Managed Pressure Drilling: What Is It Anyway?

ABSTRACT Of the many papers written on the subject of Managed Pressure Drilling, a few talk about what Managed Pressure Drilling is. Many are heavily weighted describing the benefits of specific forms of equipment or techniques. To our knowledge, no paper written before this one...

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Improved Reliability of Drilling Operations Using Managed Pressure Drilling Technology: A Case Study in a Brown Field Environment

ABSTRACT The original Mars A-14 well was drilled and completed in 1996. The well was worked over in 2000 because of a sand control failure. In 2003, the well was again shut in due to increased sand production and decreased oil production. In 2004, after slot recovery operations,...

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Air Drilling in the Presence of Hydrocarbons: A Time for Pause

ABSTRACT Drilling with compressed air continues to enjoy vast popularity. However air drilling is not without its impediments; not the least of which is its reactivity with hydrocarbons. The application of drilling with compressed air provides many benefits, but misapplication of...

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Assessing the Effects of External Damage on Subsea Pipelines

ABSTRACT Subsea pipelines and flowlines are periodically subject to anchor snags that result in massive pipeline movements and/or local deformation.  Knowing how to assess these types of damages is often challenging, especially considering the potential for product release. Along...

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Multi-tiered Simulation Method for Evaluation, Design and Scale-up of Processes and Process Equipment in the Pharmaceutical Industry

ABSTRACT The pharmaceutical industry faces new challenges as it enters the 21st century. These challenges can be met by integrating key technologies in the design and development process. Simulation methods of varying levels of rigor have been identified as one such technology....

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Extreme Response Analyses of Marlin TLP Tendon Tension during Hurricane Ivan

ABSTRACT In order to verify design factors of Marlin TLP related to extreme tension response, a statistical study on the tension data recorded during Hurricane Ivan is conducted. We discuss the effect of the bandwidth and nonstationarity on the extreme tension estimate and...

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Effect of Reeling on Welded Umbilical Tubing Fatigue

ABSTRACT One key component of umbilicals is the steel tubing carrying the pressurized fluids. During manufacturing and deployment of the umbilical, the tubing is subjected to a series of reeling and unreeling operations, resulting in a cumulative amount of plastic strain. For...

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Comparative Risk Using Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) Techniques

ABSTRACT Drilling for oil and gas in any environment entails risk. There are risks of not hitting pay, getting stuck, taking a kick, having an oil spill, falling down on the rig floor, tripping down a set of stairs, even getting a bad meal in the galley. Some of the events...

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Watch Circle Assessment of Drilling Risers during a Drift-Off and Drive-Off Event of a Dynamically Positioned Vessel

ABSTRACT The primary objective of a Drift-Off assessment is to address the behavior of a drilling riser when all thrusters lose power and are no longer capable of maintaining the drilling vessel on station. Whereas, the objective of the Drive-Off assessment is to assess the...

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