A major operator drilling in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin faced challenges attributed to tight tolerance and severe losses while running-in casing in deepwater conditions. The operator initially spent up to five days of rig time filling the casing conventionally and reducing running speeds to reach the planned depth.
To help mitigate severe losses and high surge pressure caused by tight tolerance in the wellbore, the operator had to reduce the running speed and use high quantities of lost-circulation material (LCM), which caused premature conversion of float equipment from autofill mode to conventional mode (closed-ended pipe) midway, resulting in longer casing run-in time. Surge and swab analysis was conducted to validate equivalent circulating density (ECD) reduction during the casing run and derive a program of operation to safely optimize the casing run.
The surge reduction float equipment package, comprised of a retained flapper valve and ball activation system, allowed the casing to autofill through large flow by areas, tolerant to the LCM in the well, while maintaining compatibility with the subsurface release plug system necessary for deepwater operations. The system allowed for midway circulation, as necessary, to help ensure the fluid level could be maintained during the casing run. The surge reduction equipment set was the first of its kind and consisted of three flapper valves distributed between the float collar and float shoe to provide the necessary redundancy to combat issues with the floats not holding because of the harsh conditions of the operation. It allowed casing to be run at optimum speed and remain within the pore pressure and fracture gradient window. A single deactivation ball installed in the float collar helped ensure the conversion of all valves in both the collar and shoe at the set flow rate, once reaching the planned casing shoe depth. This system combined with high LCM compatible subsurface plug sets not only induced zero losses while performing run in hole (RIH) casing operations (enabling 400% increased casing running speed), it also ensured consistent shoe track integrity with no float valve failure and no wet shoe; this saved several days of deepwater rig time for the operator.
The first ever successful deployment of surge reduction float equipment with a subsurface release plug system in India is discussed, which reduced casing run-in time by up to 22 hours.