Aquaterra Energy to engineer centralizers for West Chirag platform wells
Offshore staff
BAKU, Azerbaijan – BP Azerbaijan has contracted Aquaterra Energy to design and install 260 centralizers for the West Chirag platform in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields in the Caspian Sea.
Aquaterra Energy's scope includes pre-engineering casing requirements and devising a centralizer package for the tieback operations.
TheWest Chirag platform has 48 drilling slots, of which 20 are “tieback slots.” A maximum of 17 wells will be tied back to the platform during the pre-drilling program and will require centralization.
Aquaterra Energy has developed the centralizer package in conjunction with the riser analysis, to verify that conductor connections, centralizer and joint positions comply with the analysis requirements.
Next summer, the company will deliver a range of designs including 22-in. conductor guide eccentric and fixed blade centralizers, stop collars, and internal casing 13 ⅜-in. centralizers.
The centralizers will provide an interface between the platform jacket structure and the well system and should ensure concentricity between inner casing strings and outer conductor strings.
They will be designed to withstand maximum lateral and axial loads experienced during pipe running, installation, and operation of the wells. A thermally sprayed aluminum coating system and sacrificial anodes will be applied to the conductor guide eccentric centralizers to meet the platform’s 25-year design life needs.
11/01/2012
