Baker Hughes introduces ‘industry’s first’ Hammerhead

Baker Hughes has announced the introduction of its ultradeepwater completion and production system, Hammerhead.

Baker Hughes says that this is the industry’s first fully integrated wellhead-to-reservoir ultradeepwater completion and production system which enables long-term optimized production for increased recovery in frontier plays.

According to the company, the system was developed to withstand extreme environments such as the Gulf of Mexico’s Lower Tertiary trend and to enable longer term and higher rate production.

The system should help operators realize full-field economic payback from their ultradeepwater assets, the company says.

Talking about expected performances of the new system in Lower Tertiary, Richard Ward, President, Global Products and services at the company said: “We expect the Hammerhead system to improve recovery factors by 2 percent in the Lower Tertiary through enhanced reservoir stimulation, higher drawdown capability and long-term optimized production. Using a standard well in a lower tertiary field as an example, a 2 percent improvement could translate to more than $4 billion at prices of $50 per barrel over the life of the well.”

The company said that, based upon the test conditions, the Hammerhead system could increase reservoir drainage and provide reliable operations during well life cycles of more than twenty years.

After acceptance in the Gulf of Mexico’s Lower Tertiary, the Hammerhead system will be replicated to meet the specific conditions of other ultradeepwater regions, the company said.

The Hammerhead system was developed by the Baker Hughes Lower Tertiary Integrated Project Team (IPT). The IPT is a cross-functional team of 95 members located at the Baker Hughes Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) in Houston, where much of the research and design work for the system took place.