The First Cuttings Injection Operation Worldwide in a Subsea Annulus: Equipment and Operational Experience

Saasen, Arild; Bale, Arthur; Corneliussen, Rune; Kristiansen, Per Magnus; Oftedal, Bjorn

doi:10.2523/48985-ms

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…16,17 Drill cuttings and associated drilling waste from more than a dozen wells have been injected into 9 annuli by the end of year 2000 at Statoil's the Åsgard field. 16,17 Drill cuttings and associated drilling waste from more than a dozen wells have been injected into 9 annuli by the end of year 2000 at Statoil's the Åsgard field.…”

Section: Review Of Case Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drilling and Production Waste Injection in Subsea Operations - Challenges and Recommendations

Abou-Sayed

Guo

2002

All Days

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Handling drilling and production waste associated with oily contaminated drill cuttings, NORM and produced water is an environmental and economic issue in offshore drilling and production operations.There are a number of waste management options and subsea injection into suitable geological formations can be a preferred one. This is because it can achieve zero discharge operations; eliminating transportation and spill risks. It can also be economically favorable. Although subsea drill cuttings and produced water re-injection operations have been conducted in an environmentally acceptable manner, system design and operational experience are limited. A few worldwide drill cuttings re-injection operations from mobile offshore drilling units are reviewed first in the paper. Lessons learned from these and other system design and operational experience include a detailed subsurface study and careful engineering, wellhead and injection system design and effective communication to handle emergency disconnect, quality control on well integrity and slurry injection procedure. Challenges and best practice guidelines for waste injection operations from subsea wellheads are given to minimize failure and maximize success.

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Section: Review Of Case Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include to use standard drill pipe 15 or to use rigid or flexible risers 16 . These include to use standard drill pipe 15 or to use rigid or flexible risers 16 .…”

Section: Slurry Delivery System and Wellhead Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drilling and Production Waste Injection in Subsea Operations - Challenges and Recommendations

Abou-Sayed

Guo

2002

All Days

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“…1. The well head equipment is specially designed to allow the cuttings to flow from the DCI to the annulus between the 20" and 13 3/8" annulus 10 . The field is drilled with a floating unit.…”

Section: åSgard Subsea Re-injection Technique Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Subsea Re-Injection of Drilled Cuttings - Operational Experience

Saasen¹,

Tran²,

Joranson³

et al. 2001

Proceedings of SPE/IADC Drilling Conference

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractSubsea re-injection of drilled cuttings has been applied on the Åsgard field to handle oil wet cuttings. For various reasons, oil based drilling fluids have been used in all 12 ¼" and 8 ½" sections at Åsgard. Discharge of oil wet cuttings is not permitted. Cuttings have to be re-injected to the formation or sent onshore for treatment. Onshore treatment and logistics, are expensive and involve a large emission of CO2. If reinjection can be performed, big bag handling operations are significantly reduced. Furthermore, it is difficult to have reliable logistics to bring cuttings onshore. Therefore, cuttings re-injection is the optimum solution for this operation, where the preferred injection point is below the 20" casing shoe.Re-injection is straightforward if cuttings can be reinjected into a formation underneath a large sand formation where the liquid phase of the slurry can leak off. At Åsgard there are no such large sands. Therefore, cuttings have to be re-injected into shale formations. Since the fluid does not leak off sufficiently fast in shale there is a danger that the annulus may be exposed to a too high pressure for a long time. If too large a fluid volume is injected at a time, there is a danger that the fluid may propagate as a fluid bubble to the surface.Leakage to surface has been observed four times at Åsgard. It has been recognized that the cementing results must be better than normal to hinder leakage to surface if cuttings are re-injected into shale formations without sand layers. This paper describes the leakages in detail. It focuses on the necessary improved drilling and cementing precautions to hinder leakage. The paper also describes a technique with alternating re-injection and static periods to make the liquid phase leak off into minor sands and shale, preventing the formation of too high an annulus pressure and hindering the formation of a fluid bubble propagating to the surface.

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“…After the flexible hose has been connected to the wellhead cuttings re-injection is in principle performed as on a platform. The technique has been outlined in detail by Saasen et al 3 .…”

Section: Subsea Re-injectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Priorities of Re-Injection and Land Based Handling of Drilled Cuttings and Affiliated Fluids

Saasen

Paulsen

Holthe

2000

Proceedings of SPE International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractRe-injection of drilled cuttings into a subsurface formation has become a common practice for handling oil wet cuttings during drilling operations in the North Sea areas. Currently, re-injection is technically a straightforward process both on fixed installations and subsea developments. Furthermore, it is feasible to re-inject cuttings into the same well as being drilled.Environmentally, cuttings re-injection is currently considered as an optimum solution. Emission of CO 2 and further unfavourable environmental effects associated with the introduction of heavy and sophisticated equipment on the rigs compromises the priority. The paper outlines the emissions of CO 2 from offshore re-injection operations and onshore treatment in the North Sea area. The rationale behind the priorities governing best handling option is critically addressed. It is shown that emissions to air are significantly reduced when cuttings is re-injected as opposed to treatment on land. This is even more expressed when 12 ¼"-sections are drilled since these operations require additional boats to handle increased volumes of drilled cuttings. If seabed deposition of oil wet cuttings was an accepted alternative, it is shown that the CO 2 emissions would be significantly reduced.

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The First Cuttings Injection Operation Worldwide in a Subsea Annulus: Equipment and Operational Experience

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Drilling and Production Waste Injection in Subsea Operations - Challenges and Recommendations

Drilling and Production Waste Injection in Subsea Operations - Challenges and Recommendations

Subsea Re-Injection of Drilled Cuttings - Operational Experience

Environmental Priorities of Re-Injection and Land Based Handling of Drilled Cuttings and Affiliated Fluids

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