Lessons are being learned as industry reactivates mobile offshore drilling units that were cold or warm-stacked during the oil-price slump that started in late 2014, representatives from Northern Offshore and Borr Drilling told an Offshore Technology Conference breakfast audience May 6 in Houston.
Stacked rigs include older units as well as some newbuilds still in the shipyards where they were constructed, having never been operated.
Tony Beebe, senior vice-president, project management, and engineering for Northern Offshore, said, “It isn’t fun to build rigs and stack them. They’re not meant to do that.”
Beebe said Northern Offshore works to maintain, service, and preserve a rig’s components, including the blowout preventers and mud pumps.
“Taking care of the electrical stuff is probably priority No. 1,” Beebe said, adding, “Well-control equipment is critical.” Northern Offshore follows maintenance plans suggested by original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
After 16 months, Beebe said Northern Offshore has found batteries needed to be replaced on VHF radios and that wipers on cameras also needed to be replaced.
Doug McEwan, director of newbuilds and reactivations for Borr Drilling, said the company had stacked 16 new jack ups.
“Over the last 6 months, we have started making inroads into changing that,” McEwan said, adding that 3 of the 16 rigs have been or are in the process of being reactivated.
Borr Drilling works closely with two service providers—National Oilwell Varco and Cameron—and also the rig’s OEMs to maintain a preservation program.
McEwan said reactivation steps, such as purchase order (PO) generation, crew assignments, and technical issues take longer than planned.
“However long we think it will take to reactive the rig, it will take longer,” McEwan said, adding that it can take 2 weeks or longer for a PO to be fulfilled.
Communication initially can be a problem, he noted, adding that some of these rigs are without e-mail servers.
Lessons need to be learned because as rig reactivation picks up, McEwan said it is going to be important to be able to maintain a pace to keep up with industry demand. He estimated it now takes Borr Drilling 90 days from a PO to rig delivery.
Beebe said Northern Offshore’s timetable from PO to rig delivery typically is 6 months.
“We are going to go slow and do it right,” Beebe said, adding the Northern Offshore rigs are coming from China.
