For mining, it is necessary to use special engineering structures that will provide the necessary conditions for the development. Moreover, the complexity of such objects will depend on the depth of the raw materials and related factors.

The drilling platform is used to develop oil and gas fields, which are usually located at great depths and are characterized by difficult conditions for production. But the value of these resources and their high strategic importance have led to the fact that even the most complex deposits are subject to development.

Land Drilling Platforms

As you know, oil can occur not only on land, but also in a continental plume surrounded by water. Therefore, some platforms have to be equipped with additional elements that would allow them to stay on the water. Fortunately, such metamorphoses do not happen with land objects, so the procedure for their installation will be much easier.

The rig platform is a monolithic capital structure that serves as a support for all other elements. The process of its installation is carried out in several stages, which can be described as follows:

• . Drilling a test well to explore a field. Only the most promising areas will be advisable to develop.
• . Next, prepare the platform for the platform. To do this, they try to level the surrounding area as much as possible so that nothing interferes with the installation.
• . After this, the foundation is poured, although sometimes they are simply dispensed with the support if the total weight of the tower allows you to do without capital construction.
• . When the base is ready, a drill tower and all other elements that are involved in the direct mining process are assembled on top of it.
• . At the final stage, testing and commissioning are carried out.

As in any business, in the equipment of stationary drilling platforms, it is necessary first of all to take care of safety. Failure to do so will entail the most serious consequences. Incorrect calculations can lead to destruction of the object. In addition to high cash costs, this can also result in personal injury or death. If one of the personnel suffers, then the person responsible for the construction will be prosecuted.

Loads acting on drilling platforms can be classified as follows:

• . Permanent, which includes forces that operate throughout the entire period of operation. This is primarily the mass of all metal structures located above the platform. When calculating, they mainly use only this parameter. For marine elements, water resistance is still relevant.
• . Temporary, which are valid only under certain conditions. This is a vibration that occurs only when the drilling rig is started.

Surface platforms for drilling

Offshore drilling platforms, due to the nature of their operation, should have a special design that will allow them to stay on the water. As a rule, these types of special equipment are floating barges that can produce oil and immediately pump it into their tanks. After filling one vessel, a change is made, and the process is repeated again. This is very convenient from a practical point of view, but with careless work can lead to the ingress of oil into the water.

A floating drilling platform can work with depths from 2 to 150 meters, so different types are designed to work in different conditions. Some barges are miniature in size and can work in rivers, where the space for maneuver is very limited. And their larger "brothers" are already intended for work in the open sea, where for any size there is a place to deploy. Their use will be much more profitable, since you can immediately pump out a large amount of the resource at once in order to save on transport costs that have to be borne each time on the way to the port and back.

Usually, a drilling platform at sea spends only a few days, after which it needs to return to the base to empty the tanks. The number of water sources of production is greatly limited by the severity of the occurrence conditions, therefore they are resorted to only in case of really huge reserves or high quality product. Although in the future this industry will come to the fore when reserves on land run out.

Varieties of platforms

Drilling platforms in Russia are represented by both varieties. For the country, oil plays a crucial role, therefore its production is regulated at the state level and calculated in the most careful way. Recently, it was planned to double all the platforms currently available for 15 years, but the economic crisis put an end to these plans. Now new towers will appear in very limited numbers.

If you are interested in photos of the drilling platform, then you should see them on the Internet. Descriptions of the most common models may also come in handy:

• . a semi-submersible drilling platform can produce oil from a depth of 10 kilometers with a maximum layer of water of 3 kilometers;
• . a self-lifting drilling platform operates at depths of 6.5 kilometers, but the thickness of the water cannot be more than 30 meters;
• . the ship’s drilling platform operates at shallow depths when oil lies almost on the surface of the continental plume.

All other varieties can be found on the manufacturers' websites.

  \u003e Offshore oil platform.

This is a continuation of the story of how the offshore oil platform works. The first part with a general story about the rig and how oilmen live on it here.

All management of the Marine Ice-resistant Stationary Platform (MLSP) occurs from the Central Control Panel (CPU):

3.

The whole platform is stuffed with sensors, and even if somewhere in the wrong place the worker lights a cigarette, they will immediately know about it in the CPU and, a little later, in the personnel department, who will prepare an order to dismiss this wise guy even before the helicopter delivers it big land:

4.

The upper deck is called Pipe. Candles from 2-3 drill pipes are collected here and the drilling process is controlled from here:

5.

6.

