Hello again everyone! I made it back safe and sound! No lost fingers or broken bones either! Yay!
Took some pictures to explain what it is I actually do up there in the Jean-Marie natural gas field...here we go!!!
this is a line up of our air equipment to force inert nitrogen down the well to balance the flow of fluid and gas returning to surface and to control the down-hole well bore pressure. from left to right we have two compressors, the N2 membrane, and the booster (hiding there in the shadow)
this is inside one of the compressors...you can see the engine to the right and that piece of equipment in the centre of the pic is the screw-type compressor itself. we use a screw compressor because it can generate a much larger volume of compressed air at a more consistent rate.
this is also inside a compressor unit. this is the oil reciever tank and its function is to cycle the flow of oil through the screw and the heat exchanger and back. this oil is what keeps the screw from overheating AND what rapidly warms up the air after it passes through a water knock-out.
these are just some of the 'filter' bottles in the N2 membrane. essentially what these are there for is to let the nitrogen molecules pass by, while keeping all the remaining atmospheric gases back. we only want N2 to go down the well because not only is it much more abundant than other gases from the atmosphere, but because it is inert...and you definately don't want any reactive gases mixing with explosive natural gas in a pressurized setting
these are the 4th and 1st compression stages of the booster. while the two compressors are designed to create volume, the booster is designed to pressure up the N2 from the membrane to assist in controlling the down-hole pressure and to assist the drilling fluid return to surface. common standpipe pressure (the pressure of the pipe at surface) is usually around 3-5 thousand kilo pascals (kPa for those of you familiar with physics terminology), and down hole pressure should be about 1 to 2 thousand kPa more. if the downhole pressure climbs above 8000 kPa, technically it is no longer an 'underbalanced' drilling operation anymore.
here's the function part of the mist pump...it pumps a mixture of fluid water and chemical down the hole that turns into a foam-like mixture. the foam itself is what carries the cuttings from the drill bit to surface, but with the pressurized air behind it, it flows back much quicker.
this is where the N2 will tie in with the fluid from the mist pump, and continue on to the rig's pump house. from there it is hard-lined to the well head's surface and is pumped down the inside of the drill string.
this is called the blow-out protection stack. its what holds back any down-hole explosion, should there be one (sorry for the blurriness...i'm a rather poor photographer
). there are two hydraulic-powered valves at the bottom called the pipe rams and the blind rams - they are the first set of valves that close to prevent and eruption on the drill floor. the two large, round portions of the stack are the lower and upper annullar chokes. instead of being full on valves, they act as more of a choke to slow the flow. they can close completely, but don't hold as much pressure back as the two rams do. you can see the equlization line to the right of the rams and running up above the lower annular. at the top is where the primary flow line out to the separator vessel starts.
one of the last shut-in valves to hold back an explosion. this is called the emergency shut down valve that's air-actuated. if for some reason the well needs to be shut in during an emergency, just releasing the air in the low-pressure air line feeding it will close in the well.
oi...fucking heavy-ass 4-inch flow lines. 50 feet for both primary and secondary for this job. each 8 foot joint weighs approximately 300 pounds. under rushed circumstances, just two guys are assigned to put all of these red bitches together and hammer em up to withstand 10 000+ kPa of pressure. not fun on the back
...as the low man on the seniority, i'm always stuck doing this....
inside the separator vessel. primary flowline is red, secondary (which is rarely, if ever, used) is yellow. the sample catchers are what are t'd off of the primary, and the big blue tank is where all the fluid, solids, and gas drop into. by its nature, the gas stays above the fluid and solids which are dropped into separating sections in the tank are pressured shipped out of the bottom of the tank, and the fluid is recycled back into the system. the gas then goes out to the.....
flare stack, where if natural gas was actually present, would produce a flare anywhere from 10 to 60 feet in height, depending on the rate of which the gas is returning to surface. a well that flows about 30 million standard cubic feet per day (enough to heat every home in chicago for a month) would flare up about 40 feet. to give you an indication of how large tall that really is, this flare stack stands 80 feet tall. imagine a flame half as tall as that stack blowing out the top....fucking scary and impressive, believe you me
So there you have it everyone. That's where i work. My job specifically is to run the separator vessel...catch samples, ship the fluid back into the system, monitor the pressures of the flowline and keep the ESD under constant pressure. The step above runs the air equipment and mist pump - keeps the engines running properly, monitors the precise temperatures of all the oils and air, keeps pressures constant, and general maintanence on the same equipment. One step above that oversees all this, communicates with the driller and engineer what is going on, and keeps us two hands low than him occupied and on track.
Anyone have any questions at all what this means? How specific things work? I'd love to explain more if anyone wants to know
.
