Oil and Gas Exploration: Gin Poles and Rotary Tables

The rotary table can be made to turn faster if you supply more oil to the hydraulic motor.Before doing that you need to check on the motor specs,and determine the max flow allowed for a acceptable level of pressure drop across it,as well as its max rpm rating of the shaft.If you find there is scope then you could run your prime mover faster to pump out more oil or put a higher displacement pump to give you more oil at the same prime mover rpm.then again you need to check on the prime mover power ratings,so it goes on.it is better to redesign the system as a whole. Don't know what a gin pole is.

Hello,

The Gin Pole set up as you know is only to be used as the first piece of equipment installed on a work over set-up, with the Gin Pole you hoist up your first real hydraulic crane and then on to an even larger crane. I'm not sure that you can do much with the sequence of events unless you incorporate a Sky-Lift Helicopter into your rig up / rig down sequence.

Please send more info on your Rotary Table ie brand, size, current RPM, desired RPM and we can take a look at your situation to offer an informed answer rather that an assumption.

Actually in a snubbing rig, the gin pole is used to pull pipe up the catwalk (among other things). It is not used to lift another crane. Generally speaking the Snubbing Jack is installed without a derrick being in place unless it is a small "space saver" or "rig assist" type.

To increase the lifting capacity of the gin pole, you must do a number of things. First you must ensure that the workbasket or structure that supports the gin pole can take the additional stress. If not it must be modified to do so. Then you must ensure that the gin pole itself can withstand the additional stresses without buckling. Then you must look at the WLL of the wire rope and the load capacity of the winch as well. As this is a lifting device, most regulatory agencies have very strict guidelines about the safety factor used in the design studies. DNV for instance mandates a 5:1 safety factor for lifting equipment. The reason should be obvious, if the equipment fails, someone my die. Therefore you MUST be VERY SURE of your structural analysis and you must be prepared to stake your OWN LIFE on those calculations.

"It is not used to lift another crane" I can only assume youve never assembled or dis assembled a Off Shore Platform Work Over or even seen it done

When the project starts, there is absolutly nothing there nothing... Actualy the very first pieces come up with ropes. Finished product is a fully operational rig.

With the Gin Pole, the "Leap Frog" crane is raised and assembled. With the Leap Frog, the Bull Frog is then assembled. (I have no idea who came up with those names)

A good portion of the rig is assembled with these, and ultimatly larger cranes (typicaly Titans) are put in place.

Tim, it is dangerous to make such assumptions. I work for an oilfield services company that does coiled tubing, snubbing, nitrogen, and pumping services. We also have a well control division which, thanks to Saddam, we profitied mightily with. I design the equipment and I am intimately familiar with how it is assembled and deployed. That said, all of our equipment is primarily land based. When we deploy offshore (which we often do) it is either to an existing rig or to a work boat that already has the derrick and the cranes in place. And in the case of platforms that do not have cranes in place, they are usually lifted into place from a barge with a crane on it (before I started to work here I worked for a manufacturer of king post cranes). When we deploy on land, we either send a cherry picker crane or we use the block of the derrick (during space saver/rig assist operations) for lifting. I'm not saying Gin poles cannot be used in the manner that you describe, only that it is not the normal usage in snubbing operations. Using gin poles in that manner would take too much time and the customer wants us in and out as quickly and with as little disruption to their schedule as possible (and they want it as cheaply as possible as well.). So we endeavor to design the equipment to be rigged up and installed and broken back down again as quickly as possible with as few crewmembers as possible. To do so, we pre-assemble as much of the snubbing jack and the workbasket as possible and lift it into place with a rubber tired crane. We've even designed and patented a stabbing guide to allow us to quickly and easily locate and stab a BOP stack onto a wellhead flange with only two people, one running the crane, and one guiding the load.

I'm simply a Maintenance Manager for one of the worlds largest drilling contractors. Its clear to see there are different ways to set up. Yours is definitely easier and preferable for sure. But believe me its not the way its always done.

Personally I prefer the larger rigs that are not so much like an erector set .