For many years, Saudi Aramco has searched for a way to replace the practice of drilling out the DV’s and Shoe Track with a tricone bit, followed by a polycrystalline diamond cutter (PDC) bit to drill the new formation to the next casing point. Many bit manufacturers have conducted trials to overcome the challenge, with limited success. This paper discusses a successful, single-run technology to drill out and continue drilling using only a PDC bit. Investigations of the root causes of failure and erratic performance led to extensive review of bit design and drilling practices, but fail to overcome the single-run challenge posed by cutter wear and damage experienced during the drill out. Recently developed shear cap technology provides a means of installing high-grade tungsten carbide caps on the PDC cutters. The caps protect the cutters during the drill out, and then wear away to expose the cutters in pristine condition for drilling the formation. The shear cap technology has been tested extensively and optimized using various bottom-hole assemblies. The result has been a considerable breakthrough in the success rate for drilling the formation section, accompanied by a time reduction that has resulted in huge savings in offshore oil drilling operations. The standard PDC bits fitted with the protective technology are successfully providing a one-trip capability, saving a round trip to change the bit and achieving a 100% success rate in drilling to the next the casing point. When drilling in the casing, the tungsten carbide shearing caps are effectively mitigating the cutter damage typically experienced when drilling out the shoe track. Drilling performance in the formation and the ability to efficiently drill the full section, demonstrates the undamaged condition of the cutters when the bit exits the casing. Overcoming the longstanding efficiency challenge of drilling both shoe track and formation in a single run is being achieved with the novel technology’s ability to enable optimal formation drilling by protecting cutters during the shoe drill out.
Over the course of time, the oil and gas industry has increased its usage of state-of-the-art equipment and advanced software to access oil and gas reserves that were previously considered as technically and/or economically prohibitive. Today's well designs are inherently more complex since the current targets are deeper, require extended reach configurations or are in locations that present greater difficulties in developing appropriate well designs. Success, therefore, depends upon careful up-front planning to ensure that the goals sought are attained. The planning requires detailed calculations at each step of the well development ? from the geological survey to drilling to completing the well. The advanced modeling software available in the market today has made the required analysis possible. Extended-reach wells carry significant risks where cost of failure regarding the deployment of the liner and liner hanger system could consume the whole well. One of the major risks with deploying such a long liner is the risk of pre-setting the liner hanger and/or the liner hanger packer. An expandable liner hanger (ELH) system, recently introduced to the industry, inherently eliminates this risk with its design and setting procedure and is the focus of this paper. When the liner is deployed using the detailed analysis generated during the planning stages, the risks mentioned above can be significantly reduced and greater assurance that the liner can be run to depth can be provided. The extended-reach section of these wells creates additional problems relating to friction during the deployment of the liner hanger. This phenomenon can be addressed with 'torque and drag' software as well as 'surge and swab' software to optimize the solution with a detailed analytical output that will determine the best method to use to deploy the liner into the hole. The analysis will help determine whether centralizers should be used (and if so, specific spacing), whether fluids that will reduce the friction coefficients should be considered, and will also examine whether there is the possibility of floating the liner hanger to depth. To summarize, the ultimate goal of the well designer is to apply the available software to develop and optimize a plan to reduce friction during deployment of an expandable liner hanger to depth while reducing cost impact and eliminating nonproductive time. The case history in this well will verify how the proper planning and use of the ELH system selected was capable of addressing the challenges of successfully deploying the ELH system in an extended-reach well for Saudi Aramco. These wells have a measured depth (MD) of 19,000 to 31,000+ feet and true vertical depths (TVD) between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. The liner lengths ranged from 5,000 to 10,000 feet in length.
One of world's longest cemented 7″ turbine reaming liners, 5.1 km long, was successfully deployed in the Manifa field located in Saudi Arabia. The 7″ liner was effectively aided in reaching the liner point (LP) below the 9⅝ casing using turbine reamer technology installed at the end of string and was then successfully cemented. The reaming operation was performed by activating the turbine reamer shoe by pumping drilling fluid when a borehole restriction was encountered while running in the hole (RIH). The turbine reamer is a high speed reaming tool and the main benefits of using this technology in such a long horizontal section is to ream and remove obstructions (debris, cuttings, ledges, excessive filter cake) and successfully deploy the liner to the target depth (TD). The process of utilizing the turbine reamer technology to deploy the 5.1 km liner to the TD was successfully executed in a horizontal producer well in the Manifa Increment Project, resulting in reduced risk of stuck casings and liners. This paper will present a case study of the turbine reaming operation, lessons learned and challenges encountered during the running and cementing the 16,758 ft (5.1 km) of a 7″ liner in the 8½″ hole section. It also provides focus on potential enhancements for future utilization of the technology.
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