Use of glass bubbles in low-density fluids, Tambun field drilling program, Indonesia

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Melvin Devadass
Keyword(s):  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Carbonate Reservoir ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Managed Pressure Drilling ◽  
Drilling Conditions ◽  
Productive Time

The Tambun Field in Indonesia was initially developed in the 1990s to exploit oil reserves from the Baturaja Formation (BRF). Since the initial drilling program, reservoir pressure in the field has steadily declined from more than 2,600 psia to less than 1,970 psia resulting in severe circulation losses and an increase in non-productive time (NPT) during drilling and completion programs. The use of hollow glass microspheres, commonly known as glass bubbles—a low density additive (LDA)—in ultra-low density drilling fluids (< 0.9 g/cc) is a novel approach in addressing this issue. A seven-well managed pressure drilling and completion exercise was undertaken by P.T. Pertamina EP Jawa region in the first half of 2010 under challenging drilling conditions in this low-pressure, high-permeability carbonate reservoir. The glass bubble mud system was selected because it would reduce or eliminate lost circulation and stuck pipe problems, reduce formation damage, eliminate the need for post drilling stimulation and give early analysis of reservoir behaviour and production rates. This paper describes the front-end engineering design, project management, risk mitigation, detailed engineering and design, operational results and lessons learnt from this project.

Lost Circulation Risk Mitigation in Deepwater Cementing Operations with a New Tailored Spacer System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Gorman ◽  
Sandip Patil ◽  
Kyriacos Agapiou
Keyword(s):  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
Zonal Isolation ◽  
Productive Time ◽  
Offshore Operations

Abstract Lost circulation (LC), commonly encountered in drilling and cementing operations, can be a costly problem that increases non-productive time, especially in highly permeable formations. When LC occurs during cementing, zonal isolation can be compromised. Risks associated with LC affect most applications, including offshore operations. This paper presents the evaluation of a new tailored spacer system (TSS) designed to effectively mitigate LC and its use in deepwater cementing operations to meet zonal isolation objectives.

Redevelopment of a Matured Multilayered Carbonate Offshore Field Through High Technology Horizontal and Multilateral Wells

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (05) ◽  
pp. 453-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar ◽  
S. Ramanan ◽  
J.L. Narasimham
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
High Technology ◽  
Horizontal Wells ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Carbonate Reservoir ◽  
Western India ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Well Productivity ◽  
Offshore Field

Summary Oil productivity from Mumbai High field, an offshore multilayered carbonate reservoir, increased significantly through the implementation of a major redevelopment program. Geoscientific information available from approximately 700 exploratory and develop- ment wells drilled in the field during nearly 25 years was incorporated during geological and reservoir simulation modeling of the field. High-technology drilling (viz. horizontal/multilaterals for the new development wells) was adopted on field scale to effectively address typical complexity of the layered carbonate reservoirs. Since the commencement of the project in 2000, approximately 140 new wells were drilled, mostly with horizontal and multilateral drainholes. Besides these, more than 70 suboptimal producers were also converted as horizontal sidetracks under brownfield development. The horizontal sidetracks were drilled as long-drift sidetrack (LDST), extended-reach drilling (ERD), LDST-ERD, short-drift sidetrack (SDST), and medium-radius drainhole (MRDH) types of wells through the application of innovative and emerging drilling technologies with nondamaging drilling fluids, whipstocks to kick off sidetrack wells, rotary-steering systems, and expandable tubulars to complete horizontal sidetracks in lower layers. With the implementation of this project, the declining trend was fully arrested and a significant upward trend in production has been established. Introduction The field redevelopment process requires the intergration of reservoir-development strategies, facility options, and drilling and production philosophies to maximize oil and gas recovery from a matured field. A significant number of case studies are available on mature field revitalization using a multidisciplinary team concept, exhaustive geo-scientific data analysis, and new drilling technologies (Chedid and Colmenares 2002; Clark et al. 2000; Dollens et al. 1999; Kinchen et al. 2001). Advancements in drilling and completion technology have enabled construction of horizontal wells with longer wellbores, more-complex well geometry, and sophisticated completion designs. Horizontal wells provide an effective method to produce bypassed oil from matured fields. In the early 1980s, this technology was in the development stage and was used in limited applications. By the 1990s, the technology had matured, and its acceptance in the industry had increased significantly. Performance of horizontal/multilateral wells, risk assessment of horizontal-well productivity and comparison of horizontal- and vertical-well performance in different fields is available in literature (Babu and Aziz 1989; Brekke and Thompson 1996; Economides et al. 1989; Joshi 1987; Joshi and Ding 1995; Mukherjee and Economides 1991; Norris et al. 1991; Vij et al. 1998). A significant number of horizontal/multilateral development wells were drilled as a part of redevelopment of Mumbai High, a matured multilayered carbonate offshore field in Western India. The details of new technologies applied and performance of these new high-technology wells are presented in this paper. Besides comparison of well productivity of horizontal and conventional sidetrack wells, this paper presents some technical issues faced.

