Deepwater field trials further ‘cements’ Deltatek’s SeaCure Cementing System capability and track record

Project Summary

Following an NZTC-supported onshore field trial of Deltatek’s SeaCure Cementing System, Energean (a UK-based E&P company) undertook a partnership to field trial the technology offshore in 1750m of water.

This project allowed DeltaTek Global to further develop the SeaCure Cementing System (SeaCure), a special stab-in cementing tool designed to improve quality and reduce the time taken for conductor cementing in subsea wells.

Quality cementation is critical to the structural integrity of conductors and surface casing strings in subsea wells. Current techniques can result in large pre-job circulation and post-job displacement volumes, uncertainty in getting cement back to the seabed and costly shoe track drill out operations through large volumes of cement.

Placing cement in a casing annulus in a subsea environment and using a ‘poor boy’ inner string stinger technique can introduce complexities with less-than-optimal fluid interfaces, fluid velocities, and generate contamination in a cement job.

SeaCure is a novel subsea cementing system, delivering stabbed in inner string cementing for subsea wells. It enables quicker cement displacement, shorter wait on cement curing time, no shoe track must be drilled out, which can take days especially in deeper water, and no clean-out run is needed. Taking the proven onshore technology of stabbed in inner string and combining them with slip-joint and rupture disc technology, a step change in subsea well cementing has been developed.

Industry value:
SeaCure has demonstrated a time saving of between four hours (minimum) and 36 hours for subsea wells. This equates to a cost-based value proposition of between £75,000 to £1million per SeaCure cement job.

Key results:
This was the first deep water trial for the SeaCure Cementing System, conducted on two deep water wells in the Mediterranean. During the field trial, the technology achieved a surface casing pressure test and a 2700psi subsea casing pressure test, without the need to wait on cement. The entire system was deployed from the Stena DrillMax and delivered on time and on budget.

Lessons learned:
The field trial proved that the SeaCure Cementing System can undertake offshore cement jobs in a range of water depths and demonstrated improved rates of cement placement back to the seabed for conductor and surface casings, performing a pressure test of a subsea casing string prior to and post cementation, as well as eliminating a clean-out run from a subsea drilling program.

The project advanced operational deployment trialling which enabled operational success and saved rig time. The SeaCure Cementing System is now viewed as commercial. Further increases in SeaCure’s functionality and time saving potential are deemed possible.