Geoquip puts core barrel tech into action offshore Japan

Geoquip Marine has completed what is said to be a “highly challenging” geotechnical investigation at an offshore wind project in Japan for Influx Offshore Wind Power HD.

Geoquip and its strategic partner Fukada operated the DP2 vessel Poseidon 1 and the Geoquip GMTR150 drilling package for the activities offshore Karatsu.

According to the company, the presence of rock below mudline made standard push sampling and CPT testing techniques impractical to complete the boreholes.

As a result, Geoquip Marine chose to use a wireline core barrel to recover rock cores and progress boreholes and was able to perform coring in rock utilizing the standard API drill string because the system enables the use of wireline core barrels without the need to recover the drill string.

“Utilising the wireline core barrel in these circumstances provided us with really excellent recoveries – whilst allowing us to change back to sampling and CPT testing if necessary. Ultimately it provided excellent quality rock cores in very difficult conditions with less than one percent downtime,” said Geoquip’s project manager Torran Purchase.

“Given the challenging conditions experienced throughout the duration of the work, the time saved by not having to recover the drill string to perform coring, improved safety by reducing the risk exposure of the drill crew whilst allowing operations to be completed in shorter weather windows, which contributed to the contract being completed with no safety concerns whatsoever.”