It was only about 2 years ago that the first composite riser saw service in an offshore application. Time will tell if the technology is ready for further applications.
A decision to run a composite riser was jointly taken by a cluster of offshore operators who were keen to apply the technology in a harsh and deep environment. The venue for first use of a composite riser was the Heidrun field Tension Leg Platform offshore Norway.
The high-pressure 22-in. internal diameter riser joint was only 50 ft (15 m) long, and developed under a joint industry project between Norske Conoco and Kværner Oilfield Products.
Det Norske Veritas (DNV) was the certification agency to attest to the safety and reliability of the joint after verifying the design and qualifying it through a test program.
Three wells were drilled using the joint. Each time the composite section - made from carbon fiber and epoxy resin - was put into different sections of the riser string.
DNV reported at the time that the joint performed successfully in all three wells. It was then used to drill a further two.
That was a US $2.5 million test program under the European Union's Thermie program to support research and development into offshore technology, with participation from Chevron, Shell, Petrobras, Norsk Hydro and Statoil, the Heidrun field operator.
Weight was the key issue for the project, since a composite drilling riser is half the weight of its steel equivalent. Drilling in deeper water, the benefits of a drilling riser half the weight would mean rigs with a lower payload could tackle greater depth.
"A drilling rig that can operate in water depths up to 1,312 ft (400 m) with a steel riser will be able to go down to 2,624 ft (800 m) with the new riser," Gisle Stjern, project manager for Statoil, said at the time of the Heidrun test.
Following the test, Aker Kværner's confidence in the technology picked up pace. In June 2002, the contractor formed a new company with Conoco to sell the technology to the offshore market, DeepWater Composites AS, with offices in both Oslo, Norway, and Houston, Texas.
This new organization was geared to manufacturing and selling both risers and tethers made of composite fibers, under the CompRiser and CompTether trademarks.
The decision to launch the company harked back to 1995 when Conoco and Kværner had first formed a "technology alliance" to develop, test and qualify carbon-fiber composite technology for deep water oil and gas operations.
J. Todd Creeger, then director of Norske Conoco's extraction services, said, "The development of CompRiser and CompTether will help increase the number of development options available to field operators and extend the economic range of TLPs and other floating platforms for ultradeep projects."
Members of the composite tether development team from DNV, Conoco, Aker Kværner and Deepwater Composites presented the results of further work on the technology at the Deep Offshore Technology conference in New Orleans, La., last November and declared then that composite tether technology was available for use in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Work on developing a composite tether for use in deepwater in the US Gulf commenced in May 2000, which involved testing and qualification of a 10.6-in. prototype tether 426 ft (130 m) long. This was based on use with a Tension Leg Platform in a water depth of 4,700 ft (1,440 m). Work concluded last summer with DNV again qualifying the technology. Installation procedures were also examined. The conclusion was the composite could be installed much like a steel tube umbilical, with spooling and coiling from either a reelship or cargo barge, or thirdly, directly from the TLP itself. The design features carbon fiber rods bundled into strands with a polyvinyl-chloride (PVC) profile sleeve and an outer jacket, with 13 strands of 31 or 85 rods, but the stiffness or strength requirements might dictate alternative strand or rod configurations.
One of the factors in developing composites has been cost. Kværner reported that, in the last 30 years, the cost of composite fiber had reduced 3,000% from $150 per pound in weight in the 1970s, to $5 or $6 per pound today. "The trend is likely to continue as the material is introduced into large volume consumption industries such as the construction, marine and automotive industry," Kværner concluded.
In April of this year, ConocoPhillips acted on its commitment to composite technology by agreeing to deploy a composite riser on its Gulf of Mexico Magnolia TLP development. Here, up to 10 composite riser joints will be used - the first composite riser anywhere in the world. Petrobras is also seriously looking at using a single composite riser joint.
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