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There are innumerable petroleum oil wells bored into the oceanic floor by highly evolved modern devices to tap the petroleum (crude oil) reservoirs. Many oil wells are clustered in oceanic grounds, often of significant distance from the coast line, such wells bored through the ocean floor as deep as ⅛th of a mile from the surface waters, to find their way into the underground oil containments spread many miles in area. Oil is collected into surface tanks in moderate containers, or into receptacles as large as ships.
Historically, the production of petroleum from the earth's mantle in the ocean floor has shrouded risk and great hazard to the natural environment that includes both the marine life forms and the terrestrial ecosystem adjacent. The greatest hazard is the entrainment and ignition of the highly inflammable gases like Methane, causing dangerous fires, coupled with the risk of oil spewing and polluting the ocean waters. Such two man-made calamities at the same time can be uncontrollable with available resources, and devastating to the healthy existence of the earth's planetary life forms. For these reasons, error-proof safety systems in under water bore well digging, and highly trained personnel involved in their operations, are required by law in all countries engaged in significant oil production. Despite such stringent laws, system failures and catastrophic results did occur historically, and are still occurring, though the derived remedial measures through the ‘adverse-event experiences’, each uniquely different from the other in some form or other, are still nascent, and less than perfect. The recent event in the Gulf Shores of Mexico, involving BP Oil Company's oil well under construction (the Macondo Prospect oil well of the Deep Water Horizon), wherein the ignition of the entrained Methane gas and its fire that continued unstopped for 36 hours, had culminated in a collapse of the surface structure of the well, resulting in an ever increasing gusher from the source. Several different attempts by the BP Oil Company's technological team to contain the spewing geyser from finding its way into the body of water and into the gulf shores had failed, mostly due to the inherently limited robotic attempts involved in a moderately deep aquatic habitat.
As any unforeseen adversity can happen at any time before the completion of the well to its last functional detail, safety measures to weather off any event at any step of the construction, have to be in place, before beginning to undertake such operation. This CIP application enumerating a model of ‘Sea Level Gas Separator of Oil Well Effluent with Incorporated Emergency Measures’ includes means and method steps to be incorporated at an earliest time feasible, for dissipating a giant gas entrainment. There are plurality of measures otherwise operative, described in the original application (U.S. Pat. No. 9,175,549) by the Inventor Applicant, and can be consulted, said measures working in synchrony to weather off any unforeseen event throughout the well construction. The original application is also a parent application for yet another CIP application (dated May 25, 2017) titled as ‘Fire Escape Devices of Off-Shore Rigs with Emphasis on a Detachable Island Rig’, a subject matter of great significance for being both preventive and remedial in scope, of otherwise catastrophic and totally devastating consequences of a rig-fire.
Many unforeseen adversities were/are inherent to ventures such as the deep sea explorations and the like, shrouded in mystery and counting on the tides of nature, yet to be conquered by the evolving technological sophistication. Accordingly, the Inventor is neither legally liable nor personally responsible for any inadvertent errors, and/or ‘adverse’ events, difficult to differentiate either as a mere association or as a consequence of the application of the structural/procedural information herein enumerated. Application of this disclosure in different situations is a personal choice. Furthermore, analyzing and adapting swiftly as needed to diverse situations remain as the professional discretion and the deemed responsibility of the company involved in the day to day practice of implementing this invention, in part or as a whole.
The present invention is drawn to a model of emergency Sea Level Gas Separator of Oil Well Effluent' (SLGOE). An ‘effluent’ herein generally refers to emanations from the admixed formation of an underground oil containment. In particular, the present invention is designed to separate the components of gas from the liquid and semisolid crude of the effluent, nearly to a total extent, whereby a highly inflammable gas entrainment is precluded from finding its way into a rig, historically a known venue of danger. The devised system may not prevent a blowout, as it is situated distal to the Blow-out-preventer (BOP), however, after the occurrence of a blow out, the gas entrainment is prevented to enter the rig, being diverted away to a safe distance, thereby precluding the event of a rig-fire.
To accomplish the foregoing function, the SLGOE model is configured as two separate entities, structurally and functionally similar, yet otherwise geared to different events/situations, such as:
(1) Emergency Operational SLGOE (EOS) unit and
(2) Routine and Emergency Operational SLGOE unit, that is, a Multi-operational SLGOE (MOS) unit.