The pipe deck is the only place on the rig where there is at least some hint of dirt. All other places on the platform are torn to shine.

The big gray circle on the right is the new well that is currently being drilled. It takes about 2 months to drill each well:

7.

I have already described the drilling process in detail in a post on how oil is produced:

8.

Chief driller. He has a wheelchair with 4 monitors, a joystick and various other cool things. From this miracle chair, he controls the drilling process:

9.

Pumps pumping drilling mud under a pressure of 150 atmospheres. On the platform there are 2 working pumps and 1 spare (about why they are needed and the purpose of other devices, read the article on how oil is extracted):

10.

The cone is a chisel. It is she who is at the tip of the drill string:

11.

Using the drilling fluid pumped by the pumps from the previous photo, these teeth are rotated, and the gnawed rock is carried upstairs with the used drilling fluid:

12.

At present, 3 oil, 1 gas and 1 water wells are already operating on this drilling platform. Another well is in the process of drilling.

Only one well can be drilled at a time, and there will be 27 in total. Each well is from 2.5 to 7 kilometers long (not depth). The oil reservoir lies 1300 meters underground, so that all wells are horizontal and like tentacles diverge from the drilling:

13.

The production rate of wells (that is, how much oil it pumps per hour) is from 12 to 30 cubic meters:

14.

In these separator cylinders, associated gas and water are separated from oil, and at the outlet after running through an oil treatment unit that separates all impurities from oil, marketable oil is obtained:

15.

From the Platform, an underwater pipeline with a length of 58 kilometers was laid to a floating oil storage facility installed outside the ice zone of the Caspian:

16.

The main pumps are pumped into the pipeline:

17.

These compressors pump associated gas back into the reservoir to maintain reservoir pressure, which pushes oil to the surface, respectively, the oil recovery becomes greater:

18.

The water that was separated from the oil is cleaned of mechanical impurities and returned back to the reservoir (the same water that was pumped out of the bowels)

19.

Pumps of 160 atmospheres pump water back into the reservoir:

20.

The platform has its own chemical laboratory, where all parameters of oil, associated gas and water are monitored:

21.

22.

The drilling rig is supplied with electricity by 4 turbines operating from associated gas, with a total capacity of about 20 MEGAWATT. In the white boxes of the turbine, 5 megawatts each:

23.

If the turbines are cut off for any reason, the backup diesel generators will feed the rig.

To the village of Nogliki, the stronghold of the SE in northern Sakhalin, workers and staff travel by train, in the company's personal carriage. An ordinary compartment car is nothing special, though a little cleaner than usual.

Each passenger is given this lunch box:

Upon arrival in Nogliki, everyone is met by a supervisor and decides what to do next, either a temporary camp, or an airport, by helicopter, or (if the weather is not flying) by boat. We were sent immediately to the airport. In order to fly a helicopter, it is necessary to take a rescue course from a helicopter in distress (HUET) in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in advance. At this training, you are dressed in special thermal suits equipped with a respiratory system and rotated upside down in the pool, in the helicopter simulator’s cabin, but this is again a different story ...

At the airport, all undergo a personal search (including dog handlers)

A pre-flight briefing describing the situation if the helicopter crashes and puts on life suits.

The suits are terribly uncomfortable, but if the helicopter crashes, they can keep you afloat and keep your body warm until the rescuers arrive. True, if you get out of a sinking helicopter in this suit ...

The platform is located 160-180 km from Noglik. A helicopter overcomes this distance in 50-60 minutes, flying all the time along the coast to minimize the risk of falling into the water, and flying along the way another platform of the Sakhalin-2-Molikpak project.
  After landing on the helipad, you descend into the room for an introductory briefing:

All! Now you are on an offshore oil platform, a piece of land in the sea, and there is no escape from this fact.

How to work here?

The PA-B platform works around the clock and life here does not freeze for a second. A 12-hour day shift and a 12-hour night shift.

I worked in the daytime, although someone says that the night is calmer and there is no daytime fuss. All this of course is addictive and after a couple of days you already feel like a cog in a huge mechanism, and even better comparison is like an ant in an anthill. The working ant woke up at 6 a.m., had breakfast by preparing an ant chef, took the work outfit from an ant supervisor and went to work work until the evening until the replacement ant came to replace ... At the same time, it’s like- then everything unites.

After 3 days, I already knew almost everyone in person ...

And he felt as if we were all part of one whole, practically relatives.

