Lukoil Drills Record 8 1/2-in Horizontal Section in North Caspian Sea, Saving 29 Days off AFE

Maximize reservoir exposure in Korchagin field

Lukoil, one of the biggest oil and gas producers in Russia, is developing the Yuri Korchagin field of the North Caspian Sea. Projects in this oil field have used extended-reach drilling practices from shallow platforms to fully exploit the 58 km² reservoir area with TVD of 1,560 m. To maximize drilling efficiency on its next extended-reach well in the field, Lukoil continued to work with Schlumberger for integrated project management that would incorporate directional drilling, MLWD, and drilling fluids.

Integrate drilling system to optimize drilling efficiency

For drilling a long lateral section, Schlumberger provided the PowerDrive X6 RSS and a MDSi716 SHARC high-abrasion-resistance PDC bit with ONYX PDC cutters. The team selected the MEGADRIL drilling-fluid system to optimize drilling efficiency and hole cleaning. With this oil-base mud system, the challenging lateral could be drilled in one run without wiper trips, maintaining stability in reactive shales that can cause problems for tripping and rotating. The bit and drilling-fluid systems were provided respectively by Smith Bits and M-I SWACO, which are Schlumberger companies.

Schlumberger monitored torque and drag trends against roadmaps to analyze hole conditions for quick decisions on connection, tripping, and drilling practices. The torque-and-drag roadmaps were evaluated continuously to determine the number of pipe reciprocations, which helped engineers optimize the circulating and reciprocating time.