Primary drilling challenges related to the Greater Natural Buttes (GNB) field involve lost circulation, gas influxes, and the constant challenges related to accelerating a program in its mature stages of development. The majority of production is derived from naturally fractured tight sandstone members of the Wasatch formation and Mesaverde groups of the Tertiary & Cretaceous periods, which are the drilling targets of concern. Through the utilization of Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) a decrease in cycle times and a possible increase in production in the GNB field have been observed. The decrease in cycle times can be directly attributed to higher ROP, mitigated gas influxes, and minimized lost circulation management. Continuing research of how the effect of MPD has subsequently contributed to decreasing near wellbore damage and potentially increasing overall production is being conducted. This paper will quantify the benefit MPD has yielded through ROP advancements, tool life length, mud cost & material reduction, and time related to lost circulation & gas influx management. This paper will also detail our MPD procedures, and take a look at how the effects of a more balanced state between wellbore and formation pressure possibly yields better production related to decreased drilling related invasion.

Bradenhead pressure, or sustained casing pressure, is pressure build up in the annular space between the surface casing and the next smaller diameter casing string within the wellhead. The objective of the test pad was to determine if increasing the physical flexibility of cement and rotating the casing string to increase displacement efficiency would help improve the cement bond to casing, decrease cement channeling, and help eliminate future bradenhead pressure accumulation. A twelve well pad housed three different cement slurries: four latex-type jobs, four resin jobs, and four foam jobs. A rotating cement head was used to enable mud circulation, dropping plugs, and rotating the string of casing during the cementing process on two of the four wells of each slurry type. For the production casing string, a threaded and coupled connection with a wedge thread profile was used to withstand the high torque experienced during rotation operations. Results were determined by evaluating pre- and post-stimulation logs along with continued bradenhead pressure monitoring. According to the outcomes from this test pad, recommendations were made on cementing practices within the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin, based on regional gas-oil ratios (GOR). This interdisciplinary work determined whether the deployment of advanced cement slurries and casing rotation would help eliminate a potential health, safety, and environment (HSE) risk and help improve well integrity as related to bradenhead pressure.