scholarly journals Laboratory Study on Core Fracturing Simulations for Wellbore Strengthening

Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao Ma ◽  
Xiaolin Pu ◽  
Zhengguo Zhao ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Wenxin Dong
Keyword(s):  
Bearing Capacity ◽  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Fracture Pressure ◽  
Fluid Systems ◽  
Fracturing Process ◽  
Wellbore Strengthening

The lost circulation in a formation is one of the most complicated problems that have existed in drilling engineering for a long time. The key to solving the loss of drilling fluid circulation is to improve the pressure-bearing capacity of the formation. The tendency is to improve the formation pressure-bearing capacity with drilling fluid technology for strengthening the wellbore, either to the low fracture pressure of the formation or to that of the naturally fractured formation. Therefore, a laboratory study focused on core fracturing simulations for the strengthening of wellbores was conducted with self-developed fracture experiment equipment. Experiments were performed to determine the effect of the gradation of plugging materials, kinds of plugging materials, and drilling fluid systems. The results showed that fracture pressure in the presence of drilling fluid was significantly higher than that in the presence of water. The kinds and gradation of drilling fluids had obvious effects on the core fracturing process. In addition, different drilling fluid systems had different effects on the core fracture process. In the same case, the core fracture pressure in the presence of oil-based drilling fluid was less than that in the presence of water-based drilling fluid.

scholarly journals Numerical Modeling of Foam Drilling Hydraulics

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozcan Baris ◽  
Luis Ayala ◽  
W. Watson Robert
Keyword(s):  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Drilling Mud ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
Pressure Profiles ◽  
Drilling Operations ◽  
Parametric Studies ◽  
Bit Life ◽  
Foam Drilling

The use of foam as a drilling fluid was developed to meet a special set of conditions under which other common drilling fluids had failed. Foam drilling is defined as the process of making boreholes by utilizing foam as the circulating fluid. When compared with conventional drilling, underbalanced or foam drilling has several advantages. These advantages include: avoidance of lost circulation problems, minimizing damage to pay zones, higher penetration rates and bit life. Foams are usually characterized by the quality, the ratio of the volume of gas, and the total foam volume. Obtaining dependable pressure profiles for aerated (gasified) fluids and foam is more difficult than for single phase fluids, since in the former ones the drilling mud contains a gas phase that is entrained within the fluid system. The primary goal of this study is to expand the knowledge-base of the hydrodynamic phenomena that occur in a foam drilling operation. In order to gain a better understanding of foam drilling operations, a hydrodynamic model is developed and run at different operating conditions. For this purpose, the flow of foam through the drilling system is modeled by invoking the basic principles of continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. The model was designed to allow gas and liquid flow at desired volumetric flow rates through the drillstring and annulus. Parametric studies are conducted in order to identify the most influential variables in the hydrodynamic modeling of foam flow. 

