Seeing Feng Chenyi's nervous expression, Professor Huang quickly explained: "Although there have been some deviations, there are still some remedial measures!"
"What exactly is the problem?" Feng Chen came to his senses when he heard what Professor Huang said.
He thought about it carefully. If there was really a problem with the design of the Blue Whale, then the first person he should look for would definitely not be Lu Jiaxiang, an expert in hydrogeology, but himself, the system coordinator of the Blue Whale. After all, he was
All systems of the Blue Whale are understood and can provide accurate answers to the combustible ice trial mining headquarters.
Until now, no one has come to him. Even Professor Huang only asked the drilling team leader to come over. The problem is probably due to the mining environment.
Sure enough, Professor Huang said when Feng Chen asked: "I said that the sandy rock formation is soft and cannot support excessive weight. Our previous mining operations used lightweight drilling equipment, and the Blue Whale
It’s different!”
Having said this, Feng Chen suddenly realized what he was talking about.
Previous scientific research drilling was only to obtain seabed core samples without too much consideration. The Blue Whale is a semi-submersible drilling platform specially used to mine combustible ice from the seabed. It is specially used for mining and is equipped with
The equipment is naturally different.
"Are you talking about the Blue Whale's exclusive blowout preventer?" Feng Chenyi asked immediately.
Professor Huang nodded without any surprise.
Now Feng Chenyi finally understood what the problem was.
Other equipment is okay, but the blowout preventer is an extremely important device on the drilling platform. Its function is to close the wellhead during oil testing, workover, and completion operations to prevent blowout accidents.
In an emergency, the drill pipe can even be cut off to ensure that no serious accident occurs.
In 2010, a well-known international oil company was exploiting oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to a blowout preventer failure, a violent blowout occurred in the oil and gas well, which eventually caused an explosion. Eleven people on the drilling platform were missing and seven others were seriously injured.
As a result, a large amount of crude oil leaked from the drilling platform, polluting more than 20,000 square kilometers of sea area, causing an unimaginable ecological disaster.
This shows the importance of blowout preventers for oil and gas wells.
The Blue Whale's blowout preventer is a 15,000 psi pressure level underwater blowout preventer specially built for it. Each one costs nearly 10 million US dollars. Such a high price means that many drilling platforms can only be equipped with one.
In order to ensure the safety of the drilling platform itself, and to deal with it more effectively if a problem occurs, and to ensure that it will not cause the leakage of underground combustible ice and other oil and gas resources, the Blue Whale is specially equipped with two sets of underwater blowout preventers, the main and the auxiliary.
Three sets of shears are installed on each blowout preventer.
These two sets of underwater blowout preventers plus the necessary risers add up to more than 300 tons. Such a large weight is placed on the rock formations on the seabed. If it is a muddy rock formation, it will definitely not be able to provide sufficient support.
If you have too much power, you will even fall into it like a quagmire.
The currently determined A1-3 area of the Shenhu Sea Area has a drilling depth of about 1,200 meters. However, the Blue Whale drilling operation site only has muddy and sandy rock formations with a depth of more than 100 meters. If you are not careful, this will be destroyed.
Soft rock formations and slight improper operation will cause the combustible ice on the seabed to dissolve, causing a large amount of methane gas to be released.
The danger caused is secondary. Methane is a powerful atmospheric warming gas. Once leaked, it will cause serious ecological disasters and cause unnecessary domestic and international public opinion. This will cause considerable damage to the country's energy development. Regardless of this,
Something that cannot happen no matter what.
"What are we going to do now?" Feng Chenyi encountered this situation for the first time and asked Professor Huang immediately.
Professor Huang shook his head slightly, "This matter is difficult to handle. Why don't we ask your drilling captain to come over? Let's discuss it together and see if there is a suitable method!"
While the two were talking, drilling team leader Lin Jiayou quickly ran over. He first said hello to Feng Chenyi, "Gong Feng!"
"Professor Huang has an emergency with you!" Feng Chenyi said.
Lin Jiayou was stunned for a moment, then turned his attention to Professor Huang, "Professor Huang, what happened? I just received a notification from the main control room that the drilling work has been temporarily stopped!"
Professor Huang briefly talked about the situation on the seabed, and then said: "The current situation is like this. We need to be very careful, otherwise drilling failure is a trivial matter. Once there is a problem with the cementing, the consequences will be disastrous. There are more than
If only one percent of the 150 billion cubic meters of flammable ice reserves is leaked, it will be an unprecedented disaster!"
Lin Jiayou is also a CNOOC veteran with more than ten years of experience in oil and gas drilling. He naturally understands the consequences of reckless exploration.
"I understand, Professor Huang! Should we first figure out the situation on the seabed, and then determine whether it can support my more than 300 tons of wellhead equipment before proceeding with drilling?"
"Yes, at present, we have begun to collect various data from the drilling rig sensors and conduct research and judgment based on the results of previous geological surveys. But what is certain now is that our cementing fluid needs to be replaced and its ratio tested!
"
"So what do I need to do now?"
"It is estimated that the target area needs to be sampled!" Professor Huang opened the laptop in front of him and pointed to a schematic diagram above. "Now we only have some remote sensing and seismic data, and we do not know the real situation of the seabed. The previous
The sampling data does not contain what we urgently need, and it will take time for them to conduct experiments, so I am afraid they will have to take samples on site!"
"I understand, how much do you need to take?" Lin Jiayou didn't talk too much nonsense, every sentence was extremely concise, which made Professor Huang very happy.
"According to previous geological surveys, the sandy rock formation here is only more than 100 meters long. At least 30 meters of rock core must be retrieved for testing, so you have to..."
"Replace the sample drill bit, I understand!" Lin Jiayou smiled faintly, and then looked at Professor Huang's laptop a few more times, "If there is nothing else, I will go back and fill out the report form first, and ask the general control room to issue it to me.
Raise the drill bit command!”
"The order will be issued soon. You should go back and prepare first. Thank you for your hard work!"
"This is part of my job, and it's all for the mission!" Lin Jiayou still had a faint smile, and he didn't seem to be feeling any sadness.
Feng Chenyi knows that just this sentence is enough to keep the entire drilling team busy for a while. Replacing drill bits is the biggest and most time-consuming task for the drilling team, although the Blue Whale has not yet drilled on the seabed.
Meters, the distance of more than a thousand meters from the sea level to the seabed is made up of drill pipes connected one by one.
They need to lift up the drill pipes again, disassemble them, replace the drill bits, and then put them down again. This is the most difficult job on the entire Blue Whale, and now the workload has greatly increased.