![]() ![]() The other was carried by a specially adapted river boat via St Petersburg, the Russian canal system and the Volga, which empties into the Caspian. All this work was carried out with no problems of any kind.ĭifferent routes were taken by the rig sections, with one travelling by barge through the Straits of Gibraltar and via the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and canals. It was then broken down into two parts and transported to the port of Astrakhan on the Caspian in April. Trial assembly and testing of the package took place at Offshore Marine in Sandnes during the spring of 2003 under the supervision of five Russian engineers. “This rig only drilled five wells on Draugen from 1993, so I regard it as almost brand new,” Egil Tjelta, CEO of RC Consultants, told local daily Stavanger Aftenblad. Fotnote: Stavanger Aftenblad, 4 February 2003, “Russisk borerigg gir kontrakt til Sandnes”. RC Consultants’ contract was originally worth NOK 120 million, including the drilling module and engineering services related to its testing, transporting, installing and commissioning. This was accordingly a story of exporting Norwegian petroleum expertise, reusing offshore equipment from Norway and Russia’s commitment to increasing its oil production at the time. Rosneft therefore needed a rig for the project, which was aimed at drilling the first well in the Russian sector of the Caspian, and the Sandnes company won the job. Passed on by Hitec from the Norwegian agent of Russian state oil company Rosneft, this involved an invitation to tender for conversion of the Ispolin heavy-lift vessel to a drill ship. Soon after 2000, however, an inquiry was received by RC Consultants in Sandnes south of Stavanger. Hitec had intended to use the rig for a particular project which failed to materialise. Fotnote: Stavanger Aftenblad, 16 October 1997, “Hitec kjøper borerigg”. The package has been sold during the spring to the Stavanger-based Hitec company, which had delivered it originally in partnership with Canada’s Dreco. Unabated throughout the disassembly process.Īfter removal, the drilling rig was held in intermediate storage at Vestbase in Kristiansund before being shipped on to Forus outside Stavanger. Photo: A/S Norske Shell/Norwegian Petroleum Museum Nor was additional transport needed, since a recent shipping pool agreement (also covering large supply vessels) for the Halten Bank fields allowed components to be sent free as return cargo.Īll the work was done without any accidents or other undesirable incidents, and production continued boreriggen på draugen fjernes, Draugen topside under construction at Kværner Rosenberg in Stavanger. No heavy-lift vessel therefore had to be chartered, which made the removal decision much easier to take from a purely financial perspective. This solution proved advantageous and meant that the whole job could be done with a limited number of people, using the platform’s own cranes to handle the modules. Fotnote: Shell UP, no 5, June 1997.Īpart from the mud pumps, the whole package was modularised – put together from separate, relatively small units – to simplify removal and reuse. Work began on 10 April and finished a month later. ![]() Transocean Drilling, which had taken over the Aker Drilling company, was commissioned to disassemble and remove the rig.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |