WellSafe Enabler - DEMO2000

By maintaining riser integrity should the rig heave compensation system fail, the WellSafe Enabler significantly reduces the risk of catastrophic accidents with oil leakage to the environment. The project's improved safety and operational efficiency creates values for WellPartner, end users and the society at large. The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authorities (PSA) requires that no single point of failure shall lead to an accident. Regarding heave compensator systems this relates to unintended locking of the compensator. In order to guarantee there is no single point of failure in the heave compensation system, a back-up system must be available. Still today standard practice does not include a back-up compensating system on a majority of semi-submersible rigs. Existing regulations are circumvented by procedures using the current best practice of closing the well and disconnecting the riser. However, in many situations there may not be sufficient time to execute these actions, and unacceptable and potential catastrophic consequences cannot be avoided. In order to reduce risk of critical accidents, "locked to bottom" operations in harsh weather are often aborted preemptively as vessel heave motions increase. This practice gives additional downtime for the operation, and the added safety of a back-up heave compensation system could thus increase the operational weather window and save rig costs. WellSafe Enabler is optimized for operations from semi-submersible drilling rigs and drillships, including: - Exploration well testing - Subsea well completion operations - Subsea well Intervention operations - Landing string operations