100+ Deepwater MPD Wells Learnings

Abstract

MPD offshore in deepwater is less than 20 years old. Over the last decade there was noticeable evolution of usage of MPD technology. The industry acceptance of what is considered the correct application of the technology has evolved over the years. The first barrier concept and well control practices now consider the capability and characteristics of MPD technology. This allowed the undrillable wells to be drilled with almost no penalty when compared to a conventional well intervention. The operational awareness improved, due to new capabilities of MPD techniques, leading to an improvement on the overall efficiency of the intervention. The sustained use with better understanding of the benefits of the technology lead to more refined applications of MPD, while reducing the added operational time. New applications also were developed using existing equipment, widening the deployment extent of MPD during well construction and maintenance. Still, major discussions are needed to further develop the technology on deepwater scenarios. Completion and workover are still not discussed in depth in the industry and operational concepts between different disciplines must align considering MPD advantages and limitations. This paper presents key aspects of the evolution of MPD application based on the experience of drilling more than 100 wells using MPD on deepwater scenarios. Regarding the MPD evolution, a revision of the internal and external operations, through several papers and publications allows the identification of different factors that changed over the years.