| dc.description.abstract | The oil and gas industry are always seeking new technologies and ideas to lower the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) risk, while also enhancing their operations. There is also a pressure from the governments that oil companies must reduce their CO2 emissions to reach net zero. Completing a subsea well can be time consuming and requires a lot of heavy equipment and comprehensive planning. In recent years there has been developed new umbilical-less solutions for subsea well operations. These solutions are said to have a lot of benefits compared to a conventional umbilical-based subsea completion.
This thesis aims to dive deeper into new umbilical-less technology and try to find out if this will be contributing to a new standard for completing subsea wells in the years to come.
The thesis will consist of comparisons of traditional ways of installing upper completions vs. the new umbilical-less technology currently emerging on the market. It will also consider potential challenges/limitations. I have in this thesis collaborated with Simple Tools AS, who have invented their own patented umbilical-less solution for installing upper completion on subsea wells. During the writing of this thesis, I have been given access to pictures and information that they have given me the permission to use in the work.
At first glance the umbilical-less solutions looked like a minor impact to the industry, but after investigating and studying this technology I have noticed and I hope the readers also do, that this have a major HSEQ and commercial impact for the industry, with a potential reduction of several million tonnes of CO2 emissions, and cost savings of several billion USD.
It may be a challenge for the industry to change from the traditional umbilical-based method over to the umbilical-less method, due to several reasons such as, need to wait for building trust by proving the technology by increased track-record, tactical resistance in the larger Original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) to offer umbilical-less solution to the oil-companies since they will get much less revenue/turnover on their services, due to less people and equipment involved, and less operational offshore days etc. I still believe that in a few years’ time the umbilical-less solution to install subsea completions will be the standard, and umbilical-based solutions will be phased out for the best of the industry with a positive step-change in safety, cost-efficiency, and environment. | |