Offshore Installation Design Minimizes the Installation Costs

In 2014, WJM or the William Jacob Management Incorporated released MORF or the Modular Offshore Rig Facility design to help minimize the cost of deployment and improve the marketing speed to upstream the operations. The Modular Offshore Rig Facility is a copyrighted design for a 3,000-horsepower modular drilling solution and is the first of its kind in configuration and size to be operational in rigs located in the Gulf of Mexico.

The design has faced further development and several improvements since its conception, like efforts to simplify the methods of interconnection and installation. William Jacob Management Incorporated engineers continue to refine the Modular Offshore Rig Facility design drawing from knowledge learned after every project after it is deployed.

Reducing costs and time

MORF was designed initially for oil and gas companies with a significant presence in the Gulf of Mexico. The design program was driven based on the company’s demand for improvement in the cost performance all over its offshore operations.

Traditionally, the challenge is to design and develop offshore modular facilities that can minimize the deployment costs, as well as increase the speed of startup and installation for their clients. The designers opted to think small and make a huge impact.

The engineers intentionally minimize the individual modules so it can function like interlocking building blocks that are delivered by their client’s service fleet and raised by a crane system from the platform facility streamlining the installation.

The solution will make sure that the modular apparatus is configured adequately for drilling, as well as integrated production below, while maximizing the cost-saving potential of the deployment, resulting in not having to use all the expensive heavy lifting machinery.

Elements of the Modular Offshore Rig Facility design

According to offshore living quarters manufacturers, the platform has three main modules: the DES or the drilling equipment set, the DSM or the drilling support module and the LQF or the living quarter’s facilities. The drilling equipment set can access fifteen wells arranged on a three-by-five matrix.

It can be adjusted to suit most rig configurations. It is capable of drilling wells up to 25,000 feet or 7,620 meters. The drilling support module is equipped with two, 100-ton cranes that streamline the installation. The drilling support module’s main platform cranes are used to position the remaining Modular Offshore Rig Facility modules after startup and installation and help backload the temporary cranes. The living quarter’s facility has a modular capacity for at least 100 personnel.

The premise of the design is to tow two flatboats containing different modules to the platform site. The first supply vessel or flatboat includes the crew that will erect the modules plus the hoisting devices that are rigged or manhandled in the main rig deck.

With the help of stiff-legs, the installation cranes are lifted and constructed on the platform. The modules that contain the cranes are then installed using the temporary crane package. Once the cranes are operational, the rig is completed using the platform’s own cranes that were newly installed. This method effectively eliminates the company’s need to contract an expensive lift barge.

Not only that, flatboats are used to deliver bigger module structures to the rig. These big modules are then installed using the 100-ton platform cranes. Because of their compact size, the modules are delivered using conventional supply vessels. The target was an outfitting weight of more or less 50 tons.

In an effort to minimize the construction cost, as well as the assembly time, William Jacob Management Incorporated is using the lifting luges and stabbing guide as an essential part of the in-place Modular Offshore Rig Facility securing system.

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The use of the module securing plate that was installed over the luges during the assembly of the column interface points will allow no added fabrication for lateral support. The vertical lift is connected through the compression clamping assembly, that is installed from the module being secured.

The designer made am an investment in regards to the piping and the electrical interconnects between all the modules. The effort was focused on making the interconnects as a means to execute it as possible, allowing all the dig-down and rig-up duration to be lowered down or minimize.

The engineers and designers checked the electrical and piping connection apps in different industries. It resulted in various opportunities to improve the disconnect and connect approach in the Modular Offshore Rig Facility design.