Ever-alert to the need to hone its competitive edge, the drilling technologies business unit of Aker Solutions is looking to take its service offering to an unrivalled level of sophistication with the new drawworks extended test facility in Erkelenz, Germany. David Morgan reports.
Hailed as 'one of a kind ' and 'a game changer' by Thor Arne Håverstad, head of drilling technologies with Aker Solutions, the new test rig represents a $10 million investment and for the first time offers the dynamic load capacity - up to 500t - to enable testing of complete drawworks systems including drives and controls under realistic conditions.
The test rig's 51m high derrick sits on a 55m-deep well with 2.5m diameter casing, enabling a string of weights - there are 20 available on the Erkelenz site, each weighing 25t 'to run the length of a triple stand. As well as pre-launch testing of new drilling equipment developed in-house under Aker's MH and Wirth brands, the rig's services will also be marketed worldwide for testing interfacing equipment and competitors' products.
'If we can with this big test facility reduce the commissioning test plan for a drawwork on a yard newbuild or an offshore upgrade from 10 weeks to, say, six weeks, it will increase our competitiveness and reduce the HSE risks on the yard or rig offshore, both of which tend to be very crowded places with a lot of testing going on. So it's a win-win all over, 'says Håverstad.
'The new facility is a game changer because we have been working for many years to see whether we can improve testing of a system before we deliver it to the customer,' he adds. 'We want to deliver quality. We want to have good systems and good performance. At Aker Solutions we also see this as a way of increasing our competitiveness.'
The test rig is the culmination of a process that began 10 years ago when the company started looking at ways of testing its software before delivering it to the rig. Later it started building facilities for extended testing of itemised equipment at the drilling technologies group's headquarters in Kristiansand, Norway, before progressing in 2007 to multi-machine testing using software from the operator sales to check they were working together as planned.
'This is a big test facility and a heavy investment - and no-one else can carry out such a test plan for the drawworks, 'declares Håverstad. 'We put a lot effort into finding the optimum test set up and settling on the 500t dynamic load capacity. Yes, we have drawworks systems up to 1250t but a lot of the testing on drawworks relates not so much to weight but to functionality, setting parameters in the software, adjusting the steps and so on. So we made the decision that the step from 500t to 1000t or maybe up to 1250t represents a very small portion of additional work, and, besides, catering for those kind of weights at Erkelenz would have been impossible physically. At one point we discussed 100t as the possible limit, but buying a derrick for 500t costs more or less the same as for 100t. That's just a small part of the total investment.'
Håverstad thinks payback on that investment is unlikely in direct monetary terms, but believes the resulting enhancement of the company's reputation will translate into more orders for its drilling equipment over time. Neither does he expect the Erkelenz test team to start whittling down a typical 10-12 week drawworks commissioning schedule with ease from day one. 'It's quite a big job, we first need to learn and adjust, 'he explains. 'But what we have seen in similar activities within Aker is that while it may take four or five months to do a job first time, when you do it for the third, fourth or fifth time you are talking about the timeframe for that testing reducing to maybe a quarter of the original time.'
Locating the test rig at Erkelenz, with its long-established drawworks fabrication capabilities and major European ports and airports within easy reach, also made good sense logistically, he notes, given that equipment would be doing a lot of travelling before and after test.
Planning for the new test facility began in 2008, the year before Aker completed its takeover of German drawworks, mud pump and rotary table manufacturer Wirth, with whom it had collaborated closely for over 20 years. Statoil personnel were much in evidence at the test rig's 9 June launch, fittingly since it was a huge EPCI contract from the Norwegian operator that was to prove a clincher in Aker's 2009 decision to go ahead with construction of the Erkelenz test facility.
As part of the NKr 2.4 billion Oseberg B life extension programme, Aker Solutions is upgrading the platform's entire drilling infrastructure for wells of up to 9000m. As well as installing new remotecontrolled valves for dry and wet systems, the upgrade includes remote-controlled monitoring and operation of all drilling processes from a new cabin along with wide-ranging improvements on the HSE, drilling control and HVAC fronts and a switch from DC to AC operations.
Oseberg's much-modified drilling systems are scheduled to come online in 2013 so will be among the early beneficiaries of the new test rig's services. 'For Statoil it is all about reducing offshore downtime, also with celebrating its 40th anniversary this year) and Wirth brands, the Aker Solutions drilling equipment portfolio is more or less complete, with the exception of the blowout preventers. The company has a long-standing co-operation with Cameron in Houston covering BOPs.
While the upgrading and replacement of old drawworks figures among the Aker offerings, today the majority of its deliveries are to Korean, Chinese and Singapore yards for newbuild rigs destined to serve the fast-growing deepwater markets of West Africa, Brazil, Australia and the South China Sea area. 'The main driver behind the Erkelenz facility is that we want to be the best supplier of commissioning services for newbuilds in the yards, ' Håverstad stresses. 'We can reduce the timetables of course, but we can also increase the quality of the testing.
'Everyone knows that the worst thing you can do is not completely verify that a system is functioning properly, because then you go out in the fields and the downtime starts. In fact, today's newbuilds have very ambitious targets now; they're talking about 95% uptime from day one, whereas previously they might have assumed 80%, perhaps improving to 90% a few months later. And the key to that improvement is more testing both in the yards and in facilities such as the Erkelenz rig.'
A recent spate of big orders from the Asian yards illustrates the size of the prize Aker Solutions is after in this sector. In late May the company landed two contracts with a combined value of $195 million to supply the drilling equipment packages for two new deepwater drilling units being built by China's Cosco. Mid-June the company confirmed receipt of a NKr540 million contract from Daewoo to provide the drilling equipment package for a new deepwater drillship under construction for Tungsten Explorer, a subsidiary of Vantage Drilling. And a couple of weeks later there was another $50 million order from the Korean yard, this time for a drillship's 10,000ft deepwater drilling riser system to be delivered to Atwood Oceanics by Aker's Port Klang plant in Malaysia.
'These contracts underline our attractive offering in the deepwater drilling market, 'says Håverstad. 'Current tender activity is high, and we are pleased to see that our position in the deepwater market is competitive.
'We have a 25-30% market share for the newbuilds and are looking to increase that. We have to demonstrate over time that we deliver quality and I believe we have made major strides in that respect in the past five years. The number of rigs out there with our equipment on has grown dramatically. That in turn has demanded increased investment in the service part, and the establishment of a drilling life-cycle services organisation capable of dealing not just with current customer requirements but also the anticipated business growth in the future.
'Revenue-wise, we have increased by a factor of 10 over the past six or seven years. And the number of complete rig packages we deliver has more than doubled in that time. Servicing those packages over the life of the rigs represents a huge market in itself, 'he concludes. OE
Subscribe