(1) Emergency Operational SLGOE (EOS) unit—the EOS model located in the vicinity of the rig, becomes functional when there is BOP failure with a well blow out. Said incorporated EOS model is a ‘fail-safe’ means of trying to save the situation, with no assurance of guaranteed success in all circumstances, however it could be worse without.
(2) Routine and Emergency Operational SLGOE unit, that is, a Multi-operational SLGOE (MOS) unit—the MOS model is functional at all times. On a regular basis the oil collection system reaching the rig, is immediately directed to the MOS unit, also located in the rig vicinity, and oil returned to the rig after the gaseous elements are separated. In the same token, when there is a blow-out, the effluent reaching the rig site through the oil collection system (though the latter is breached about the well-head, either in a minimal or in a major proportion), also by-passes the rig, to return after the pressured gaseous elements are separated thereof, by the MOS unit.
The invention further provides a model of tubing, directed to all the tubular systems about the rig, the well, and the vicinity, facilitating instant joining or closing of a broken system following a catastrophic event.
The following is a detailed elaboration of what was earlier briefed in the section foregoing, about the model of ‘Sea Level Gas Separator of Oil Well Effluent’ (SLGOE) Unit, illustrated in
To accomplish the foregoing function, the SLGOE model is configured as two separate entities, structurally and functionally similar, yet geared to different events or situations, such as:
(1) Emergency Operational SLGOE (EOS) unit, situated in the rig site, and
(2) Routine and Emergency Operational SLGOE unit, that is, a Multi-operational SLGOE (MOS) unit, also situated in the rig site.
(1) The Emergency Operational SLGOE (EOS) unit—the EOS model set forth about the rig site becomes functional when there is BOP failure with well blow out. In this instance, there is a possible damage to the structures about the well head, with the oil finding its way into the ocean waters, which implies that the marine riser and the drilling conductor are disrupted. In fact, in Deep water Horizon oil well blow out there was a total wipe out of the well head structures. The original application (U.S. Pat. No. 9,175,549) described means and methods to deal with such situation, wherein the well bore can be easily accessed (and needs to be accessed) for immediate containment measures.
However, this CIP enumerates the means and methods wherein the well head structures are structurally intact, but breached significantly that there is an oil leak into the ocean waters that can get progressively worse due to the ocean water finding its way into the oil containment, rising its pressure.
(2) A Multi-operational SLGOE (MOS) unit—this SLGOE model, also located about the rig site at a safe distance, is functional at all times, as moderate sized gas entrainment that the BOP is not designed to prevent, can still cause rig fire, if exposed to an ignition spark, not preventable about the venue of a rig. Additionally, despite a structural breach in the production tubing/collection system about the well head with substantial leak, significant part of the oil-gas effluent, being under tremendous pressure, can still find its way into the rig, through the collection system. Hence, the oil collection system reaching the rig, is routinely by-passed to the in-vicinity MOS unit, and oil returned to the rig after the gaseous elements are separated. It implies, when there is a blow-out, what is reaching the rig, similarly by-passes it, to return after the pressured gaseous elements are separated, thereof ensuring safety to the crew.
Both the units, as functional units in different circumstances, however structurally similar, are elaborated in the following.
To make the description better comprehensible, both the
The
The oil effluent entering the gas separation tank 404 at its top, through the inlet tube 406, down-flows into the spacious milieu of the tank. Such down-flow of the effluent instantly separates the gaseous components that will reach to the top of the tank. The liquid effluent with the incorporated semi solid oil components, flows down to the bottom of the tank 404, wherefrom it finds its way through the wide perforations 76 in the bottom of the tank, to the compartments 82 below. The compartment 82 fitted with an outlet tube 84 lets the oil out continuously from the bottom. The natural up-flow of the instantly separated gaseous components of the effluent, leading into a cluster of large sized gas outlet tubes 78, are diverted into a separate gas collection system. The bottom oil outlet tube 84 from the tank 404 is diverted into an ‘oil passage’ tank 424, located yet at a lower level, wherein the oil from the tube 84 flows in from the top. The ‘oil passage’ tank 424 is also fitted with widely configured cluster of gas outlet tubes 74 in the top (to also join the gas collection system), whereby any remaining gaseous components of significance can be further separated, such separation also deemed instantaneous, as was in the gas separation tanks 404. From the ‘oil passage’ tank 424, through a tube 428, oil is returned through ‘oil collection tube’ 430, into the oil collection system about the rig by mechanical means thereof. Such means, for example, are aided by laws of hydraulics, conforming to the ‘siphoning’ principle. In this instance, the tube 428 originates from the bottom liquid column of the ‘oil passage’ tank 424 to reach a higher level about the rig site. This incorporated model of ‘oil passage’ tank completely alienates the gas separation tank 404 from the ‘natural drawing force’ (the latter as an effect of the ‘siphoning’ principle), whereby the gaseous components will not be otherwise sucked into the down-stream liquid oil collection system, from within the gas separation tank. Such drawing force created by the ‘siphoning’ principle is exclusively directed to the effluent within the ‘oil passage’ tank 424, in effect, returning the oil to higher levels.
