Innovative Emergency Coiled-Tubing Disconnect System for Tender Barge Operations

Abstract

In the last few years, Indonesia has experienced a significant increase in offshore activities requiring support from tender barges. This type of operation has helped overcome most of the offshore well-intervention challenges, in terms of crane capabilities, space, load, etc. However, operating in high waves and strong currents has introduced other technical and safety challenges, especially when performing coiled-tubing (CT) operations.In this kind of operation, the coiled-tubing reel and pumping spread are kept on the tender barge, while the injector head and well-control stack are set on the platform. The possibilities of losing the barge anchors or a catastrophic situation at the platform generated the need to develop a system to quickly disconnect the equipment on the barge from the platform by safely cutting the coiled tubing at the reel while minimizing the personnel exposure time to at-risk conditions, as well as avoiding the loss of treatment or hydraulic fluid to the environment. The new system was designed to be hydraulically capable of (1) releasing the injector and blowout-preventer (BOP) hoses while containing the hydraulic fluid, (2) holding the string reel end in place, and (3) cutting the string at the reel. This paper will document the system components' design processes, field testing, and field implementation.