The service life of ABB Vetco Gray's drill cuttings re-injection system will be able to be extended, thanks to erosion research carried out by BHRSolutions. Experiments carried out at the Fluid Engineering Centre have produced wear rate information and enabled ABB VG to estimate with confidence the amount of time that the units can be left safely in service.

Changes in offshore environmental legislation require oil companies to cease discharging well drilling cuttings over the side of their drilling rigs and into the sea. Drill cuttings, under the new regulations, have to be either transported on-shore for landfill disposal, which is very expensive, or re-introduced into the well.

To achieve well re-introduction, ABB VG designed the Drill Cuttings Injection System (DCI) to re-inject drill cuttings into the subsea formation. The system makes use of the PROCUT slurrification process, which takes oil-based drill cuttings and grinds them to form homogenous slurry for re-injection. The slurry is highly abrasive, however, and ABB VG contracted BHR Group to undertake a series of tests to investigate the wear properties of their WCIS.

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BHRSolutions in conjunction with ABB VG designed a test model, which simulated the slurry flow path through the actual equipment. In this way, an observation of actual wear of the model components could be used to estimate wear rates for the different components in the actual system. The model was constructed so that the wear resistance of three different materials could be tested simultaneously, saving both time and money for the client.

Experimental results have provided a series of wear rates, each giving an expected material loss per year of service. This information has highlighted specific locations of exceptional wear, and has provided the opportunity to reinforce these locations to extend overall system life.

Slurry Test Facility Showing 8 off 1.5" Nozzles Discharging a Total Slurry Flow of 1200 l/min

PRC 17.10.01

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