Revolutionizing Offshore Drilling: CAN-ductor Technology Cuts Costs and Boosts Safety in the Barents Sea

The first CAN-ductor ever to be installed was done in the Barent Sea December 2015 with great success marking a new era for the CAN technology. By integrating the conductor to the CAN it added a new value case where 2-4 rig days were removed from a typical top hole establishment in addition to being a much stronger and more reliable wellhead foundation.

This summer another 3 off CAN-ductor units were installed for one of our customers as part of their exploration program in the Barents Sea. In total 4 off CAN-ductor units were ordered and turned around on an accelerated schedule ready for shipment on the quay side 1st of June. Our trusted partner, Randaberg Industries, professionally ramped up their production line to modify our rental CAN units to suite the geo-technical conditions on the locations provided by the customer. That involved primarily modifying the length of the CAN skirts and integration of the customer provided low pressure wellheads.

Installation cost of any installation going subsea is normally critical to the overall project cost. Different ways for bringing the CAN units from Stavanger to the Barents Sea and installed was considered. A decision on brining the units on a coastal liner was made and all 4 units was thoroughly stacked and secured horizontally before shipped to Hammerfest and Polar Base where they were offloaded and upended on key side. The installation vessel, Olympic Ares, loaded and secured 2 off units before going out installing the units on their specific locations at roughly 400m of water. Installation time per CAN unit was in average 18 hours from vessel arrived location until leaving again after successful installation.

Customer selected the CAN-ductor for various reasons:

Reduced risks

Safety & environment

• no heavy bottomhole assembly or conductor handling / lifting in red zone

• no in moonpool man riding

• no cuttings to seabed from top hole

Operational risks

• Engineered wellhead foundation removing risk for out of verticality

• No wobbling wellhead due to BOP loads

• Extended wellhead fatigue life time

• Removes wating on weather for top hole section

• Simple cutting of wellhead during P&A

Cost

• Removes 2-4 rig days

• Allows conversion from exploration to production

• CAN-ductor designed to be converted to production well later if found commercial discover

100% recyclable

We are now working with customer to finalize last well location before the 4th CAN-ductor is installed. In the mean time we congratulates the customer with the current installation success and wishing them all the best of luck in the coming exploration drilling on these wells now just wating for the rig to arrive.