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MEGADRIL Drills the Longest Extended-Reach Well in North America

MEGADRIL Drills the Longest Extended-Reach Well in North America

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Location
United States, North America, Offshore
Summary

Solution: SLB recommended the MEGADRIL oil-base drilling fluid system with MEGAMUL, a single-drum emulsifier/wetting agent package that simplifies maintenance, logistics, and reduces inventory on location.

Results:

  • Successfully drilled the longest extended well in North America
  • World’s longest extended-reach well drilled from an offshore fixed platform drilling rig
  • Extremely fast drilling process and high quality wellbore saved 90 days drilling time
  • Reduced well AFE by 20%
  • Zero environmental incidents
Objective

Well Information

 
Location Offshore, US
Date October 2009 - January 2010
Total Depth over 37,000 ft (11,277 m)
Intervals drilled over 26,800 ft (8,168 m) of 12 ¼-in? hole
  over 2,200 ft (670 m) of 8 ½-in? hole (to TD)
Well type Extended-Reach 0° – 88° – 45° (at TD)
Disposal method CRI

The operator programmed an extended reach well that posed a number of technical demands, including an extremely long 27,274 ft ( 8,301 m) 9 5/8-in. liner in the 12 ¼-in. hole. In addition, the well was designed with more than 6.3 miles (10.14 km) of lateral offset, which was restricted by extremely limited deck space and pit capacity on the rig.

Results

In this area, the operator relies on rig site mud engineering consultants. Accordingly, SLB worked very closely with the operator's drilling team and the mud engineering consultants for the entire duration of the project. Mud samples were shipped from the rig site to SLB regional technical support lab every two to three days for HTHP rheology testing. Afterwards, SLB Technical Services in Houston used the results to better calibrate the VIRTUAL HYDRAULICS wellbore simulator to accurately monitor the downhole cleaning, ECD's and ESD's.

Based on the very frequent HTHP rheology tests and the VIRTUAL HYDRAULICS hole cleaning simulations, the rheological properties of the fluid were lowered to the point of providing very good ECD and SPP without compromising the cuttings carrying capacity. The high quality wellbore and its cleanliness were confirmed by running the 27,274 ft. (8313 m) of 9 ⅝-in. liner in the 12 ¼-in. intermediate hole problem-free to TD.

Table 1. The main mud properties while drilling the 12 ¼-in interval shown every 2500 ft (762m). The rheological properties presented were measured with Fann 35 Rheometer @120°F (49°C)
Table 1. The main mud properties while drilling the 12 ¼-in interval shown every 2500 ft (762m). The rheological properties presented were measured with Fann 35 Rheometer @120°F (49°C)
"We now have successfully landed the 9 ⅝-in. liner. I personally have been involved with a number of world records over the years, but this accomplishment in my book far exceeds all of these."
Operator's Drilling Operations Superintendent

Questions? We’ll be glad to answer them.
If you’d like to know more about the Megadril system and how it’s performing for our other customers, please call the SLB office nearest you.

Products Used
Virtual Hydraulics drilling fluid simulation software
Evaluate and design drilling hydraulics under simulated downhole conditions to maximize drilling performance

Evaluate and design critical drilling hydraulics with Virtual Hydraulics drilling fluids software.
MEGADRIL
Oil-based temperature-stable invert-emulsion drilling fluid system

Achieve durable, temperature-stable invert emulsion fluid without higher gel strengths.