Houston-based William Jacob Management, Inc. (WJM) introduced a modular offshore drilling rig design that reduces deployment costs and improves speed-to-market for upstream operations.
The modular offshore rig facility (MORF) is a copyrighted design for a 3000hp modular drilling facility. The WJM MORF is the first for the Gulf of Mexico and the first of its kind in size and configuration.
The rig has two main modules: the drilling equipment set (DES) and the drilling support module (DSM).
The DES has the capacity to access 15 wells arranged in a 3 x 5 matrix and is capable of drilling wells up to 25,000ft. The DSM is equipped with a pair of rig cranes that streamline installation. The modules can be delivered using the service fleet and then assembled using a combination of crane systems due to their compact size.
“Our team of design engineers deliberately downsized the individual modules so they could function like a set of interlocking building blocks and be lifted in-place by “leapfrog” cranes,” says Trevor Smith, drilling facilities engineering VP.
The blocks containing the cranes are installed using a temporary “leapfrog” crane package. Once the rig cranes are operational the installation is then completed using the rig’s own cranes. This strategy effectively eliminated the need to contract a costly lift barge.
WJM president Michael Duffy says the design of modules and interconnects provides flexibility for a wide range of environments and enables efficient decommissioning and redeployment for the next opportunity.
Image from WJM
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