Technical Challenges and Strategic Solutions for a New Historical Milestone: The Success of Delivering the First Two 10 K ft Lateral Wells in an Unconventional Drilling Operation

Abstract

To increase the reservoir contact to improve the production, the operator extended the lateral length of the horizontal wells from initial 5 K ft to 6 K ft, then to 7 K ft until 8 K ft. While moving toward a 10 K ft lateral, a bottle neck was encountered and the drilling team had to made all the effort to seek the solution. This paper addressed the main technical challenges to be faced while drilling the first two extended reach 10 K ft lateral wells. Several key strategic solutions corresponding to those challenges were proposed during the planning phase and well implemented in operation. As a result, the first two 10 K ft lateral wells were successfully drilled and completed, establishing a new historical milestone for future operation. In this paper, the inefficient weight transfer while drilling because of the pipe buckling, wellbore instability, the severe losses of the weak formation, failure to build the curve and difficulties for the well placement in lateral, downhole tool directional tool failure due to the high bottom-hole-circulation-temperatures (BHCT) and the risk of unable to run the production casing to bottom were considered as the main challenges to deliver the 10 K ft lateral wells. To overcome these challenges, according to the established best practice and the available tools or devices that have been already tested and prepared, the drilling team performed profound analysis and established the corresponding strategic solutions for each challenge. This paper described the implementation process of those strategies on the first two 10 K ft lateral wells delivered. The experiences obtained were also addressed.