xisti ngrigsinaddition to some of those under constructionthat could be modified todrillin up to 3000 feet of water in one to two years from now. It is, therefore, reasonable that routine drilling operations could be carried out in 3000 feet of water in the »75 to« 76 period. The water depth capabilityfor wet tree completions is directlytied to the drillingcapability and currently stands at about 1500 feet. To date approximately 75 UWC »s have been installedin water depths ranging from 50 to 375 fe et. The technology required for the wet tree completions is notvery sens itive to water depth and is, therefore, expected to be extended inthenear term to 3000 feet. The main controllingfactorwill be the flowline connecting system and the hardware forinstallingtheflowl ines, which will be undergoing continual evolution as deepwater experience is gained. Current industry programs will probably resultinadditional underwater completions over thenext few years and should provide the experience to develop a very reliable and economically sounddeepwater wet tree completion system. The One-Atmosphere Chamber Wellhead System which was installed by Lockheed Petroleum Services for S hell O il Company recently in its Main Pass 290 F ield has demonstrated the capability of this completion system in 375 feet of water. The diving capsule part of this system is rated for 1200-foot water depth and this, therefore, is considered the depth capability of this system at present. It is forecastthat through design modification this system «s depth capability can be extended to 3000 feet. R & D work on underwater manifolding and production systems is currently being carried out and eitherthis system or other systems such as floating production platforms could be available four to five years from now given the right economic incentives. Therefore, I think that our short-term capability extension can provide the technology to permit complete systems to be installedin 3000 feet of water. Figure 53 illustrates the additionaleffect of thiscapability. On the margins of the conterminous US plus the Alaska P acific Margin as illustrated by the blue areas this means the addition of about 103,000,000 acres. For the Alaskan portion (the red areas), 32,000,000 acres is added. Regarding the Alaskan portion, it is recognized by theauthorthatagreatde al of effort is going into Arctic Research to develop the technology to carry outexploration and production activityinthis area. The recent announcement by Global Marine of the construction of an ice breaking drillship is indicative of the interestinthis area. It is, therefore, poss iblethat the figures quoted here for Alaska are conservative. However, an attempt has been made to include only thatadditional area which has a reasonable certainty of being withinthecapabilities purported. As an example of this, only one-half of the B ristol Bay area is included even though almost the entire area is inless than 600 feet of water. Although platforms and underwater systems in combination could extend the basic platform depth capability (200 fe et) the factthat much of the area is 200 to 300 miles from shore will cause significant problems of access and transportation. Figure 54 summarizes the totalareaswithin reach of today »scapability and thatadditional area which is within reach of theshort - term extensions of today« scapability. I n summary, approximately 274,000,000 acres (31% ofthetotal) of thecontinental m...
