected to come on-stream in 2011, Total's Pazflor

project offshore West Africa is utilizing the region's
first-ever subsea gas/liquid separation system.
One of the world's deepest water developments,

Shell's Perdido project in the US Gulf of Mexico is
currently under development and will also
incorporate subsea boosting and separation to
achieve production.
Shell's BC-10 project offshore Brazil was the

world's first subsea system with gas/liquid
separation and boosting. Developed via 13 subsea
wells, six subsea separators and boosters, and an
FPSO, the BC-10 project began producing heavy oil
from ultra-deepwaters in July 2009.

SUBSEA TIEBACK
• Subsea tiebacks,link new discoveries to existing infrastructure.

• Set to become a major factor in the development of new oil and gas
reserves in the 21st century DUE TO:
• With larger oil and gas discoveries becoming less common, attention has
turned to previously untapped, less economically viable discoveries.
• To produce more oil and gas at lower cost, over longer distances and in deeper
waters.
• Maximize the life of existing production infrastructure.
• For isolated deposits, which are usually not economically viable but with
rising crude oil prices and increasing demand for gas look attractive.

SUBSEA TIEBACK

SUBSEA TIEBACK
• Subsea tiebacks can require significantly lower initial investments compared with
developments using floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) or fixed
installations. The economics of a field are, however, governed by a number of
factors specific to that field:
• Distance from existing installation
• Water depth
• Recoverable volumes, reservoir size and complexity
• Tariffs for processing the produced fluids on an existing installation
• The potentially lower recovery rates from subsea tiebacks versus standalone development, due
to limitations in the receiving facility’s processing systems
• The potentially higher recovery rates from platform wells, due to easier access to well
intervention and workovers

Riser and Types

Riser and Types
• Marine risers shall possess two distinct geometric configurations:
• Rigid
• Flexible
• Hybrid risers are a combination of both the flexible and rigid type of con
figurations.
• As risers are connected to the drilling and production offshore platforms (or
vessels, in case of drillships), they are designed to remain flexible so that
flexible movement of the host platforms is not intervened.
• A combination of a variety of environmental loads that arise from waves,
current, and those arising from the impact of vessels shall result in the
development of extreme stresses.
• Further, vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) and fatigue cause more severe
concerns on the sustain able service life of risers.
RISERS
Drilling Production
Low Pressure High Pressure

Dry Tree Wet Tree
Drilling Riser Drilling Riser
Top Tensioned
Steel Catenary
Riser Flexible Riser Hybrid Riser
Riser (SCR)
(SPAR/TLP)

Riser Types
• Depending on the purpose and application, risers differ in their geometric configurations
and material.
• Drilling risers, deployed for drilling oil wells in deep offshore, are classified as low
pressure and high pressure based on the operational conditions.
• Production risers are developed for transporting oil or gas, more or less, continuously
from the well to the top side of an offshore platform. Production risers are of a larger
diameter and usually circular in cross section and subjected to lateral loads of varying
magnitude along its length.
• Due to their longer length and slender cross-sectional characteristics, these risers are
suspended down from the platform and upheld under high axial tension; these are termed
top tensioned risers (TTRs).
• With progress in the research and scientific developments, several geometric forms of the
production risers such as flexible risers, steel catenary risers (SCRs), and hybrid risers
are also deployed successfully for both exploration and production.

Drilling Risers
• Deepwater drilling and workover is presently performed with jointed steel risers.
• Made of riser joints, each segment ranging about 15-23 m. long.
• Low-pressure drilling risers consist of a central tube and several flow lines along its periphery.
Generally, four flow lines are used, kill, choke, booster, and hydraulic lines. lt also consists of
syntactic foam that enables the reduction in weight of the riser in water. The syntactic foam is
generally seen in the upper sections of the marine riser. The section closer to the surface is usually
left without any foam to reduce the hydrodynamic loads under the encountered waves.
• Air-can buoyancy modules were attached in the earlier design of drilling risers. Their buoyancy
was varied depending on the drilling requirements.
• Different configurations of the connectors are used for the riser joints such as breechblock and
flanged connector.
• Flex joint, placed between the upper and lower sections of the riser, permits a finite rotation of the
riser. lt is useful in case of an emergency. The BOP shears the drill string to keep it closed.

• A high-pressure drilling riser system acts as a conduit
between the subsea wellhead and the BOP on the rig surface.
• its configuration does not possess kill and choke lines.
• The riser system provides not only fluid and pressure

containment, but also structural and global integrity.
•
A high-pressure riser system is used to drill wells from a
jack-up drilling unit utilising a dry surface BOP and a HP
drilling riser, complete with a hydraulic subsea connector to
the subsea wellhead

Production Risers
Top Tensioned Risers Catenary Riser

• In shallow water practice, but as design for • Self compensated for the heave movement, i.e.
larger water depth is accounted the need for the riser is lifted of or lowered on the seabed.
new design practice has increased. • Need a ball joint to allow for rotation induced
• Very sensitive to the heave movements due to by waves, current and vessel motion, at the
wave and current loads because the rotation at upper end connection.
the top and bottom connections is limited. The
heave movement also requires top tension • Sensitive to environmental loads, i.e. wave
equipment to compensate for the lack of and current due to the normally low effective
tension. tension in the riser. The fatigue damage
induced by Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV)
• Reduction in top tension cause larger bending can be fatal to the riser.
moment along the riser especially if the riser • Use of the VIV suppression devices such as
is located an environment with strong current. helical strakes and fairing can reduce the
If the effective tension becomes negative (i.e. vibrations to a reasonable level
compression) then Euler buckling will occur.

