Abstract
The paper presents a case study of an Operator who successfully drilled two challenging wells through optimization of the drilling fluids. Well A was a HPHT well drilled with mud weight up to 18.6 ppg with overbalanced pressure as high as 6,800 psi – the highest overbalanced pressure experienced by the Operator to date. Well B was required to drill through depleted sand and unstable shale where series of severe loss circulation and wellbore instability issues were experienced in the nearby wells.
Due to its HPHT nature, the design of the drilling fluids in Well A was expected to have a total solids content up to 70% by volume. Due to this high solid content, the rheology of the fluids system is inherently high posing an issue related to excessive ECD. To further exacerbate the issue, the extreme differential pressure which was expected to be observed in Well A requires the inclusion of bridging material in the system as part of the mitigation plan to minimize the risk of differential sticking. Conventional bridging material such as calcium carbonate and graphite with concentration between 20 to 40 ppb will further increase the amount of solids in the system. Likewise, in Well B, the Operator also observed that the application of common bridging material in the drilling fluids does not help in addressing the severe losses and wellbores instability issue observed in the offset wells. Almost 60% of the offsets encountered severe loss circulation as high as 6,000 bbl mud loss per well.
This paper will share several initiatives by the Operator during the design stage in order to optimize the mud formulation to address the challenges for both of these wells. These include evaluation of various types of bridging material and "a must have" mud testing to assess the performance of the drilling fluids system. Subsequently, the Operator has successfully drilled these wells with no issues related to differential sticking, loss circulation and wellbore instability.
