Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Church Energy Services, a newly acquired company under AXON Energy Products, has announced the results of its successful shear ram testing conducted on June 18, 2010.
Church Energy Services was requested by Seahawk Drilling, Inc., Hercules Offshore, Inc. and Diamond Offshore to perform shear ram testing on a 5-in. S-135 and 5-in. G-105 drill pipe used by the companies in their offshore drilling operations. This request was initiated by a request from the United States Mineral Management Service (MMS) for verification of the equipment to perform its required function.
The equipment used was a double ram Cameron Type U BOP furnished by Seahawk Drilling. The rams were manufactured by Church Energy Services. The BOP had recently been re-manufactured and re-certified by Church Energy Services.
The purpose of the shear ram testing was to obtain data that describes the shear ram’s capabilities for shearing drill pipe that is used while drilling a well. The question to be answered was whether the BOP equipment could shear the pipe at the most demanding condition to be expected, in a given drilling program.
The actual shear and seal test results exceed all expectations, say Church Energy Services officials. The company supplied the calculations for the predicted maximum operating shearing pressure. The actual operating shearing pressure from the test was approximately 75% of the calculated maximum operating shearing pressure.
A visual inspection of the shear rams was made between each shear test, and a Surface NDE was performed on the shearing blade surface upon completion of the testing. The Surface NDE (MPI) showed no indications of damage to the ram shear blade areas caused by the shear test.
