A moving experience

One of our cranes (Port side) lifting and moving a joint of marine riser. Marine riser is basically 60' lengths of steel pipe which connect the rig to the BOP (Blow Out Preventer) on the seabed. Roughly 80% of drilling is carried out inside of the riser. Imagine you have an empty toilet roll and then put a pencil down through the middle of it then you will get the idea.

The riser is there to protect us from anything that may fancy coming back up the well, usually gas or excess pressure from the well formation or the zones we are drilling through. The riser is normally full of synthetic "mud" which is calculated to be a specific weight to hold down this gas or pressure and stop it from coming back up to the rig.

The mud is circulated most of the time and it is monitored to make sure that it is not being pushed back up the riser, or a "gain" as we call it. If things turn pear shaped then the BOP (which is only really a huge valve) can be closed, hopefully stopping the gas or pressure before it enters the riser and starts coming up to surface.

This joint weighs 21 mt.