The history of La Ceiba field began 10 years ago when six exploration wells were drilled to assess the potential of this field. The wells were drilled with several incidents of stuck pipe and the resulting necessary side-tracks to reach the final depth. Until last year no further attempt had been made to drill in this field. With little information available from the exploration wells concerning drilling practices, the drilling campaign began with the goal of improving the previous performance, making the drilling of the complete wells faster and safer than in the previous drilling. An engineering process was begun to find the best drilling solution for the field, starting with proven technologies such as positive displacement motors (PDM) and drill bits used in similar fields; however, this methods alone were not sufficient to meet the challenges of the field. New technologies were used for the different challenges and applications through coordinated work between the drilling engineering departments of the different parties involved in this field and using all the information available in the drill bit selection database, including logs and stability data for the tools selected to drill each phase of the wells. With evolution of the learning curve, drilling progressed from initial drilling involving 12 runs with time-consuming trips to surface to change either the drill bit or PDM, to drilling the same interval in 5 runs with the time on bottom increasing compare to previous experiences due to the introduction of tools more suitable to the environment requirements a rotary steerable systems (RSS) in combination with a specially designed drill bit. Problems commonly faced in the upper sections were, the trajectory was not strictly followed, were solved with the introduction of the RSS in this section; use of the tool saved 10 days of rig time and set a bench mark for the field and similar wells in western Venezuela. The development of this field shows that by solving the issues related to the well depth, temperature and constraints well design for these wells in western Venezuela, it will be possible to reach the oil reserves, at the same time decreasing the time spent in the drilling process.
In exploration wells in shallow waters of Mexico, the challenge of reducing drilling time and enhancing efficiency of well construction had become a problem on a daily basis. The continued use and success of Casing while Drilling (CwD) led the operator and service companies to embark upon a more ambitious project. Using the learning curve of previous 20″ CwD conductor sections, the first 34″ PDC drillable drill bit was designed and the first Casing Running Tool (CRT) for 30″ casing was utilized. These tools were used to apply the technology in the conductor sections of wells targeting Mesozoic formations. A technical feasibility study was performed by the operator and service companies involved to analyze the viability of executing this whilst creating new products. This saw the implementation of CwD using 30″ casing, an integral drilling system using casing as the drill string and a PDC drillable bit that allows drilling and casing of the section to take place simultaneously and eliminates the need to assemble a 36″ drilling BHA and, subsequently run casing. Once the CwD BHA (Casing + Drillable drill bit) reaches the final depth of the section, the hole is already cased and ready to cement. This challenged the service companies' engineering departments to develop the custom made tools for the application. In the first well, the original plan was to drill the 30″ section using a 36″ roller cone bit, drilling from sea bed (+/-78m) to 250 mts. This was the candidate well that the operator chose to utilize an ″unconventional″ drilling system to ensure reaching TD in a single run prior to cementing the casing. The 30″ × 34″ conductor section was drilled and cased at a depth of 256 meters, drilling a total of 178 meters with the PDC drillable drill bit (4 blades + 19 mm cutters) in 9:52 hrs., with an average rate of penetration (ROP) of 18.04 m/hr., and then preparations for cementing the 30″casing began. This entire operation represented a 26.3% time reduction compared with a conventional drilling operation This document will show the methodology and technology used in Mexico Marine Exploratory fields to reduce and mitigate the risk of not setting the casing at TD, focusing on the pre-planning stage, proper bit selection, Torque & Drag (T&D) analysis, casing fatigue life analysis and the use of new technology with a high success ratio on the operations in order to add value and ensure the customer' satisfaction.
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