The instantly separated gaseous elements about the top of the tanks enter the gas collection system with great ease. As most of the gaseous elements originate in the top of the tanks to start with, only some separated lower down, it is an added advantage in the devised model, wherein the separation of gaseous elements is deemed instantaneous, the encountered gases like methane being lighter than the atmospheric air. However, atmospheric air that contains oxygen, is not part of the milieu of the EOS tank, as will be explained subsequently. In the devised model, even with regard to a liquid gusher, its force is attenuated by the said instant separation of the gases, whatever be their proportion (as yet deemed to be contributing to the force). The gas collection system connected to specially devised receptacles, have provisions thereof, to deal with gases under high pressure.
A ‘transition’ tank, located at a lower level, to receive the well effluent first, and then to direct it to the gas-separator tank 404, can also be incorporated into the MOS unit, to buffer the transition, and further to make needed interventions smoother.
The unique plan of gaseous separation in the devised model - the gas collection tubes 74 and 78 are not only large but are fully clustered, as mentioned, occupying all the available space of the top of the tanks. Such arrangement of voluminous gas out flow from the tanks is highly efficacious facilitating such exceeding volume to instantly dissipate the exceeding pressure of a gas entrainment (the volume and pressure within a ‘gas containment’ being inversely proportional), that the descent of even a very high pressured giant bubble reaching the bottom of the tank, is unlikely (as most of the gaseous elements originate in the top of the tank to start with). In a giant gas entrainment, there needs no separation of the gaseous elements. However, the gas entrainment needs to be instantly diverted to the top of the tank, which, precisely due to its massive size compounded by its massive pressure, otherwise could instantly entrain into the downstream oil-outlet, and then into the rig. Additionally, the effluent inlet tube is only one, whereas the equally sized gas outlet tubes upstream are many more, the generally encountered inflammable gas methane being exceedingly light, naturally rising to the top. The terminal gas receptacles should also have a one way valve that lets out the gas at a moderately high pressure thresholds, so that a back pressure will not build up in the SLGOE unit. The gas is also continuously let out by a land collection system so that a high pressure is never built up in the gas receptacles.
The schematic of a well blow out—
A wide effluent diversion tube 400 starts in the bottom of the annulus A 524, and rises to a level above the surface water 528, where it emerges from the riser 518 and the conductor 520, to reach the EOS unit about the rig site, to enter the gas separator tank, 404. The diversion tube 400 is devised to have many small inlet tubes 516 in its course through the riser. As the riser's structuring can be complex, the diversion tube 400 can course along the walls of the riser, and can be linear or convoluted, thereby adapting to the structural complexity of the riser interior.
The extent of a well blow-out—the structural breach about the well head depends upon the severity of the blow out. In mild cases only the production tubing 514 would be breached (540), whereas with increasing severity, the riser 518 can sustain damage (544), followed by the damage (546) of
1. Following damage to production tubing 514, with the barrier 530 sealing the annulus A from the rig, the pressured effluent will be forced into the diversion tubing 400, to reach the EOS unit, where gaseous separation is achieved. With the force of the gas entrainment attenuated, the oil and gas reach their destinations separately. The effluent will find its way also through the production tubing 514, and reaches the rig level (see
2. Following damage to the riser 518, as long as the conductor is intact, the effluent will still flow into the diversion tubing 400 (to reach the EOS unit), as well as the production tubing 514, the latter reaching the rig level MOS unit, with the events not different from those in the foregoing section 1.
