Acteon’s subsidiary 2H Offshore has announced the launch of a joint industry project aimed at improving riser, wellhead and conductor fatigue estimates and make drilling operations more reliable and efficient.
According to 2H Offshore, the project aims to provide a measurement-based foundation for drilling riser system modelling to ensure that riser, wellhead and conductor fatigue damage can be more accurately assessed.
The company has said that field data from 18 operators and drilling contractors in 9 regions worldwide and water depths ranging from 200m to 1700m has been gathered.
“2H will apply its proven analytics methodology to reduce conservatism, or otherwise, in riser and wellhead wave and VIV fatigue loading predictions using field data. The findings will improve the accuracy of future wellhead fatigue assessments and eliminate unnecessary upgrades to improve predicted fatigue and provide industry consensus on design methodology,” 2H Offshore said.
Bulent Mercan , 2H Offshore Project Manager, said: “Riser, wellhead and conductor fatigue life is one of the most important aspects of drilling system integrity assurance. However, analytical parameters related to riser and BOP hydrodynamics, vortex induced vibrations (VIV) and conductor-soil interaction are still not fully understood.”
“To obtain acceptable fatigue life, subsea engineers are having to take costly measures such as the installation of strakes around the riser joints, improvements of fatigue details at welds and connectors, vessel upgrades and more. A reliable set of analytical parameters leveraging diverse field measurements will lead to improved accuracy and more efficient drilling operations. Industry collaboration through sharing resources will play an important role to achieve this goal.”
The company has called for interested industry partners to join the JIP and in turn benefit from the field data insights. So far, 2H Offshore said, eight operators have joined. 2H Offshore, did not reveal the identity of the operators.