SIDE FAULT MAPPING ENABLED BY 2D TRANSVERSE INVERSION ON NEW DEEP DIRECTIONAL RESISTIVITY MEASUREMENTS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Thiel ◽  
◽  
Haifeng Wang ◽  
Dzevat Omeragic ◽  
Jean-Michel Denichou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transverse Plane ◽  
Inversion Algorithm ◽  
Drilling Tool ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Resistivity Measurements ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
New Class ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Well Trajectory ◽  
Thickness Variations

Faulting is one type of structural trap for hydrocarbon reservoirs. With more and more fields moving toward the brownfield or mature operations stage of life, the opportunity to target bypassed or attic oil in the vicinity of bounding fault(s) is becoming more and more attractive to operators. However, without an effective logging-while-drilling (LWD) tool to locate and map a fault parallel to the well trajectory, it has been challenging and potentially high risk to optimally place a well to drain oil reserves near the fault. Operators often plan these horizontal wells at a significant distance away from the mapped fault position to avoid impacts to the well construction and production of the well. Often, the interpreted fault position, based on seismic data, can have significant lateral uncertainty, and uncertainties attached to standard well survey measurements make it challenging to place the well near the fault. This often results in the wells being placed much farther from the fault than expected, which is not optimal for maximizing recovery. In other cases, due to uncertainty in the location of the fault, the wells would accidentally penetrate the side faults and cause drilling and other issues. Conventional remote boundary detection LWD tools do not assist with locating the fault position, as they only detect formation boundaries above or below the trajectory and not to the side. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach for mapping features like a fault parallel to the well trajectory, which was previously impossible to map accurately. This new approach utilizes a new class of deep directional resistivity measurements acquired by a reservoir mapping-while-drilling tool. The deep directional resistivity measurements are input to a newly devised inversion algorithm, resulting in high-resolution reservoir mapping on the transverse plane, which is perpendicular to the well path. These new measurements have a strong sensitivity to resistivity in contrast to the sides of the wellbore, making them suitable for side fault detection. The new inversion in the transverse plane is not limited to detecting a side fault; it can also map any feature on the transverse plane to the well path, which further broadens the application of this technology. Using the deep directional resistivity data acquired from a horizontal ultra-ERD well recently drilled in the Wandoo Field offshore Western Australia, the authors tested this approach against the well results and existing control wells. Excellent mapping of the main side fault up to 30 m to the side of the well was achieved with the new approach. Furthermore, the inversion reveals other interesting features like lateral formation thickness variations and the casing of a nearby well. In addition, the methodology of utilizing this new approach for guiding geosteering parallel to side fault in real time is elaborated, and the future applications are discussed.

NanoGram Detection of Drilling Fluids Additives for Uncertainty Reduction in Surface Logging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sherry Zhu ◽  
Marta Antoniv ◽  
Martin Poitzsch ◽  
Nouf Aljabri ◽  
Alberto Marsala
Keyword(s):  
Lag Time ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Detection Capability ◽  
Gas Well ◽  
Coiled Tubing ◽  
Logging While Drilling ◽  
Mud Logging ◽  
Drilling Conditions ◽  
Origin Assessment

Abstract Manual sampling rock cuttings off the shale shaker for lithology and petrophysical characterization is frequently performed during mud logging. Knowing the depth origin where the cuttings were generated is very important for correlating the cuttings to the petrophysical characterization of the formation. It is a challenge to accurately determine the depth origin of the cuttings, especially in horizontal sections and in coiled tubing drilling, where conventional logging while drilling is not accessible. Additionally, even in less challenging drilling conditions, many factors can contribute to an inaccurate assessment of the depth origin of the cuttings. Inaccuracies can be caused by variation of the annulus dimension used to determine the lag time (and thus the depth of the cuttings), by the shifting or scrambling of cuttings during their return trip back to the surface, and by the mislabelling of the cuttings during sampling. In this work, we report the synthesis and application of polystyrenic nanoparticles (NanoTags) in labeling cuttings for depth origin assessment. We have successfully tagged cuttings using two NanoTags during a drilling field test in a carbonate gas well and demonstrated nanogram detection capability of the tags via pyrolysis-GCMS using an internally developed workflow. The cuttings depth determined using our tags correlates well with the depth calculated by conventional mud logging techniques.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document