Took some pictures to explain what it is I actually do up there in the Jean-Marie natural gas field...here we go!!!
this is a line up of our air equipment to force inert nitrogen down the well to balance the flow of fluid and gas returning to surface and to control the down-hole well bore pressure. from left to right we have two compressors, the N2 membrane, and the booster (hiding there in the shadow)
this is inside one of the compressors...you can see the engine to the right and that piece of equipment in the centre of the pic is the screw-type compressor itself. we use a screw compressor because it can generate a much larger volume of compressed air at a more consistent rate.
this is also inside a compressor unit. this is the oil reciever tank and its function is to cycle the flow of oil through the screw and the heat exchanger and back. this oil is what keeps the screw from overheating AND what rapidly warms up the air after it passes through a water knock-out.
these are just some of the 'filter' bottles in the N2 membrane. essentially what these are there for is to let the nitrogen molecules pass by, while keeping all the remaining atmospheric gases back. we only want N2 to go down the well because not only is it much more abundant than other gases from the atmosphere, but because it is inert...and you definately don't want any reactive gases mixing with explosive natural gas in a pressurized setting
these are the 4th and 1st compression stages of the booster. while the two compressors are designed to create volume, the booster is designed to pressure up the N2 from the membrane to assist in controlling the down-hole pressure and to assist the drilling fluid return to surface. common standpipe pressure (the pressure of the pipe at surface) is usually around 3-5 thousand kilo pascals (kPa for those of you familiar with physics terminology), and down hole pressure should be about 1 to 2 thousand kPa more. if the downhole pressure climbs above 8000 kPa, technically it is no longer an 'underbalanced' drilling operation anymore.
here's the function part of the mist pump...it pumps a mixture of fluid water and chemical down the hole that turns into a foam-like mixture. the foam itself is what carries the cuttings from the drill bit to surface, but with the pressurized air behind it, it flows back much quicker.
this is where the N2 will tie in with the fluid from the mist pump, and continue on to the rig's pump house. from there it is hard-lined to the well head's surface and is pumped down the inside of the drill string.
this is called the blow-out protection stack. its what holds back any down-hole explosion, should there be one (sorry for the blurriness...i'm a rather poor photographer
). there are two hydraulic-powered valves at the bottom called the pipe rams and the blind rams - they are the first set of valves that close to prevent and eruption on the drill floor. the two large, round portions of the stack are the lower and upper annullar chokes. instead of being full on valves, they act as more of a choke to slow the flow. they can close completely, but don't hold as much pressure back as the two rams do. you can see the equlization line to the right of the rams and running up above the lower annular. at the top is where the primary flow line out to the separator vessel starts.
one of the last shut-in valves to hold back an explosion. this is called the emergency shut down valve that's air-actuated. if for some reason the well needs to be shut in during an emergency, just releasing the air in the low-pressure air line feeding it will close in the well.
oi...fucking heavy-ass 4-inch flow lines. 50 feet for both primary and secondary for this job. each 8 foot joint weighs approximately 300 pounds. under rushed circumstances, just two guys are assigned to put all of these red bitches together and hammer em up to withstand 10 000+ kPa of pressure. not fun on the back
...as the low man on the seniority, i'm always stuck doing this....
inside the separator vessel. primary flowline is red, secondary (which is rarely, if ever, used) is yellow. the sample catchers are what are t'd off of the primary, and the big blue tank is where all the fluid, solids, and gas drop into. by its nature, the gas stays above the fluid and solids which are dropped into separating sections in the tank are pressured shipped out of the bottom of the tank, and the fluid is recycled back into the system. the gas then goes out to the.....
flare stack, where if natural gas was actually present, would produce a flare anywhere from 10 to 60 feet in height, depending on the rate of which the gas is returning to surface. a well that flows about 30 million standard cubic feet per day (enough to heat every home in chicago for a month) would flare up about 40 feet. to give you an indication of how large tall that really is, this flare stack stands 80 feet tall. imagine a flame half as tall as that stack blowing out the top....fucking scary and impressive, believe you me
So there you have it everyone. That's where i work. My job specifically is to run the separator vessel...catch samples, ship the fluid back into the system, monitor the pressures of the flowline and keep the ESD under constant pressure. The step above runs the air equipment and mist pump - keeps the engines running properly, monitors the precise temperatures of all the oils and air, keeps pressures constant, and general maintanence on the same equipment. One step above that oversees all this, communicates with the driller and engineer what is going on, and keeps us two hands low than him occupied and on track.
Anyone have any questions at all what this means? How specific things work? I'd love to explain more if anyone wants to know
.
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riot.