A Novel Platform for Drilling in Harsh High-Latitude Environments

This Paper describes the Extendable Draft Platform (EDP), which has a deeper draft than a conventional drilling semi and a novel construction and deployment method. It then compares the vessel motions behavior of the EDP with a 5th generation drilling semi for a specified high latitude location with a particularly harsh environment including long period swell conditions. Using the motions limits at which the 5th generation semi must curtail drilling operations, the motions for both platforms are assessed and the applicable seastates at which the motions are exceeded are noted. By performing multiple calculations for specific wave conditions defined by a wave scatter diagram, the percentage of time per year that drilling operations can be performed for that location is derived. In this manner the drilling downtime relating to vessel motions for each platform type is inferred. This paper then assesses how the benefit of improved platform motions, achieved through a deeper draft, could assist the drilling industry as it searches for hydrocarbons in these increasingly remote and environmentally challenging areas. This paper concludes with an assessment of the readiness of such new initiatives being available to the drilling market in the future.