But 140 people work on the platform (that’s how much should be on the platform and not one more so that the Alpha, Betta and Gamma lifeboats could evacuate everyone. That’s why we were transferred to spend the night on a ship). A strange feeling ... it all looked like one continuous, uninterrupted day.

I woke up, went to the dining room, greeted the man from the night shift, for whom it was dinner, he went to bed, and in the evening we met again in the dining room, only that he had breakfast, and I had dinner. It was another day for him, but for me it is the same! And so again and again ... a vicious circle. So day after day, night after night, a week passed.

How to live here?

In principle, the platform has all the conditions for a comfortable stay and free time. Here all the conditions are created so that a person does not bother his head with everyday problems, but gives himself completely to 2 occupations, work and rest.
  After you have been assigned to the cabin, you can be sure that upon arrival you will be waited for by a bed with freshly made bedding, which changes every few days. Cabins are regularly cleaned and vacuumed. They are of 2 types: "2 + 2" and "2". Accordingly, for 4 people and two.

As a rule, half of the residents work on the day shift, the rest on the night, so as not to interfere with each other. The Spartan atmosphere is a minimum of furniture due to the lack of free space, but everything is very ergonomic and efficient. Each room has a shower with toilet.

Dirty items are washed in the laundry room.

When you check in, they will give you a bag of mesh material on which the number of your cabin is written. You then put dirty laundry in it, and then just bring it to the laundry room and after a few hours you will find a fragrant freshness and ironed linen.

Work overalls are washed separately in special solutions - household chemicals do not wash off oil and other related charms.
  On each floor of the residential module there is a point with free Wi-Fi (of course, all social networks are blocked). There is also a computer class - 4 computers for general access to the Internet and other needs. Usually, the laundresses use them to play solitaire.

There is also a small gym (by the way pretty good):

Billiard:

Table tennis:

Cinema hall:

  (dudes added a playstation to the projector and chopped into a race dinner) in which in the evening they show something from a freshly added collection of DVDs.

A few words about the canteen ...

She is an O.P.G.I.G.E. During the week I stayed on the platform, I scored 3 kege.

This is due to the fact that everything is very tasty, unlimited and free \u003d)

Over the course of a week, I don’t remember that the menu was repeated, but on the day of the oilman, it’s just a feast of the stomach: a bunch of shrimp, scallop and Baltic nulevka batteries are worth it!

Smoking on the platform is possible only in strictly defined places.

Moreover, in each such room there is a built-in electric lighter, as it is forbidden to use lighters and matches.

They can’t even be transported and are confiscated even at Noglik airport. It is also forbidden to use cell phones, but except for the residential module and only as an alarm clock. And in order to photograph something outside the residential module, you will have to write out a special outfit, go through gas permit training and take a gas analyzer with you.

As I mentioned, the first few days we lived on the Smit Sibu support ship due to the limited number of people on board due to the limited number of places in lifeboats in case of emergency evacuation.

  Smit Sibu runs from Molikpaq to PA-B on an emergency basis. To reload onto the ship, the frog device is used:

This thing is really like a frog, a non-sink cabin, with an iron base and chairs inside. Before each change, again you need to put on life suits.

Frog is hooked by a crane and dragged onto the ship. The sensations are quite pungent when you are raised to the height of the 9th floor in an open cabin swaying in the wind and then lowered on board. For the first time, I did not hold back a cry of delight from this free "attraction".

Unfortunately, in the area of \u200b\u200b500 meters from the platform it is strictly forbidden to take pictures - there is a security zone, and I don’t have pictures from frog and I have a view of the platform. There was nothing particularly interesting on the ship - it didn’t pump much, they fed fresh caviar, boiled eggs for breakfast and pasta and cheese, and sockets everywhere are 120 Volts and flat as in Japan. There was always a feeling that you were visiting, in a strange house. Maybe the crew created such a mood ...

In the evening, the only entertainment was to walk along the upper deck and watch movies.

I first saw the sunset on Sakhalin from the sea, when the sun goes over the island.

And at night they came very close to Molikpak. Millions of seagulls circled around, and the torch figachat at full capacity, the pressure must have been relieved. I managed to click a piece of the platform from the porthole:

Well, in the morning again I had to put on life suits, climb into the “frog” and back to the platform.

One of the last days, I managed to get permission to take pictures on a helipad

And on the upper deck. Flare system with pilot burner:

Many people ask why so much associated gas is burned through a torch, because it can be used for various purposes! Firstly, not a lot, but a small part. And secondly, do you know why? So that in case of emergency it is possible to safely relieve gas pressure through the flare system, burn it and avoid an explosion.

