The paper defines the complete Lockheed subsea production system when fully developed, and the development status is reviewed.
Safety standards that apply to the development and the operations of the system are discussed. The author maintains that more coordination in establishing government and industry safety standards, rules, etc., would be very desirable. Safety measures taken by Lockheed to meet standards are then described. The impact of experiences from operations performed in the Gulf of Mexico are included in the description.
The Lockheed one-atmosphere subseacompletion system, when fully developed, will comprise permanent subsea chambers and mobile service systems. The subsea chambers, called wellhead cellars, manifold centers, and production stations, will contain wellhead equipment, control systems, machinery and pumps, manifolds, instrumentatiQn, and other equipment essential for the controlled production of oil and gas. Flowlines and control cables will interconnect the subsea chambers to facilitate transport of oil and gas and transmission of control data.
The service system transports men and equipment to the subsea chambers and provides electric power, life support, and other services required for the work in the subsea chambers. The work consists initially of installation of production and control equipment, pullingin flowlines, pressure and drift testing, followed later by maintenance, repair and service of the subsea chambers, the production and control equipment, flowlines and control cables.
The present development status of the Lockheed subsea production system is as follows:
Operational hardware includes:
a wellhead cellar that was installed in the Gulf of Mexico in the Summer of 1972, at a water depth of 375 ft. as part of a coordinated development program between Shell and Lockheed;
the Houston-based Gulf of Mexico service system that was used for the 1972 Shell well installation and a subsequent routine reentry in 1973
