Driving efficiency to ensure cost and risk reduction in well operations is paramount for any operating company; to achieve this, the main objective was to implement a continuous improvement process that measures performance to then improve it, acquiring lessons learned and finally implement new technologies to reduce non-productive time, invisible loss time and push the technical limit to the limit. The first step was to measure the current performance to determine average and best references to compare against. The drilling operations and engineering teams defined KPIs for each well type and respective sections and activities involving all levels of the organization including every individual, ensuring effective communication inclusive of Rig Crew and Service Providers. The initial KPIs were defined, discussed, validated and agreed by both operations and engineering management, all engineers were informed and challenged to measure their performance against KPIs. Once new records were achieved, a workflow to document best practices initiated, once identified, validated and documented, becoming the new standards. Similarly, once average performance was not achieved, a ‘Lessons Learned’ workflow was initiated. Aiming to get the team engaged a communication protocol of the Highlights and Lowlights was put in place, including recognition during operations meeting and emails. The primary results of the deployment of this initiative include the delivery of a 10% additional well count compared to the initial year's plan. An overall improvement of the overall Drilling and Completion Performance was also noted. An important improvement of the overall Rate of Penetration (ROP) was observed, as one of the key performance indicators. It was also notice a considerable reduction of the Flat time. New practices for losses mitigation in hazardous areas were stablished. The lower completion design was enhanced. The upper completion design and utilize Dual Hydraulic Packer in Oil producer well was optimized. Finally, the 1st Maximum Reservoir Contact Well was completed for two of the three Fields in the Team. The added value achieved by the implementation of these innovative practices includes the implementation of the KPI Gauges as a visual instrument to be used on daily operations meeting by the engineers and management, to quickly and effectively understand performance and improvement in multiple dimensions. Additionally, the implementation of a continuous improvement mind-set, focus in introducing changes gradually instead of radically to ensure a soft and solid adoption embraced by all team members. Finally, the improvement of the office-field communications, including a sense of ownership and achievement for each goal to achieve and record to break, to the point that every colleague involved in a specific operation, independently of their organization (Operator, Contractor or Service Company) is equally committed and engaged.
Hollow bit method was introduced and implemented in Offshore Abu Dhabi Field to eliminate the cement quality uncertainty and improve the slot recovery performance. Hollow bit method improved the overall slot recovery performance by 40% compared to other slot recovery methods, reducing operation duration from 20.8 days to 12.5 days. In this paper, hollow bit technical overview and best practices which can be implemented to similar application are presented
Demands for reutilizing existing slots on the offshore platform are expected to rise to maintain oil and gas productivity by drilling and completing the well to different targets, whereas most of the slots are occupied in mature fields. Slot recovery operations are one of the solutions to recover occupied slots. Different slot recovery techniques have been executed in the Offshore Abu Dhabi field, which include cut & pull, milling, Casing Pulling Tool, and Conductor Deflector Tool techniques which are time-consuming and require high overpull to release the casings. The hollow bit is a slot recovery technique that enables the user to recover casing by the standard fishing tool (i.e., casing spear and overshot) without excessive overpull which inherits a risk of surface equipment damage and safety issues on the rig floor. Moreover, overcoming the strong cement bonding between a 30" conductor and 13-3/8" casing is difficult and is dependent on the cement condition. The casing is cut into short intervals to be pulled out which results in a long operation duration. Hollow bit removes the annulus cement between 30" conductor pipe and 13-3/8" casing by washing over the cement. Casing cuts can be minimized since the removal of cement from the annulus overcomes the cement condition uncertainties which results in a shorter slot recovery duration. This paper presents the 3 hollow bit field trials conducted in 2021-2022 in Offshore Abu Dhabi. Lessons learned accumulated from each trial were implemented in subsequent wells to improve the performance. Performance was increased by 60% compared to other slot recovery methods by reducing the operation duration from 20.8 days to 12.5 days. Best practices that can be implemented to similar application by hollow bit are also presented.
Drilling through fractured gas bearing formations to access the oil reserves underneath has been one of the most challenging tasks for the drilling Team due to the embedded risks such as; total circulation losses, Gas migration, well control issues, hole instability, cutting beds accumulation and stuck pipe. This paper explains an approach in drilling fractured gas bearing formations that was performed for the first time in offshore Abu Dhabi field-A, Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling (PMCD). Drilling through fractured Gas bearing formation causes the loss of the mud column and the consequent intrusion of hydrocarbon gas to the wellbore, thus initiating well control response, which adds to the flat time and might cause cutting slippage, stuck pipe and eventually loss of well objective. PMCD is best suited to deal with such situation, as it allows drilling to continue under the mentioned circumstances by filling the well with sacrificial fluid while the well is closed, fractures take seawater, cuttings and the formations pressure lefts the underbalanced annular fluid to reduce losses volume. Two wells were drilled successfully using the PMCD technique in Field A where the anticipated fracture gas bearing formations system was encountered shortly below the 9-5/8″ casing shoe. The performance increased substantially in the second well as lessons learnt were implemented to avoid any time loss. Drilling the 8-1/2″ Hole section started in well #2 conventionally with required 200 psi overbalance mud weight, the drilling fluid system is directly changed to sacrificial fluid (Sea water) once the fracture system is hit and total losses observed. A light Annular mud (Seawater) is pumped in the well's annulus. After having stable PMCD parameters, drilling continued at an ROP of 100-150 FPH. TQ & Drag real-time monitoring & intermittent pumping of 3 × 50 bbls weighted HVP to clean bit & BHA from cuttings were essential to avoid getting the pipe mechanically stuck. The 6,710 ft section was drilled successfully, Striped BHA Out of hole, Ran 7,160 ft of 7″ Liner, perform cement Job & achieved isolation. Comparing with offset wells drilling conventionally in field-A through the gas bearing fractured zone, PMCD saved +/− 44 days of the well time, cost and achieved the target. and greatly improved the operational safety by providing closed-loop drilling. The PMCD application on the two wells is the first of its type in offshore Abu Dhabi, it allowed accessing parts of the reservoir that have been inaccessible due to the fracture system. Additionally, it increased safety of operation & saved rig days that would have been spent in treating losses and well control operation. Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling application in field-A provides a solution for a wider implementation in developing fractured gas cap resources in future.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.