Modern subsea oil and gas production requires hydraulic power and electrical signals to operate and control its various components. Before reliable wet-mateable conductive connectors became available, the industry had only limited means to establish electrical connections between subsea components. The origin of the flying lead can probably be traced back to Shell’s deepwater drilling program off the USA east Coast 1983. They made provisions for the ROV to deploy and mate flexible hydraulic tubing on the lower marine riser package. Following that experience, and with the availability of reliable wet-mateable connectors and the maturation of the ROV as a capable subsea robot, the technology was advanced to deploy and connect electrical and multicore hydraulic “flying leads” between subsea components as far away as 200 feet.
This technology allows: subsea architecture with multiple smaller modules placed on the seabed, installed and retrieved with modest and widely available surface equipment; flexible subsea architecture allowing the addition of equipment at a later date when needed (e.g. subsea pump modules when reservoir pressure is in decline); relatively simple and inexpensive interconnections between modules made by ROV using flexible umbilicals (flying leads).
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following individuals and organizations that contributed to this technology:
Dick Frisbie, Howard Shatto, Mike Williams and Tom Williams
FMC (now TechnipFMC), Oceaneering and Shell
Conventional pressure boosting has been important to the oil and gas industry for many years with pumping technology routinely used to move oil and gas long distances from points of production to storage, refining and shipment.
Since the early 1980’s, much effort has been expended to adapt these long-used and proven conventional boosting technologies to more challenging subsea production applications to facilitate the movement of subsea production to receiving or processing facilities.
Taken collectively, subsea boosting can help make marginal fields viable and can extend the useful life of existing fields, while also permitting tiebacks from long distances and great depths.
Many challenges had to be overcome to adapt boosting equipment to subsea use including: ‘marinizing’ equipment, delivering power and controls over long distances, and accommodating full well-stream flows. Research and development were fostered by government policy and joint industry programs, and private companies contributed significantly to the technology advancement.
Companies honored are a subset of the many contributors to the research and development of subsea pressure boosting systems: ExxonMobil, Framo (now Schlumberger), Nuovo Pignone (now Baker Hughes, a GE company), Petrobras and Statoil (now Equinor).
Today’s applications for wet-mateable connections include high-power lines, low-power data links, hydraulic fluid lines, and fiber-optic cables. Each has formidable challenges. Complex umbilicals may combine all of these applications in a single multi connection plug-in. The design must exclude even the smallest drop of highly-conductive sea water. In the early 1990s, reliable wet-mateable connectors became available, but the challenge was not over. The industry required that connections could be made in water depths beyond that accessible by divers. So plugs and sockets had to be modularized into connections that could be handled by Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV). Today, plug-n-play (PNP) components can be routinely connected on the sea bed. Shell’s Popeye installation was performed in 2,000-ft of water without incident. Applications of modern wet-mateables include:
• Downhole electrical sensors and instrumentation
• PNP subsea modules
• Flexible architecture that allows additional equipment installations at a later date
• Simple interconnections between modules in-situ
• High-power supply for subsea processing.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following individual and organizations that contributed to this technology: James L. Cairns, Ph. D SEACON Group, Teledyne ODI, and Tronic (now Siemens)
The first underwater completions were a series of gas wells on the north shore of Lake Erie. Designed to avoid ice damage, trees were installed by suited divers in 20- to 30-ft of water. Shell’s RUDAC System used a nested suspension system incorporating casing and tubing hangers, master valves and dual flowline connections for introduction of remote, through-tubing maintenance tools. The concept was first used in West Cameron 192 in 150-ft of water in 1960. Meanwhile on the west coast, Shell used a free-swimming remote controlled robot, called MOBOT, to make up bolts and operate valves. Five wells at Gaviota were completed this way starting in 1962.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following people and companies who contributed to the development of this technology:
John Haeber, Ron Geer, Bill Bates, Howard Shatto, Bill Petersen, Bruce Watkins.
WKM Valve (Cameron), Regan Forge & Engineering (ABB Vetco Gray), Shell Oil Co., Cameron Iron Works (Cameron)