And this is a drilling module. It is from him that the drilling process is being conducted, you see how hefty!

Helicopter picking up personnel comes in for landing:

There is a planned loading of passengers flying to Nogliki:

The way back home seemed much faster and shorter. Everything was exactly the same, only in reverse order. Helicopter-train-Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ...

For the purpose of exploration or exploitation of mineral resources under the sea bottom.

Drilling platforms are mostly non-self-propelled, the permissible speed for towing them is 4-6 knots (with sea waves up to 3 points, winds 4-5 points). In the working position at the drilling point, the drilling platforms withstand the combined action of waves at a wave height of up to 15 m and wind at a speed of up to 45 m / s. The operational weight of floating drilling platforms (with technological reserves of 1700-3000 tons) reaches 11,000-18,000 tons, the autonomy of work on ship and technological reserves of 30-90 days. The power of the power plants of the drilling platform is 4-12 MW. Depending on the design and purpose, there are self-elevating, semi-submersible, submersible, stationary drilling platforms and drilling vessels. The most common are self-elevating (47% of the total, 1981) and semi-submersible (33%) drilling platforms.

Self-elevating (Fig. 1) floating drilling platforms are mainly used for drilling at sea depths of 30-106 m. They are a displacement three- or four-pontoon pontoon with production equipment, raised above the sea surface by lifting and stopping mechanisms to a height of 9-15 m. When towing a pontoon with raised supports is afloat; at the point of drilling, the supports lower. In modern self-elevating floating drilling platforms, the pontoon's rise (descent) speed is 0.005-0.08 m / s, piers - 0.007-0.01 m / s; the total lifting capacity of the mechanisms is up to 10 thousand tons. Walking (mainly pneumatic and hydraulic) and continuous (electromechanical) hoists are distinguished by the lifting method. The construction of the supports provides the possibility of setting drilling platforms on the ground with a bearing capacity of at least 1400 kPa with a maximum burial of them into the ground up to 15 m.The supports have a square, prismatic and spherical shape, are equipped with a gear rack along the entire length and end with a shoe.

Semi-submersible type floating drilling platforms are used mainly for drilling at sea depths of 100-300 m and are a pontoon with production equipment raised above the sea surface (at a height of up to 15 m) using 4 or more stabilizing columns that are supported by underwater hulls ( 2 or more). Drilling platforms are transported to the drilling point on the lower hulls with a draft of 4-6 m. The floating drilling platform is immersed at 18-20 m by receiving ballast water in the lower hull. An eight-point anchor system is used to hold semi-submersible drilling platforms, which limits the movement of the installation from the wellhead to no more than 4% of the sea depth.

Submersible drilling platforms are used for drilling exploration or production wells at and at sea depths of up to 30 m. They are a pontoon with production equipment raised above the sea surface using square or cylindrical columns, the lower ends of which rest on a displacement pontoon or shoe, where ballast tanks are located. A submersible floating drilling platform rises to the ground (with a bearing capacity of at least 600 kPa) as a result of filling the ballast tanks of the displacement pontoon with water.

Stationary offshore drilling platforms are used for drilling and operating a well cluster for oil and gas at sea depths of up to 320 m. Up to 60 directional wells are drilled from one platform. Stationary drilling platforms are a construction in the form of a prism or a tetrahedral pyramid rising above sea level (16-25 m) and resting on the bottom using piles driven into the bottom (frame drilling platforms) or foundation shoes (gravity drilling platforms). The above-water part consists of a platform on which power, drilling and technological equipment, a residential block with a helipad, and other equipment with a total weight of up to 15 thousand tons are located. The supporting block of frame drilling platforms is made in the form of a tubular metal grate, consisting of 4-12 columns with a diameter 1-2.4 m. Fix the block by means of driven or boring piles. Gravity platforms are made entirely of reinforced concrete or combined (metal supports, reinforced concrete shoes) and are held at the expense of the mass of the structure. The foundations of the gravity drilling platform consist of 1-4 columns with a diameter of 5-10 m.

Stationary drilling platforms are designed for long-term (at least 25 years) work on the high seas, and they are subject to high requirements for the maintenance of staff, increased fire and explosion safety, corrosion protection, and environmental protection measures (see Offshore Drilling) etc. A distinctive feature of stationary drilling platforms is constant dynamism, i.e. for each field, a project is being developed to equip the platforms with energy, drilling and production equipment, while the platform design is determined by the conditions in the drilling area, the depth of drilling, and the number of wells, the number of drilling machines.