TTR
With such systems, the workover operations are possible,

without the need to have a separate dedicated drilling rig.

TTR
• TTR depends on the top tension imposed on the riser, which is significantly
higher than its apparent weight.
• . TTR found their extensive applications in both TLPs and SPAR.
• Wellhead is located on the offshore platform, which extends direct access to
the oil well (deck level completion).
• The stress joint is used for connecting the riser to the seabed, which
confirms a flexible connection.
• Designed to withstand the tubing pressure, in case of any failure in the
tubing. Keel joint is used in the case of SPAR to release the additional
bending stress caused under the failure of tubing.
• It is generally seen that the TLPs use tensioners while SPAR uses air cans.

Steel Caternary Riser (SCR)
• SCRs are a preferred solution for deepwater wet-tree production,water/gas injection and
oil/gas export.
• SCR can overcome all TTR disadvantages and can self-compensate or the heave
movement, by its geometric profile.
• SCRs are capable of withstanding fluctuations in tension, fatigue, and movement at the
touchdown point. Ball joints, pro vided in the connections, permits rotation at the joints
and offer a signifi cant advantage under the combined action of waves, vessel motions,
and currents. However, the effects of VIVs can cause severe consequences to an SCR.
Helical strakes, provided at specific sections along the length of the riser, are capable of
suppressing the VIV, to a significant level.

Steel Caternary Riser (SCR)
• SCR design appears simple in concept, but can quickly
become more complex as deeper waters are considered.
• Consisting of a steel pipe free hanging from a platform,
careful design considerations must be made to
ensure adequate wall thickness selection and weld standard
compliance, both of which are crucial to safe operation.
• Applicable to a wide number of platform designs, SCRs are
generally utilized with semi-submersible floating facilities
and are an effective and reliable option when used with
deepwater wet tree systems
• SCRs, unlike flexible risers, are generally not wet stored
prior to installation. This necessity means complete
installation normally occurs during a single project phase
involving a welding process that joins adjacent sections of
pipe before they are lowered to the ocean floor in a J-lay or S-
lay fashion. Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE
Flexible Riser
• Flexible riser comprises several concentric pipes, which results in lower bending
stiffness in comparison to its axial stiffness.
• Low bending stiffness is that when pipes slip against one another under the action
of the internal and external loads. However, this weakness is overcome by steel
armor pipes, which provide additional strength and stiffness.
• The polymer layers with low stiffness provide fluid integrity.
• One of the most exceptional advantages of flexible risers is that they can are
deployable in several configurations of riser layout.
• Further, they can be stored in reels, which make them convenient for transport and
installation. Therefore they are cost-effective in terms of installation, transport and
are highly suitable for compliant offshore structures such as TLPs, SPAR,
semisubmersibles, and FPSO.

Flexible Riser
• The flexible riser demonstrates excellent bending capacity while still possessing
exceptional strength, making it extremely versatile with regards to application.
• Originally designed for flowline applications between vessels, the flexible riser
has gained popularity in deep water due to its ability to withstand significant
dynamic environments making it an excellent choice for harsh sea conditions.
• Installation methods are also a positive aspect of flexible flowlines in that normal
installation campaigns can typically be completed much more quickly than other
risers due to the high spooling capacity and offload speeds that can average up to
500 meters per hour.
• The ability to be wet stored (material choice permitting) prior to installation also
proves a benefit of the flexible pipe in that it allows for schedule flexibility during
an offshore installation campaign
Flexible Riser
• A flexible riser is a tube made of a flat strip of stainless steel,
• The carcass is the innermost layer of a flexible riser, which offers resistance against the collapse of the riser
under high hydrostatic pressure and gases that build-up in their annulus. In the event of depressurization,
which occurs after a well is shut, very high internal stresses are developed; the steel carcass layer is capable of
withstanding this collapse pressure.
• An inner sheath forms the second layer, which is made of high-density poly ethylene (HDPE); cross-linked
polyethylene is also used as alternatives. This polymer sheath provides bore-fluid integrity.
• The third layer is the pressure armor, which is designed to withstand the hoop stress generated in the inner
bore of the riser. They are wound over the internal sheath and made of interlocking wires. Carbon steel of
high strength is commonly used as pressure armor.
• Tensile armors are made of carbon steel of high strength and are capable of resisting tensile loads in the
risers. They are made of rectangular wires that are flat and cross-wound at an angle to the axis of the riser. For
deepwater applications the number of layers of tensile armors is usually more; this is required to withstand the
high tensile load.
• The external/outer sheath is made of HDPE or cross-linked polyethylene, similar to that of the internal
sheath. lt forms a protective layer and prevents seepage of seawater into the riser. During the process of
installation the external sheath acts as a protection for the internal layers of the riser.

