This paper presents the technical advances made in the use of power swivels in replacing the rotary table. The equipment, drilling techniques and accelerated drilling time are reported. Specifically, special features of the use of a power swivel are also presented, i.e., drill up, remote pipe stabs, safety, presented, i.e., drill up, remote pipe stabs, safety, operating cost reduction, drilling down 90 ft. stands. The object of this report is to acquaint people with the recent advances in the use of the power swivel. Introduction A new electric power swivel drilling system has been developed and successfully placed in operation on two SEDCO jackup drilling rigscurrently drilling for Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO). The swivel, called a Top Drive Drilling System, consists of a 1000 HP electric DC traction motor and an innovativepipe-handling system developed by Varco Oil Tools. The concept of rotating pipe directly with a motor connected to the top of the drill string, in contrast to a kelly sliding through a rotary table, is not a new one; it is commonly used on workover rigs that do not have rotary tables. A However, power swivels, as they are often called, have not been used extensively for drilling due to pipe handling compromises and the poor performance of previous designs. The Top Drive System described in this paper represents a significant step forward in the practical application of the basic concept. Its development and subsequent field use has been highly successful. Two significant improvements attributable to the new system are excellent reliability and very efficient pipe handling. Both factors are enhancing the operation of the rigs on which they are installed to a degree that both rigs have reduced overall drilling time 20%on the average well. Figure 1 illustrates the power swivel and pipe handling systems. HISTORY OF POWER SWIVELS The offshore use of power swivels and power subsstarted in the early 1950's. A Baash Rosshydraulic drive power sub unit was utilized offshore on the drill ship NOLA I. This was followed by a power swivel used on the dynamically stationed coring vessel EUREKA in the early 1960's. Several other hydraulic drive power subs and swivels were used for special applications, i.e. the GLOMAR CHALLENGER deep sea coring project. One of the first fully electric driven power swivels was a unit built and tested by ARCO for high RPM drilling tests. Brown Oil Tool and Bowen developed and marketed the first electric drive power swivels in the early 1970's.The VARCO power swivel system went into use in 1982. History has proven that a power swivel is a tool which provides good economical returns. It drills hole faster and eliminates several drill problems. The power swivel, when used in conjunction with a handling system, gives even more advantages. III SYSTEM DESCRIPTION A. Design Philosophies The factor overriding all others in the design of any power swivel is reliability. Rotary tables, kellys and kelly drive bushings have an inherent reliability as a result of many years of experience. Almost all drilling personnel are well-schooled in their use, care and maintenance. Hence, their perceived reliability is very high. On the other hand, power swivels have had only limited use. Consequently, they will not have aperceived reliability unless they can function continuously without failure and experience only minor repairs. Anything less will be interpreted by most operators as poor reliability regardless of overall performance, and most would not risk power swivel use. The power swivel's reliability can be broken down between two areas for analysis and discussion. P. 359
Automation of drilling rig functions can improve efficiency by reducing personnel and operating costs while providing an additional benefit of increased safety. Methods which use existing drilling equipment provide the most economic means to implement this automation. One function which can be implemented in this way is automatic positioning of the traveling block. This paper examines general design requirements for achieving automatic positioning of the traveling block. It also presents details of a control system developed to provide controlled braking of the traveling block using previously installed eddy current brake systems. The system provides closed-loop braking control while monitoring the traveling block position, velocity and acceleration through its entire range of travel. Various parameters are constantly monitored to assure that the eddy current brake capacity limits are not exceeded at any time. The system smoothly stops the traveling block at positions selected by the operator, even with wide variations in load. Sensors may be added to prevent moving the traveling block to collide with pipe handling equipment. The advantages of closed-loop control utilizing eddy current brakes over kinetic energy monitoring and friction brake application will be detailed. The technical requirements for future extension of this system into a full automatic positioning controller are discussed. Field performance data will be presented to illustrate the benefits obtained from closed-loop control of the eddy current brake to position the traveling block.
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