RU2149249C1 - Underwater drilling device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: drilling machinery and equipment. SUBSTANCE: device represents technological complex for performing drilling operations from sea bottom without using for this purpose of above-water floating platforms or platforms which are partly submerged in water area. For carrying out underwater drilling operations, device is provided with supporting base made in the form of monolithic plate with anchor fasteners arranged over perimeter of plate for reliable clamping of plate to sea bottom ground and for holding of plate in place at unexpected emergence of fluid or gas when drilling bore-hole from sea bottom. Aforesaid underwater drilling device can be used for driving bore-holes of any kind and type. Anchoring plate of device has central opening for passing downward or for moving upwardly from bore-hole of self-contained drilling machine. Anchoring plate also has closing hole with piston and piston actuator. At unexpected outburst of fluid in cross-section of bore-hole being drilled, piston reliably closes cross-sectional bore of central opening which functions as head mouth of bore-hole in this case, thus preventing penetration of fluid into sea water, which guarantees ecological cleanliness of underwater drilling operations. Piston in plate is provided with curved pipe union which connects internal space of bore-hole with branching-out trunk bottom-laid pipeline for operational utilization of emerged fluid of hydrocarbon character. Application of embodiment of underwater drilling device ensures higher productive capacity. Device requires lower metal and material inputs. It is of small overall dimensions, less overall cost and also of higher mobility. EFFECT: higher efficiency. 5 dwg

Description

 The invention relates to the mining industry and is intended for sinking wells and workings under water due to the destruction of rocks by the energy of jets of a compressed working agent.

 Currently, the directions of development of these drilling units are known, the most representative of which can be considered a subsea drilling rig containing a platform with positive buoyancy protruding above the surface of the water, fixed in the water area using anchor braces; a drilling rig with a conductor, a power drive, a mechanical transmission system of drive forces to the drill pipe string with a drilling tool fixed to the end of the string for drilling a well from the seabed (1) was mounted on the working site.

 Significant and obvious disadvantages of this drilling rig are the high cost, significant overall dimensions, low efficiency of energy transfer to the drilling process. All this negatively affects the efficiency of the process, leads to a high cost of the obtained mineral and irrational time spent on the preparation of the drilling process and the drilling process itself.

 The closest in technical essence is a technical tool in the form of an installation for underwater drilling, containing a support base and a drilling unit located on the base (2).

 This drilling rig has a platform 7 semi-immersed in water, a working platform protruding above the water, is equipped with a drilling complex, including drill rods from a drilling tool fixed at the end; the platform is mounted on tubular supports of considerable length with a load on the seabed.

 Significant disadvantages of this drilling rig, as well as its analogues, are significant metal and material consumption, significant dimensions, high cost and laboriousness during installation, during dismantling and relocation of the installation (cost more than 2.0 billion US dollars), which with low productivity Installations for the implementation of direct drilling puts it in the category of unattractive for use, especially by developing countries and firms.

 The technical result of this invention is to significantly increase the productivity of the installation with a significant reduction in its metal and material consumption, a significant reduction in size and cost (more than 10 times), increased mobility during relocation - all this improves the culture of use of the installation and increases its efficiency.

 The specified technical effect is achieved in the installation for underwater drilling due to the fact that, having a support base and a drilling unit, it provides for the implementation of the specified support base in the form of a monolithic plate with anchor fasteners to the seabed soil around the perimeter of the plate, which also has a central hole for the pass of the drilling machine, made in the form of an autonomous drilling device, and also has an opening with a movable piston that intersects the cross section of the central hole normal to its axis, or at an angle ohm up to its axis, while the piston has a pressure chamber for driving the piston when the central bore cross section is emergency shut off, the piston has a curved pipe in its body that communicates, when the central bore is blocked, the borehole cross-section with the outlet, opened fluid, by the bottom bottom pipeline, this autonomous drilling device is connected by a cable to the remote control of the underwater drilling process, and before installing the installation on the seabed, its indicated holes are blocked by a watertight elast chnym material degradable at startup auxiliary drilling apparatus.

 The specified set of essential features of this installation was investigated for compliance with the technical solution to the criterion of the level of the solved problem. At the same time, sources of information in this and related areas of engineering and technology were taken into account. So, in the sources (3 - 5), the signs used separately were identified: the presence of a working agent generator; the presence of a drilling tool; availability of a system for monitoring the process of opening hydrocarbons. However, a detailed substantive comparison of known features with the features of the claimed technical solution, in the presence of formal similarities in the names, shows that the features of the proposed installation, like the entire installation in its totality of essential features, are significantly different from the known ones, and the known features do not discredit the applicant's proposal. This allows the applicant to conclude that the proposal meets the criteria of the invention and provides the basis for a patent for this installation.