Flexible Riser

Flexible Riser Layout configurations
Free-hanging catenary layout configuration is one of the
simple and cheapest configurations of a flexible riser owing to
its simple installation and minimum requirements of
infrastructure at the subsea.
Both in the lazy-wave and steep-wave layouts, vessel motions

are decoupled from its effects on the touchdown point by adding
buoyancy and weight along with the remaining (longer) length
of the riser.
Lazy-S type and steep-S type of flexible riser configurations

consist of a subsea buoy, which can either be fixed to the
offshore platform or position restrained by moorings. Subsea
buoys, provided with these risers, eliminate the problems faced
by the risers at the touchdown point.
Pliant-wave configuration is very similar to that of the steep-wave type. In this type, there are anchors at the seabed,
which handle uplift motion that occurs at the touchdown point. This arrangement enables the tension from the riser
to be transferred to the subsea anchor and thus releases the tension from the touchdown point.
Hybrid Risers
• The development of the “Hybrid Riser” was brought about by the need of to
compliment the conventional top tensioned risers, flexible or catenary risers.
• Hybrid Riser incorporated steel and flexible pipe technologies this allows the
flexible pipe to absorb most of the dynamic motions of the riser while the Steel
Catenary Riser or vertical leg is connected to a sub-surface buoy for support.
• Hybrid risers allow for the reduction of the:
• Riser loads transmitted onto the floating production unit
• Minimizing riser fatigue issues
• Reduction of the decoupling effect between the floating production unit and the risers.
• The hybrid systems would bring about a more cost effective, technical solutions,
and higher productivity providing access to deeper field developments. “The most
common used Hybrid Risers are the Free Standing Hybrid Riser with a single leg
configuration or several bundled in a Hybrid Tower Riser”.
Free Standing Hybrid Riser with a single leg configuration and several bundled in a Hybrid
Tower Riser
Riser components
A marine riser should be able to withstand both axial tension and bending moments while remaining
flexible to withstand the fatigue loads. Following are a few critical components of a marine riser
system:
1. Buoyancy modules: They are attached to the riser closer to the mean Sea level to reduce tension at
the surface. Generally, air cans or syntactic foams are attached to the riser.
2. Bell mouths and bending stiffeners help to reduce the excessive bending stresses by reducing the
bend radius and also by increasing the stiffness of the riser. Polyurethane is used to manufacture the
bending stiffeners as it is capable of imparting a gradual increase in the stiffness to the particular
section of the riser. Bell mouths offer a similar function as that of a bending stiffener and are
fabricated using steel. They are manufactured with high tolerances to prevent any formation of minor
cracks leading to stress concentrations
3. Bend restrictors: They are connections used at the top and bottom of a riser to restrict the bending
radius of the riser under lateral loads. Additional resistance is provided from the overbending of the
riser at the critical locations by mechanical locking. They are fabricated using plastic materials that
are hard enough to resist excessive bending. They are also used in the base of risers and wellheads
Bend Stiffeners
Bend restrictors prevent over-bending at the interface between
flexible flowlines/umbilicals/cables and rigid structures by
mechanically locking up.
They are normally used in static applications but, unlike bend
stiffeners, only provide protection once the pipe has achieved
the desired bend radius between the flexible line and rigid
structures such as wellhead connections, J-tube exits, rigid pipe
crossovers and PLET connections.

• A bend limiter is a bend restrictor that has no effect below a certain
curvature, but prevents curvature from exceeding that value. A bend
stiffener is a bend restrictor that provides increased bend stiffness in
order to distribute the bending more widely.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-1POs_i7M

• The survey identified more than 1,550 production risers and 150
drilling risers in use today on floating units.
• As much as 85% of the production risers are flexibles. More than 90%
of the drilling risers are "low pressure" with flange/dog type
couplings.
• Flexibles are in use today in water depths up to 1,360 meters, and top
tensioned risers (TTR) and steel catenary risers (SCR) are being used
in depths up to 1,460 meters.

Well Completion and Production Offshore

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Well Completion and Production Offshore

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Offshore Well Completion

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• Well completion is a process of making a well ready for production.

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

•The completion tubing is landed in the high pressure wellhead

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• A large through bore allows large tubing (typically up to 7

• A dedicated riser system is not needed; the tree can be run on

• Intervention access is possible with a mono-bore

• The riser system allows circulation with fluid returns

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• Vertical trees require only one time BOP nipple down.

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• 1.2. Process Platform

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

This platform can be divided into (1) injection water process

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

PLEM Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE PLEM

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• A solenoid valve, otherwise known as an electrically-operated valve is an automatic valve

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• Originally conceived as a way to overcome the challenges of

• Additionally, subsea processing is an emergent application to

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Expected to come on-stream in 2011, Total's Pazflor

One of the world's deepest water developments,

Shell's BC-10 project offshore Brazil was the

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

• Subsea tiebacks,link new discoveries to existing infrastructure.

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE

Dr. Geetanjali Chauhan, IIPE