Method for protecting a shallow water well

A method of drilling a shallow-water offshore well and reinforcing a well structure from a jack-up type drilling platform having a derrick and associated drilling and hoisting systems, said platform being of a design providing for the derrick to be moved laterally on the platform within a prescribed work area so that the center line of the derrick is positioned over open water to one side of the platform, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) drilling and completing the well by steps comprising:
• (1) locating the jack-up type drilling platform at a selected shallow-water drilling location with its leg footings on the ocean floor and its operating deck jacked-up to normal operating position above the water surface and wave action;
• (2) lowering a large-diameter well conductor through the water below the derrick and setting it in the ocean floor;
• (3) drilling a well through said well conductor and closing the top of the well with a wellhead above the water surface and wave action;
• (b) establishing an interconnecting reinforcing structure in which said well conductor and a plurality of piles form legs of the structure, comprising:
• (1) providing a pile guide template frame substantially polygonal in plan view comprising at least two spaced-apart vertical pile guides connected together by laterally-extending support members with additional laterally-extending support members arranged to extend between and be connected at one end to each of the pile guides and at the other end to the well conductor when positioned thereagainst, with the pile guides being at a selected distance from the well conductor;
• (2) transporting the pile guide template frame to the offshore well;
• (3) positioning and suspending said frame in a manner such that the other ends of the additional laterally-extending support members are operatively positioned adjacent the wall of said well conductor, said position being such that at least said other ends of said support members at the top of the frame are above the surface of the water and the lowermost portion of the frame does not rest upon the ocean floor;
• (4) lowering the piles through said pile guides of said suspended frame and driving said piles into the ocean floor;
• (5) securing the suspended pile guide template frame above the ocean floor by fixedly connecting each pile to its surrounding pile guide;
• and
• (6) operatively connecting at least said other ends of said laterally-extending support members at the top of the frame to the well conductor, whereby said frame forms the interconnecting reinforcing structure between the piles and the well conductor, substantially polygonal in plan view, to resist the effect of wind and wave forces encountered by said well conductor.