Drilling deep wells is becoming more and more prevalent today in the continuing quest for oil and gas reserves, but many of the rigs that are in service are inadequately equipped to handle the problems that can arise when drilling in an open-to-atmosphere mode. What is needed is a Closed Loop Drilling system (CLD) that allows for circulation of drilling fluid in a closed system which can be pressurized and thus offer a method of dealing with unexpected situations by detecting and addressing them as they occur rather than retroactively. Such a system is normally referred to as Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) which allows annular flow to be contained and redirected away from the wellbore to an automated choke manifold system away from the rig floor.
A well was drilled recently from a jack-up rig located offshore Egypt in the Nile delta using the combination of automated choke MPD equipment with front end engineering strategy being applied to suitably equip the rig for the operation. The MPD facilities were installed on the rig following exhaustive certification and testing processes in the Cairo base yard with MPD personnel closely involved for familiarization and operational training. The well was successfully drilled to a depth of 7205m (23,639 ft.) where the static bottomhole temperature was 208°C (4060F).
In this paper the authors will review in detail the make-up, installation, personnel training and operation of the MPD equipment. They will go on to describe the various sections of the drilling operation and the anomalies encountered in reaching the target depth which set strategies for future such exploratory operations in the area.
