Halliburton has built and is deploying into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico the largest coiled tubing intervention system ever built. The system will be used on BP’s Thunder Horse project in Mississippi Canyon, primarily in the completions phase of wells doing jobs like milling out obstructions, doing perforations or removing fill. The equipment could also be used by other operators in certain circumstances. The Thunder Horse project is in water in excess of 6000 feet, considered at or near the current limits of subsea production technology. Well depths in this project may exceed 30,000 feet in measured depth, because of deviations, which is greater than true vertical depth. The reel for the system is capable of handling a record 36,000 feet of 2 3/8â? coiled tubing. The reel is so big that it can’t be transported by truck and will have to be shipped by barge from Houston to Louisiana. The coiled tubing is made of 120,000 pounds yield strength alloy steel, the latest to evolve, compared with the more normal 70,000 pound and 80,000 pound strengths. The system has 135,000 pounds of pull capacity. The lift frame, which will be installed on the drillship working the Thunder Horse field, has 750 tons capacity. The combined system is about twice the size of a normal coiled tubing unit used in the Gulf. It was fabricated in Houston and Duncan, Oklahoma.
