DE1558962A1 - Movable oil rig - Google Patents

Description

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Park size 13

5316

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania / USA

Movable oil rig

The invention relates to mobile drilling rigs and relates in particular to such movable drilling rigs which have a separate hull assembly around the To reduce drag when the rig is moved from one location to another.

Movable drilling rigs, such as the well-known offshore ones or offshore drills, which are in large numbers in use in the Gulf of Mexico, are used to execute various Work, and is usually and sometimes quite frequently from one place to one moved another who may be at a great distance. On some of these moving rigs or platforms a boat hull or mat (mat) is used that has a large pontoon or float arrangement forms that are usually submerged below the surface of the water and sometimes actually on the ocean floor is grounded or set on the ground when a certain type of platform or drilling rig is on site is set up. This hull can cause great drag when the rig is being towed cause, which leads to high costs associated with this

!Area of Expertise

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familiar people.

There is therefore a need to provide an improved mobile drilling rig. There is also a need to have a Provide movable drilling rig, which compared to conventional designs has a noticeably reduced drag resistance having.

Generally speaking, the above needs can be met in that the above-mentioned hull or the mat is divided into two or more horizontally spaced parallel pontoons, which are aligned parallel to the towing direction and firmly braced together by elements, which in turn are attached to the tops of these pontoons.

The invention will now also be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which consist of the description and the illustrations for details or features for solving the task in Can contribute to the invention and were included in the application with the intention of being patented.

Show it:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the movable drilling rig with the improved hull or mat, whereby the specially shown device is of the execution, in which the hull or mat rests on the seabed when the device is on site is set up and ready for use;

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Pig. Figure 2 is a partial side view showing the movable oil rig shows in the floating state, the hull of the boat or the mat is on the surface and ready to be towed}

Pig. 3 is a partial end view showing the movable drilling rig floating with the hull of the boat or the mat is on the surface and ready to be towed;

Pig, Figure 4 is a section along line 4-4 of Figure 1 showing the split hull or mat of oban represents and

Pig. 5 is a plan view of the operating platform of the movable Oil rig, the hull or mat being omitted for clarity.

The movable drilling rig 1 has in the specially shown embodiment a hull assembly 2, pillars 3, which are attached to the hull assembly 2, as well as a Operating platform 4 through which the columns 3 extend.

The movable drilling rig 1 consists of the well-known "two-boat ¹¹ " design, and it is noted that the operating platform 4 actually constitutes a pontoon which is capable of stably swimming the entire device during the period of time.

wear, in which the hull assembly 2 is below.

the water surface 5 and above the Ileeresgrund 6 is.

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It is also noted that the hull assembly 2 is a pontoon device that includes the entire apparatus can carry stable in the floating state, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. This particular type of building requires the operating platform 4 to be raised above the water surface 5 in a known manner into the position shown in FIG. 1 position when the installation is carried out at the ground location, and a lowering of the operating platform 4-on the water surface 5 before lifting the hull assembly 2 from the sea bed $, if the Preparation for towing to another location is made. There are therefore lever devices which are mounted in housings on the operating platform 4 and are in engagement with the columns 3. There have recently been many types of lever devices in the art for the same purpose are used, and since the particular design of the lever device does not form part of the present invention, these not further described below.

The hull assembly 2 has two ballasted ones and ballast-free or flood and drainable pontoon elements on, both from the bow (right end of the hull assembly 2 according to Figure 1) to the stern (left end of the hull assembly 2 according to Figure 1) of this hull assembly extend. The pontoon elements 8 have a sufficient Load capacity when they are freed from ballast in order to jointly support the movable sea platform 1, the pontoon elements 8 have a freeboard. To provide the pontoons with ballast and to free them from ballast, ' various devices are known in this field. Because the special design of the device for insertion and removal

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of ballast does not form a bearing of the present invention, this is also not described further below. Mounds 9 are suitably attached to the tops of the pontoon elements 8, and tubular bracing elements 10 are in a suitable manner firmly attached to these brackets 9, whereby the pontoon elements 8 in a horizontal, spaced-apart parallel position in a common horizontal plane .starr are held to a structurally fixed hull arrangement 2 train. It is noted that the pontoon elements 8 are issued parallel to the towing direction, those in the Pig. 1, 2 and 4 runs to the right.

In the exemplary embodiment shown, the movable drilling rig 1 has three columns 3, which are positioned between the hull arrangement 2 and the operating platform 4 are switched on, the columns 3 viewed relative to one another from above (see Fig. 4) are arranged in the form of an isosceles triangle. Two of these pillars 3, which the B ^ sis of the isosceles triangle, their lower ends are directly on the pontoon elements 8 fastened j, namely a column 3 on each pontoon element 8. The third column 3 is with its lower end on two tubular strut elements 10 fastened in the middle between the pontoon elements 8 and is therefore of these carried. This arrangement results in a robust, stable and convenient form of construction.

