Ten Things You May Not Have Known About a HPHT Riser

You might have happened across the term HPHT Riser if it’s cropped up in search engine responses, if you are studying engineering, or know someone who is, or have a colleague in the drilling industry, but what is it and what does it do? Worry not; here is ten pieces of information about the topic that you can store up for your own use or to impress your friends!

In the context of a HPHT riser, the word riser is nothing to do with stair risers but is a drilling term relating to the drilling for oil, for example through oil rigs. The riser is a conduit (or pipe, if you like) that rises from the sea floor up to the drilling platform.

HPHT stands for High Pressure, High Temperature, so in the context of our drilling riser, this means that the riser is constructed to withstand high pressures and high temperatures!

Although it’s a term used widely across the global drilling industry, the acronym HPHT was coined in the Cullen Report pertaining to the UK’s Piper Alpha platform disaster in July 1988. By its UK definition, the HP refers to a pore pressure of at least 0.8 psi/ft and the HT refers to the temperature of an undisturbed bottom hole that is greater than 300°F (149°C).

It’s as scary as it sounds: drilling involving HPHT means the involvement of hazardous liquids and gases, some of which can be highly corrosive, explosive and highly temperate!

Engineering companies spend a lot of money in the development of materials and components that offer HPHT resistance. Seals and flanges are particularly important as they must not only resist HPHT substances, but also resist the fatigue that generally weakens high pressure joints.

Products offering HPHT resistance have critical safety applications for the drilling industry and wider applications in the oil, gas, electricity and possibly construction industries.

Innovation in the field of HPHT is big business. One of the latest award winning components in HPHT riser systems is from the Claxton Engineering Group and includes shrink-fit flanges, which are claimed to ameliorate some of the difficulties faced by those working with HPHT riser substances.

 

So, as many regular oil wells fall dry, or where oil cannot be recovered due to war (such as in the middle East) there is likely to be an increased demand for new and innovative drilling to find alternative sources. This increases the likelihood of a rise in HPHT drilling fields, so continued development of HPHT drilling is crucial in the 21st century. As such, the innovation of a HPHT riser and similar components is seen to be the start of an-ongoing trend of advancement in the HTHP drilling field.