3. Following damage to the drilling conductor 520, the annulus A communicates with the ocean water, and the flows through both the production tubing 514 and the diversion tubing 400 (the latter situated above the ocean surface) stop, as the pressure and fluid level within the annulus A is equalized with ocean waters, unless the effluent is exceptionally pressured. Some flow through the production tubing 514 may continue, because of the mechanical forces set forth in place being partially operable.
Oil flow into the ocean waters—unhindered, the ‘oil spill’ into the ocean can be incessant, progressively turning into a spewing geyser.
Finding the highest level of the breaches about the Conductor by color seeping technique—large visible breaches can be easily identified. At the level from where they are not perceptible, to identify them, under ware ‘night-vision’ video cameras are installed for few feet above this level, also with surrounding brightly illuminated lights. Solid blocks of a pastel color (preferably pink and yellow), are dropped from the rig into the space between the riser and conductor, whereas the video cameras detect the highest level where the color seeps through the conductor into the ocean waters. If the first attempt fails, a different brighter color (red, dark green or dark blue) is used the second time, to detect a suspicious higher level of the breach. The oil company can also employ sophisticated methods like sonar flow-detecting devices, directed to the suspicious confined areas.
The MOS unit 34, illustrated in
The disposition of a prototype SLOGE modular in the rig vicinity - the SLOGE modular 32, shown in
The gas receptacles at a safe distance away can be similarly anchored to the leg 54. The terminal gas pipe 562 from the EOS unit will also be reaching such similar destination.
When there is breach in the drilling conductor 520 with oil flowing into the ocean contaminating the ecosystem, there can be an optional on-off mechanism, to minimize such oil flow into the ocean waters. In this option, an ‘on-off outflow tubing’ 570 starts in the marine riser 518, just below the surface level 528 of the ocean waters, to reach an ‘oil-separator tank’ 571 (shown in
In any model of the SLGOE unit, the ‘gas separator’ and the ‘oil passage’ tanks will be provided with a video device and/or a sonar device to monitor the state of affairs within the tanks, and are designed to be operated by a solar battery power source. The video device located within the modular 32 just as the tanks are, is best devised as a ‘night-vision’ model. Each tank is structured to have an ‘air-tight’ glass window (that the EOS unit will not let in the atmospheric oxygen) near its top (in a side away from the oil inlet tube), whereas the video facing the window, is positioned with a downward incline of its lens side. The window door opens only to the interior of the tank, with the opening mechanism similar to the conventional ‘automated doors’, wherein an opened door when left ajar, closes automatically after few seconds. The video when needs to document the tank's interior, its projectile structure moves forwards to push on a ‘control button’ designed to opening the window door. The lens tubular then zooms forwards, while the camera moves in all directions picturing the tank. When stopped, the lens tubular moves back, and the instrument retreats, as the window door closes in few seconds. It needs an immediate follow-through, that an additional video device also installed within the ‘modular’ documents that the tank's window-door is properly shut, after the video device retreats. The devised mechanism facilitates a clear picturing of the tank each time, without the camera lens smeared by the down flowing oil/gaseous elements of the tank. As the whole SLGOE unit is within a ‘modular unit’, momentarily opening the tank window, would not lead to any undue consequences thereof.
Optimally, the gas-separator tank 404 of the SLGOE has a ‘dispersion coil’ unit 581, the latter illustrated in Figure-3. The coil unit 581 is made up of (a) a ‘dispersion coil device’ 583 of radially connected concentric circles, preferably in steel, (b) a central supporting vertical rod 589, the latter fitted to a top structure of the tank 404, and (c) a ‘motion control’ device of said central supporting rod 589. The ‘dispersion coil’ 583 optionally has a lamp shade like configuration with a minimal incline. The coil 583 moves up and down while ‘operational’ (when a block to the down-streaming flow from the tanks 404 is noted, or suspected). It can also be operational in continuum at preset intervals, that is, at about every 3-5 minute intervals, in effect conforming to 4-5 axial motions each time, each axial motion including a complete downward and upward movement. The concentric circles 587 of the ‘dispersion coil’ 583 have knife-like cutting edges about the bottom (not shown in the drawing), whereas said cutting edges also have spiked projections 590 in strategic places that correspond to the positional configurations of the ‘whorled’ bottom perforations 76 of the tank. In a downward thrust, the spikes 590 of the coil disrupt the blocks to the bottom perforations 76 of the tank, whereas the bottom cutting edges of the concentric circles 587 severe large globs of oil at the bottom of the tank, thereby the ‘dispersion coil’ 583 serving a dual purpose. The cross sectional dimensions of the spikes 590 are devised to be similar, but optimally smaller than the perforations 76, as, in the axial downward motion of the device 583, all the spikes 590 are designed to pass through the perforations 76. In conformity to such function, the knife like bottom extensions of the circles 587 located nearer to the center, are structured longer, if a lamp shade configuration is elected, whereby their lower ends are in a same horizontal plane, and all the spikes are designed to pass through the perforations of the tank, in the axial downward motion of the device.
