Abstract
Saudi Aramco faces a wide array of challenges maintaining wellbore stability during drilling and primary cementing operations. As a result, it has implemented revised strategies and methods to remediate losses during well construction operations. The origin of these strategies, swith some adopted from deepwater operations, has led to improved zonal isolation and operational efficiencies. The conventional methods used to cure losses during drilling with cement plugs can be inefficient usually requiring multiple attempts with mixed success. A revised method focuses on hydrostatics of the cementing fluids as well as advanced placement methods based upon the loss circulation boundary conditions to improve the plug success rate. During primary cementing across multiple zones with risks ranging from ultra-high permeability, low bottom hole pressures, and highly natural fractured carbonates, the risk of losses during cement placement has led to inconsistent zonal isolation. A revised strategy for the cementing fluids used during primary cementing based upon these same risks will demonstrate the improved zonal isolation success. The manuscript details the methods, strategies, and case histories discussed above.