PIPE HANDLING AUTOMATION UPGRADE FOR EXISTING RIG

In June of 2010, Doyon Drilling contracted Entro Industries to design a casing and drill pipe infeed system for their brand new Rig 25 project. The aggressive build schedule meant that the rig was scheduled to leave the fabrication yard by ocean-going barge in a matter of just a few weeks in order to arrive on location before Arctic sea ice closed the shipping window for an entire year. The entire systems would be to have to be designed, fabricated, and trucked to Alaska, to be installed on location, in order to support the project schedule.

The project scope involved adding loader interface arms to the pipe house, allowing it to preload an entire bundle of pipe while the pipe door remains closed, minimizing the time that an open door subjects the pipe room to arctic temperatures. Once the door is opened, the loader arms transfer up to 10,000 pounds of tubulars into the pipe house. The door is closed, then the automated tiering system lifts each tubular to store it in the casing house. Hydraulic safety columns ensure that the racked pipe interfaces with a scissor lift to transfer pipe to the pipe machine, one piece at a time.

In the fall of 2010, Shawn Smith traveled to Alaska to oversee the installation and commissioning of the pipe handling system. All of the equipment worked as designed and has been running without and problem ever since.

Based upon the success of the pipe handling system on Doyon Rig 25, Doyon Drilling again contacted Entro Industries in 2017. Doyon hired Entro to conduct a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Study to determine the feasibility of improving pipe handling on one of their other rigs. As part of the study, two engineers traveled to the rig on the North Slope of Alaska to document the existing configuration of the rig and to work with the rig crews to determine the limitations of the existing system and identify the desired improvements.

It was determined that several changes to the pipe house could improve worker safety, while improving rig efficiency at the same time. In addition, an automated off-side storage basket would allow the rig to store up to 45,000 pounds of range 3 tubulars, then automatically transfer them to the pipe machine to deliver to the rig floor. Lastly, custom overhead cranes would allow the handling of specialized downhole equipment. After reviewing the FEED study findings, Doyon approved the construction of all of the new equipment.