In this preferred configuration, as seen in the
In view of the utmost functional importance of the SLGOE unit, it is prudent that the whole unit is in an enclosed protective structure. It is easily actuated by structuring the unit in a ‘modular capsule’ of pre-configured sizes. With all the inlets and outlets capped, the modular 32 is deployed in its destined reception site above the metal board 36 in the vicinity of the rig. The needed stepwise incline of the tanks is configured within the modular capsule, whereby the base of the modular itself conforms to a horizontal structuring, for its easy and secure stationing.
The ‘modular’ is structured with retractile wheels (hooded caster wheels) to its bottom, for its precise stationing. The earlier described video and/or sonar monitoring devices are incorporated into the modular also, in addition to their incorporation about the tanks. It is a better provision that the modular also has a bullet-proof glass window, protected outside by a bolted metal window. The solar equipment power sourcing these monitoring devices is structured outside the modular (with protective enclosure), ensuring the needed sun exposure. The modular unit is equipped with conventional ‘hooked’ and ‘ringed’ structures, strategically placed about its outer shell, for bottom cementing at strategic places, needed of its secure stationing. Such detachable yet strong anchoring allows a replacement of the unit, when needed. The modular also has helium sacs 57 secured all through its roof, so that it resists perturbations of the oceanic weathers, apart from its barge-like base structuring resisting any upheavals, to stay in an upright positioning. Other details are specified in the section ‘The multi-operational SLGOE (MOS) unit’. Threading in entirety, of the unit's tubing system, is as described at the end of this discussion.
The whole ‘SLGOE modular’ unit is stationed at a lower level than the originating ‘diversion tubing’ 400 and 24. The tanks of the unit as configured, can be set forth fairly closer to each other, that the modular unit as a whole would be less space occupying
THE VULCANIZED RUBBER AS THE STRUCTURAL CONSTITUENT—it can be noted that all the rubber washers or any assembly devices of rubber, incorporated in the oil gas separator unit, and in the modular unit, are made of vulcanized rubber, the only type that can resist the degrading attack of the petroleum analogs.
The proposed models as a whole, by any standard, encompass simpler methods to separate the regularly encountered oil gas mixture, or occasionally encountered greater amount of admixed gas under significant pressure. The target is to mitigate the dangerous calamities of gas entrainment, rather than for 100% refining measures of oil gas separation that is otherwise pursued by the ‘oil production plants’ engaged in exclusive crude-oil separation (the ‘Oil Refineries’) by means of a highly involved process of ‘Fractional Distillation’.
For the BOP to control pressures involving most powerful of ruptures, in all high volume wells where such events can be reasonably expected, it is a worth trying option to divide the oil line into multiple outlet conduits within the innermost casing and each outlet conduit structured to pass through its own stack of BOP, wherein each stack can tackle the divided power of the gusher, reduced to half, or to one third of its strength. It implies, it is a good practice to never allow a production casing (the innermost casing) to be a functioning oil-conduit in high volume wells, a practice that takes out at the outset, probably an unrecognized brewing recipe for danger. It is of suspect, that the catastrophic events had historically happened when the oil companies had indulged in such ambitious though undesirable practice, or else, they must have had happened before the well completion to its last functional detail.
