Offshore drilling needs a floating or bottom-supported rig.

Offshore drilling rigs have drilling

equipment to conduct all the functions similar to the land drilling rigs and have facilities
peculiar to offshore operations. Because of the location remote from infrastructure,
offshore rigs also carry on board a number of service systems such as cementing,
geophysical logging, and so on. In addition, there are lots of specific services on board such
as ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), divers, meteorological measurements, helicopter, etc.
Accommodations and catering for crews working for 24 hours are required on the rig. All
these factors make offshore rigs complex and sophisticated, and therefore offshore drilling
costs are higher than land drilling costs for similar depth wells. There are two main
categories of drilling rig structures used offshore:
1. Mobile bottom- supported and floating rigs
2. Stationary production structures used exclusively for development wells
The first category of mobile structures includes the following rigs:
Jack-up rigs
Submersible rigs (swamp barges)
Anchor-stationed or dynamically positioned semisubmersible rigs
Anchor-stationed or dynamically positioned Drillships
There is a guideline to choose roughly the type of offshore drilling rigs according to water
depth and conditions of sea state and winds:
- Water depth less than 25 m: submersible rigs (swamp barges)
- Water depth less than 50 m and calm sea: tender or jack-up assisted platforms
- Water depth less than 400 m and mild sea: self-contained platforms
- Water depth from 15 m to 150 m: jack-up rigs
- Water depth from 20 m to 2000 m: anchored drillships or semisubmersible rigs
- Water depth from 500 m to 3000 m: drillships or semisubmersible rigs with
dynamic positioning system
- Isolated area with icebergs: drillships with dynamic positioning system
- Severe sea conditions: semisubmersible rigs or new generation drillships
Mobile Bottom-supported Rigs:
1. Jack-up Drilling Rigs (Jack-up Rigs, Self-elevating Drilling Rigs)
Jack-up drilling rigs are used in water depth that typically ranges from 15 to 100 m with a
maximum depth of 150 m. A jack-up rig is moved by being towed by a tugboat or is
transported by a heavy lift carrier from one drilling location to another, and then jacked
above the sea surface on tubular or derrick legs.
2. Submersible Drilling Rigs (Submersible Rigs, Swamp Barges)
Submersible drilling rigs consist of upper and lower hulls connected by a network of posts
or beams. The drilling equipment and living quarters are installed on the upper hull deck.
The lower hull has the buoyancy capacity to float and support the upper hull and equipment.
When water is pumped into the lower hull, the rig submerges and rests on the seabed to
provide a working place for the drilling. Movement and drilling operations proceed as that of
the jack-up rig. Most submerged rigs are used only shallow waters of 8 to 10 meters. Shipshaped submersible rigs are also used, which are called swamp barges.

Floating Offshore Drilling Rigs (Floaters):

Technologies Required by Floaters
In water depths greater than 100 m, floaters are commonly used. Drillships and
semisubmersible rigs are classified as floaters. Drilling operations with floaters require
peculiar technologies that are not used in the operations of mobile bottom-supported
drilling rigs. They are station keeping system, marine riser system, and drillstring motion
compensator.

Figure: Outline of Drilling System of Semisubmersible Rig

Wind and current forces push a floater away from the location directly above the subsea
wellhead. Waves raise and fall the floater. An adequate stationkeeping system is therefore
necessary to keep a floater within acceptable limits above the subsea wellhead. One of the
methods is an anchor mooring system consisting of mooring lines (chains, wire ropes or a
combination of chains and wire ropes) and anchors. It is important to arrange the mooringsystem according to environmental conditions prevailing at the location.
The other is DPS, which is the acronym of dynamic positioning system. The vessel has
several thrusters under the bottom of it. Computers onboard manipulate the thrusters
automatically. Acoustic positioning beacons are located around the subsea wellhead, and
send the signals to the vessel. And/or the vessel receives position signals from satellites. The
computers analyze the signals, and command movement of the thrusters to keep the vessel's
position within acceptable limits.

The marine riser system consists of riser pipe, riser tensioners, and ancillaries. The riser
pipe is connected to the top of subsea BOP, and is pulled up by the riser tensioner system
onboard to keep vertical configuration. The riser pipe serves as a conduit for returning mud
to the surface from the hole, and as a guide for running drill stem and casing from the
floater to the hole under the seafloor.
1. Drillships
Drillships contain all of the equipment and material needed to drill and complete the well.
An opening called a moon pool is equipped in the center of the ship from the main deck to
the water. Drilling assembly, riser pipe, wellhead equipment, and so forth are lowered
through the moon pool to the sea floor.
2. Semisubmersible Drilling Rig
Semisubmersibles have submerged pontoons (lower hulls) that are interconnected to the
drilling deck by vertical columns. The lower hulls provide improved stability for the vessel.
Also, the open area between the vertical columns of semisubmersibles provides a reduced
area on which the environment can act. In drilling operations, the lower hulls are submerged
in the water about, but do not rest on the seabed. When a semisubmersible moves to a
new location, the lower hulls float on the sea surface. Semisubmersible rigs are towed by
boats, and some rigs have self-propelled capacity. On drilling site to keep the position, the
anchors usually moor semisubmersibles, but the dynamic positioning systems are used by
new generation semisubmersibles.
Drilling equipments, mud systems, living quarters and so forth are placed on the deck, and
ballast tanks, thrusters, sea water pumps are equipped in the lower hulls.
Semisubmersibles have minimum structures exposed to wave actions. So semisubmersibles
provide more stable station for the drilling operations, and are able to operate in harsher
environmental conditions as compared with drillships