The described installation for underwater drilling is further explained by disclosing it in the drawings, where:
in FIG. 1 shows a general view;
in FIG. 2 - section and installation details at the wellhead;
in FIG. 3 is a general view of a rig with a stand-alone drilling apparatus;
in FIG. 4 is a detail of the installation case of FIG. 1;
in FIG. 5 is a general view of the installation in the form of a technological scheme.

 Installation for underwater drilling, designed for drilling holes and workings from the bottom of a reservoir (on the shelf, the seabed) contains a support base 1, designed to work together with the drilling unit 2. This support base is made in the form of a monolithic (or prefabricated and monolithic for strength) plate 3, which is placed on the sea soil (soil of the seabed). The monolithic base plate 3 is equipped with anchors 4, designed to anchor the plate 3 to the seabed soil by connecting the plate 3 with the anchors 4 by means of cable braces 5 (cables).

 Plate 3 has in its design a central (made at its geometric center) hole 6, designed to pass the drilling unit 2 in the direction of the hole passed. The drill unit 2 in its housing contains a working agent generator 7 (not shown in the drawing as being not directly related to the invention according to the application), which is connected to a drilling working body 8, equipped with nozzles 9 oriented to the bottom and nozzles 10 oriented in in the opposite direction - to the wellhead, which (the mouth) forms a central (passing through the center of the plate) hole 6.

 The drill unit 2 also has in its upper part (Fig. 3) additional nozzles 12, also oriented towards the wellhead and designed to increase the supply force of the unit 2 to the bottom, and to remove drill cuttings from the well cavity. Unit 2 also contains a neck 13 and a programmed control unit 14 for its operation, connected by a communication line to a control panel 15 (Fig. 1) to control all the plant operation processes during well drilling.

 The neck 13 of the unit is used to install the body of the unit 2 in the articulated guide grips 16, equipped with their rotation drives 17.

 A hole 18 is also made in the base plate 3 with a piston 19 located therein, which intersects the central hole 6 with its orientation, and the piston pressure (drive) chamber, chamber 20, is connected by a line and a valve gate 21 to a source 22 of compressed medium (liquid or gas, or composite mixture), which is the drive for the possibility of emergency blocking of the hole 6, while the valve 21 is connected to the control panel 15.

 The piston 19 has in its body a curved pipe 23, which when the piston is moved to the left, according to the drawing, position (Fig. 4) is hermetically connected and communicated by the cavity with another curved pipe 24 made in the body of the base plate. Before the piston moves to the left, the hole 6 in this section is blocked by a membrane 25, which, when the piston moves, breaks through it (according to Fig. 1). This pipe 23 and 24 is designed to drain the fluid (and gas) from the well cavity with its cross section (piston). In addition, in the body of the base plate there is a pipe 26 for venting fluid, having a ball-spring-loaded valve 27 and shut-off and control valves 28; the hatch 29 above the pipe is closed by a hinged lid 30; and the hole 6 forming the wellhead is covered by a hinged lid 31 fixed to the mouth-mouth 32 (Fig. 2).

 The drill unit is equipped with a sensor 33 connected by a communication line with the remote control 15. This sensor is designed to signal the opening of fluid (or gas) in the corresponding passable horizon of the geostructures where this sensor 33 is delivered by device 2.

 In the lower part of the plate 3, additional piston chambers 34 and 35 are made, which are designed to more reliably (optionally, if necessary) block the mouth 36 of the well 37 (for example, when a pre-emergency and emergency situation occurs on the well) when the retractable parts 38 and 39 of their piston gates converge cameras.

 The entire drilling rig is assembled in the form of a technological complex (Fig. 5) at the bottom of the reservoir (seabed, etc.) under a protective multilayer strong dome 40, the cavity of which is connected by a shaft 41 to a surface floating service station 42. A crane 43 is mounted under the dome 40. and spare (set) drilling units 2. Crane 43 has two lifting and mounting hooks 44 - for better maneuvering with loads under the installation dome.

 Given that the average water level (SPM) is variable 3 to select the depth "H" from the water-air interface to the bottom of the pond, mine 41 has a section 45 made of an elastically flexible corrugated element, for example, a bellows.

 The operation of the described installation for underwater drilling is as follows.

 At the bottom of the reservoir using underwater devices (bathyscaphes) and using divers and diving equipment, a dome 40 is mounted together with a base plate and a reserve of units 2. The shaft 41 is connected by a flexible pipe to the wellhead 36 (not shown) to close the cavity of the future well with mine, along the cross section of which drill cuttings are diverted, using an opening hatch 46 connecting the mine section and the dome space (Fig. 1) of the installation. On command from the control panel 15, an autonomous drilling apparatus 2 is put into operation 2 (Figs. 1 and 3) - its working agent generator located in the housing (the generator in the drawings is not disclosed as being not directly related to this invention), while the drill cuttings lead away through the pipe connected to the neck 32 of the mouth 6 of the well 3 further, along the same pipe (the outlet section of this pipe is not shown in the drawings due to the obviousness of this technique and the reluctance to obscure the main features) - through the opening of the open hatch 46 - in the upstream section of the shaft in receiving hopper, which is placed on the floating station 42, or dumping on a barge (at the option of the customer; technologist).