Other incidental utilitarian advantage for the oil companies is - claiming a substantial amount of gaseous components of the well effluent, instead of the ‘oil refineries’ doing so. Why it is substantial is, once the effluent is thrown into the milieu of the tanks (including the ‘oil passage’ tank), the gaseous elements can only rise up to the tank to be let off in entirety. Only small bubbles intimately admixed with semisolid effluent are left to be separated by the oil refineries. These seemingly unwanted elements are highly utilitarian for other purposes that the gas companies can also invest in, which probably they are already doing to some extent, as indeed they extracted these from the underwater oil containments.
The invention further envisions a model of tubing, and methods of instant system joining or closing, for all future units, or as a replacement-tubing for existing units. Said tubing is structured to have a deep threaded configuration on the inside or the outside, traversing the entire lengths. Inner threading is better (though manufacturing is more involved), as outer threading can collect sediment and lose its precision, and needs cleaning with a firm bristled brush. The treading of the tubing, small or lengthy, can involve the well and its vicinity, the rig, the air tubing, and finally the appended tubing structures of costly equipment, facilitating instant joining or closing of a compromised or broken system, aided by means of—
(2) ‘Closing caps’—they have complimentary threading to their stems (i.e. having a smaller dimension and outer threading, if the tubular system has an inner threading, and the vice versa), for closing a system, when system joining is of no option. The functionally uninvolved external part of the stem terminal enlarges to double the size or more, ending in a sturdy and massive closing cap, to resist enormous pressure at times exerted by the tubular system at the terminal, and the massive cap with similarly sized distal stem is amenable to robotic maneuvers. Simple closing caps with complimentary threading are used to temporarily seal one end of a severed tubing while the other severed end is worked on.
How to find the source of gas/oil leak and mending it—about the oil-tubing of the rig confines and outside, oil/gas sensing ‘equipment’ are placed at equidistance, each numbered, defining its territory. When leak occurs following a tubular damage, its territorial equipment rings its alarm first, though other alarms ring later, as the leak spreads. The devised computer soft-ware notes the timing, however, the one that first rang, is the source (unless the leaks are multiple). The leak is confirmed by the adjacent alarms that rang immediately following. The computer sets forth the chronology, for an instant information. The security crew familiar with all the numbered territories, should deploy emergently the instant joint structures. The production tubing within the well has its own pneumatic plugging device, the ‘Emergency Plugging Oil Conduit’ (EPOC), disclosed in the original application (U.S. Pat. No. 9,175,549), deployed after a well blow-out with total wipe-out of well-head structures (to be done when the oil-leak is a mere spill). As the ‘joint structures’ are fixed in dimensions, the length of the tubing to be severed should be properly configured. On the other hand, as the minimal length of a damaged tubing to be severed cannot be minimized any more, the number of the joint structures (with one or more ‘conjoining’ I tubes) are to be properly configured before severing the tube. The I configurations are structured as both ‘joint-structures’ and ‘conjoining tubes’, the latter with complimentary threading. The leak is insulated first, and the tubing including the I tubes to be inserted, are articulated outside, and then the damaged tubing is cut, for the articulated set to be inserted. One cut end is temporarily closed by a simple cap, while the other is worked on. The final manipulations of the two conjoining I tubing are done in-situ, to establish a conduit with vulcanized rubber washers also for a fluid-tight closures. It is obvious to all that the distorted tubing may need an intervening U/C joint, and a bent L-shaped curve needs an L-joint, whereas a complex interconnection needs a T-joint. The crew must have a mock practice of possible maneuvers. The ‘joint-configurations’ can conform to two designs—‘subtle’ or ‘striking’ (‘Sub’ or ‘Stri’). In the ‘subtle’ configurations, the devised curves are less obvious.
Unceasing oil/gas emission from a source that cannot be detected/mended is a cause of an unceasing fire, or else for an uncontainable pollution of the eco-system. Hence, such structural mandate is as important as all the other security measures put together. Moreover, what needs to be herein implemented is only a small step forwards in means familiar, however, with a big leap thereof, in the remedial functions achievable.
This is a Continuation-in-part (CIP) Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/756,973 titled as ‘SUBSEA LEVEL GAS SEPARATOR OF OIL WELL EFFLUENT’ which is a CIP of U.S. Pat. No. 9,175,549, titled as ‘EMERGENCY SALVAGE OF A CRUMBLED OCEANIC OIL WELL’ that are herein incorporated by reference.