The historical method for testing BOPs on offshore rigs is to disassemble the equipment, send it to an onshore facility, perform the inspection, bring it back to the field and reinstall it. The drilling rig is out of service during this entire operation at a considerable cost to the contractor and the operator.

“Subsea equipment repair and maintenance is the single largest cause of nonproductive time [NPT] across our industry, resulting in great expense to both drillers and operators,” said Marc Edwards, president and CEO of Diamond Offshore. “In today’s market, we have to make the economics of offshore drilling more competitive for our clients.”

That’s what is driving a 10-year contractual service agreement (CSA) signed by Diamond Offshore with GE Oil & Gas that transfers full accountability for BOP performance to GE Oil & Gas, according to a Feb. 8 press release from the two companies.

“We are actively having discussions with drilling contractors on how we could change the commercial model such that all parties are incentivized to increase the reliability and availability of the equipment,” said Chuck Chauviere, president of drilling systems for GE Oil & Gas, in an interview with E&P.

“GE is leveraging what we do in the aviation, transportation and turbo-machinery businesses to work a CSA, which is a different commercial agreement that has a performance guarantee associated with it. This is where GE is stepping up to say, ‘We will guarantee you a certain amount of performance on equipment through this new commercial model,’” he continued.

This Pressure Control by the Hour model includes performance incentives to reduce downtime and improve system reliability. Under the arrangement, GE Oil & Gas will provide engageDrilling Services for BOP systems on four of Diamond Offshore’s sixth-generation drillships, including management of maintenance, certification and reliability. GE will repurchase the BOPs for $210 million, leasing the equipment back to Diamond Offshore.

The GE Oil & Gas engageDrilling Services offering enhances BOP system availability by transferring the maintenance and service of pressure control equipment to GE Oil & Gas. This new arrangement is a performance-based alliance that leverages the scale of GE data, predictive analytics, insights and continuous certification, positioning GE as a long-term commercial, operational and technical partner.

With condition-based monitoring, which will drive proactive decision-making and planning, GE can begin to predict the performance of the equipment as opposed to just doing maintenance based upon either cycle counts or calendars.

Chauviere explained that one inspection method is based on nondestructive testing that is performed in situ. On some of the older offshore systems that GE has inspected offshore, inspection time has been reduced by 75% by leaving the equipment in place and using this inspection technology.

Contact the author at sweeden@hartenergy.com.

Comments