The operation of the invention is then described: It is assumed that the actual drilling rig 1 is at the operating site is set up as it is in Pig. 1 is shown, the pontoon elements 8 being at least partially loaded

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State and sit on the seabed itself. The operating platform 4 is lowered in the housings 7 by the lifting devices mentioned above until it is in a floating position on the water surface 5. The hull assembly 2 is then raised from the sea bed 6. This is preferably done by using the lifting devices that act on the columns 3 in order to pull the hull assembly 2 upwards against the buoyancy of the operating platform 4 until the brackets 9 come into contact with the underside of the operating platform 4. The pontoon elements 8 are then freed from ballast in order to obtain a freeboard, whereupon the tubular strut elements 10 are raised above the water surface 5. The movable drilling rig 1 can now be towed to a new location. The only resistance during this towing is that of the pontoon elements 8 with a relatively small width or boat width. It is pointed out that this resistance is only a small fraction of the resistance which would occur if the hull assembly 2 were a single or unitary pontoon with a carrier which extends on the outboard side or outermost side of a pontoon element 8 to the outboard side or the outermost side of the other pontoon element 8 extends. It is further emphasized that the resistance of the hull assembly according to the present invention, when it is afloat and in tow, is only a very small fraction of the resistance that would occur if the tubular elements 10 or the operating platform 4 were drafted, while they are in tow.

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The pontoon elements will be installed at the new site Ballast and consequently sink in the water 5, Ms the operating platform 4 becomes afloat and receives sufficient buoyancy to carry the movable drilling rig 1. Hsrauf the hull assembly 2 is down against the sea floor drained down. With the continued operation of the lifting devices, the operating platform 4 is then on the Water 5 lifted into the position shown in FIG.

The hull assembly 2 can also have other designs of movable drilling rigs as the "two-boat" version shown here be used. The hull assembly 2 can therefore with the known systems of the "Peil" type (floater type rigs) in which the pillars 3 actually floating cylinders that can be ballasted. With this type of construction, the installation at the attachment site is achieved by that the boat body assembly 2 consists of a floating! State is immersed with a freeboard in a submerged position in the middle between the water surface 5 and the sea bed 6, stability being created by the cylinders. If such arrangements are in tow, the Hull assembly 2 freed from ballast to. Freeboard too obtained, thereby reducing drag drag, in the same way and for the same reasons as in the embodiment specifically shown here a moving oil rig.

While the description refers to moving rigs "being towed from one place to another, It will be understood that the present invention can also be used in connection with self-propelled floating assemblies can be used.

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Claims (3)

Claims 1. Oil rig that is erected at a place of work above ground covered with water and from such a place of work can be moved to another place of work, marked by a hull arrangement (2) that can support an operating platform (4) floating completely above the water surface, when the rig is moved between workplaces, or which can optionally be submerged below the surface of the water can, if the rig is set up at a work site, consisting of two ballasted and of Ballast freed elongated horizontally spaced parallel pontoon elements (8), both of which extending from the bow to the stern of the boat assembly (2), the pontoon elements (8) in a common horizontal Lie level and freed from ballast have such a large load-bearing capacity that they share the drilling rig carry, the pontoon elements having freeboard, strut elements (10), which are located between the pontoon elements (8) extend, fastening devices (9) for connecting the strut elements to the top of the pontoon elements (8) V whereby the pontoon elements are braced rigidly to one another, pillar devices (3), which are rigidly attached to the bottom body arrangement (2) attached to and extending upwardly therefrom; and means (7) for attachment the Betriebsspiattfcrm (4) on the column device (3) the hull assembly (2), whereby the hull assembly (2) the operating platform (4) completely above the water surface floating carries when the pontoon elements (8) are freed from ballast to get Preibord, wherein the strut elements (10) then above the water surface 009817 / 0.0 94 -A lie, and the hull assembly (2) is submerged under the water surface when the pontoon elements (8) be ballasted. 2. Oil rig according to claim 1, characterized e I net that the column device (5) is a column has, which is rigidly attached with its lower end to the center of a strut element (10). 3. Oil rig according to claim 1 or 2, dadur ch gekennze ichnet that the fastening device (9) has brackets which are attached to the strut elements (10) and to the tops of the pontoon elements (8), that the vertical distance between the operating platform (4) and the hull assembly (2) is adjustable, and that the operating platform (4) can be brought into contact with the bracket (9) when the vertical distance between the hull arrangement (2) and the platform (4) is set to a minimum value. 009817/00 ^ 4