 In the process of sinking of geological structures (horizons), apparatus 2 is used until it generates a working agent (gas, vapor-gas, gas-liquid, hybrid, etc.) flowing out through nozzles 9 and 8 to destroy rocks at the bottom, and from nozzles 10 to removal of drill cuttings from the well cavity (as described above). When the working agent is depleted, its residual (calculated) part is used for consumption only through nozzles 9 (closing nozzles 8, 10 and 12), using unit 14 and console 15, create only lifting force to the drilling machine and return it (by self-exit) to the mouth (Fig. 3), where it is dismantled and, instead, it is introduced into the mouth 6 another, prepared for use, drilling apparatus from their stock (Fig. 5).

 When the drilling device enters the formation (oil or gas, or aquifer), a sensor 33 is activated on the device in the depth of the well (conventionally shown in Fig. 1), from which a command is sent through the communication line to block the central hole - wellhead 6 of the well by supplying pressure in the piston pressure chamber 20 and on the piston 19. With its movement (to the left in Fig. 1), the piston breaks through the membrane 25, tightly closes and seals the well cavity underneath it (Fig. 4), thereby preventing an undesirable outflow from the well into the dome space NJ rules of safe drilling operations.

 Further, if the conditions at the installation and station 42 are prepared for the reception and removal of fluid (or gas, or GCS), from the pipe 24 and pipe 28 (or only one of them), this opened product (raw material) is removed, for example, by section the same mine 41 or through a pipeline laid along the bottom of the reservoir.

 If the reservoir pressure is high and there is a possibility that when the wellhead is blocked by the piston, partial depressurization of the well cavity under the piston, for example, when leaking through its seals, is possible, then a command is sent from panel 15 to shut off the additional emergency shutter (Fig. 2), reducing it the overlapping parts 38-39 and the densifying section of the well are more reliable.

 At the same time, it is also possible to exploit an open field by including a spare outlet pipe 26 connected to the outlet pipe.

 Thus, the technical implementation of the design of the installation for underwater drilling and the technology of its use show its high positive characteristics with the originality of the structure in the amount of reflected essential features of the installation.

 If necessary, the applicant can provide more complete data on the nature and features of the installation proposed for protection.

Sources of information
1. Drilling platform on the shelf of the North Sea. - Prospectus of the Kverner concern, 1994.

 2. DE 2325796, E 21 B 7/12, 1977.

 3. Dmitriev A.P. and others. Thermal and combined destruction of rocks. M., Nedra, 1978, p. 136-141.

 4. Palyanov P.F. Drilling of the wells. M., Nedra, 1964, p. 350.

 5. SU 510 100, E 21 C 19/00, E 21 B 7/12, 1974.

 6. DE 1 906 147, E 21 B 7/14, 1972.

 7. GB 862 350, E 1 F 5, 1974.

 8. US 2548463, 175-14, 1975.

 9. JP 52-25161, 86 3 / B 22, 1977.

Claims (1)

 An underwater drilling installation comprising a support base and a drilling assembly, characterized in that the support base is made in the form of a slab located on the bottom of the reservoir and equipped with a sealing multilayer dome, anchor fasteners to the bottom ground, connected to the plate and the dome along the perimeter, the plate has a Central hole for the passage of the drilling unit in the form of an autonomous drilling apparatus having a working agent generator connected to a working drilling body having nozzles oriented to the side and the nozzle oriented to the wellhead, the plate also has an opening with a piston placed in it, crossing the cross section of the central hole passing the drilling apparatus, the piston pressure chamber is connected to its actuator for emergency shutoff of the central hole by supplying the specified piston to it, the piston and the plate has curvilinear nozzles in its body, communicating when the piston overlaps the central hole of the borehole section with the fluid outlet pipe, and the drilling apparatus is connected via a communication line - a cable with a process control panel at the installation and has a sensor for detecting the opened fluid connected by a command line with the specified drive, and before placing the installation at the bottom, all its indicated openings are closed with watertight manholes and temporary plugs that are destroyed when the drilling apparatus starts to work, the dome space is connected to the shaft equipped with a floating station service station, and the shaft in its area is equipped with an elastic-flexible corrugated element, and the polo The shaft part is connected to the dome space by means of sealed manholes.

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