Natural gas is one of the cleanest energy sources, its uses range from fueling power stations to cooking and heating. Global demand for natural gas is expected to rise in the coming years. Meeting these energy demands means drilling deeper exploration and development wells to access huge volumes of gas present under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) conditions. Despite the attractiveness of the reward, managing the narrow drilling window between the reservoir pore pressure and the formation fracture gradient has remained a major source of cost escalation and non-productive time on HPHT projects. In order to improve the economics of HPHT projects, technologies like Managed Pressure Drilling and borehole strengthening have been used as a means of mitigating the risks associated with narrow margin drilling, thus enabling a paradigm shift from traditional casing seat selection methodology. In the Niger Delta, it is not uncommon to observe significant jumps in pore pressure values in proximate high pressure formations. The simplification of well designs and successful drilling operations are often challenged by the need to navigate through series of high pressured reservoirs in narrow margin windows. Compliance with process safety requirements requires selection of mud weight that is low enough to prevent mud loss and high enough to overbalance the reservoir pressure. Mud loss induced by formation fracture is often encountered in tight margin drilling, and when this happens, the focus shifts to strengthening the damaged wellbore using various techniques such as pumping chemical resins to seal off the loss zones. Various degrees of results have been achieved when borehole strengthening techniques are deployed with the objective of restoring wellbore integrity in both permeable and non-permeable formations. Successful deployments have resulted in achieving the well objectives safely and cost effectively. This paper details loss of wellbore integrity experienced on an HPHT well in the Niger delta and the wellbore strengthening strategy that was used to restore the strength in a non-permeable formation. It sheds light on how understanding the nature of the fracture, rock lithology as well as proper job execution can restore a damaged wellbore to its previous strengths. A Cost reduction approach to the execution of the strategy is also discussed.

Application of Managed pressure drilling (MPD) technology with other techniques to maintain constant Bottom Hole pressure (BHP) has been found to enhance drilling operations in applications where the margin between the pore pressure and fracture gradient is narrow and the reservoir permeability is high. Classic examples of such applications are deep water drilling, high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) regime and depleted reservoir environments. In the Niger Delta, HPHT reservoirs can be found in well depths up to 17000 ftss with a drilling window range of 0.4 to1.6ppg. Typical reservoir characteristics are formation permeability of 124 – 204mD and reservoir mobility of 112 – 1000mD/cp. Generally in this type of environment and essentially where there are high uncertainties in the reservoir pressures and formation characteristics, significant process safety incidents have been found to occur during pumps off events as a result of variations in BHP outside the allowable limits of pore pressure (lower limit) and fracture gradient (upper limit). The risks of exceeding the allowable limits are the possibility of taking significant influx volume if BHP falls below the pore pressure and loss of well bore integrity if the BHP exceeds the fracture pressure. Consequences of any of these events are high nonproductive time (NPT), well cost escalation and inability to achieve well objectives. This paper illustrates how in the recent HPHT exploration campaign carried out in Niger Delta, managing BHP was identified as a critical success factor. Hydrocarbon reserves of the exploratory objectives were successfully and safely unlocked by using MPD to maintain BHP within the allowable limits. The paper also illustrates how MPD application was enhanced by the use of high resolution pressure while drilling (PWD) technology.

Managed pressure drilling (MPD) is an adaptive drilling technique used to improve the economics and to mitigate risks associated with drilling high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) exploration wells where the drilling window is often narrow. The technique involves the combination of surface back pressure and fluid hydrostatic column to provide the required bottom hole pressure for safe drilling. Typical MPD equipment spread includes rotating control device (RCD), chokes, high pressure lines and gate valves with Pressure relief valves (PRVs) incorporated. The primary purpose of the PRV is to protect the MPD surface equipment and the formation from being overpressured. The relief valve achieves this by bypassing the normal fluid flow path for MPD operations and relieving the system pressure to the rig Mud gas separator (MGS) through a dedicated line. Each time a PRV is activated the resulting loss of surface back pressure increases the risk of taking a kick. On the other hand, when a PRV is not activated, an excessive increase in surface pressure raises the risk of formation fracture leading to losses. Therefore, the performance of the PRV has an immense impact on assessing the risk of a well control situation, which may be caused by either loses due to formation breakdown and consequently a kick from loss of the hydrostatic pressure component of the equivalent surface density (ESD) or an influx as a result of loss of surface back pressure component of the ESD due to loss of integrity of surface equipment). Pressure Relief Management philosophy generally covers decisions such as which parts of the well system (surface and subsurface) are to be preferentially protected by the PRVs, selection of activation pressure for high level alarms, types, number and setpoints of PRVs in the MPD system during different phases of the drilling operations - drilling, connections and tripping, and MPD choke full-opening pressure. These values are dependent on formation integrity test (FIT), mud weight, drilling window, annular friction pressure and operating envelope of RCD. The set points require adjustment depending on the hole size and flow rate and may be different during completion and well control operations. This paper describes the Pressure Relief Management philosophy for a HPHT well drilled in the Niger delta. It looks at factors that drive the high-pressure alarm setting values, choice of PRV types, placement and the part of the well system being protected, PRV tripping and reset values, and MPD choke full opening pressures. It also describes the challenges and risk assessment that influenced the selection of set points (single or dual setpoints) for different phases of the drilling operations.

The objective hole section of a High Pressure (HP) well in the Niger Delta was designed to be drilled with Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) technology. While drilling the well, a significant well-control incident occurred; subsequently the well was redesigned to be drilled conventionally. This paper presents the drilling of the well before the well-control incident; the redesign of the well after the well-control incident; and the eventual drilling of the well to secure the primary objective. The overall intent of the paper is to share the learnings acquired during this sequence of activities. The redesign after the well-control incident involved splitting the objective section in two intervals. This enabled the well to be drilled without compromising the primary objectives, which were data acquisition and an eventual completion on one of the objective sands. The paper also contains the strategies used in the management of the narrow margin between pore pressure and the fracture pressure of the well, without MPD assistance.

Drilling long open hole sections has been known to result in many challenges including wellbore instability problems which may lead to stuck pipe problems. However, well design or operational challenges may necessitate making such risky decisions. In such situations, precautionary measures will need to be taken to ensure that the hole is successfully drilledwith minimum to no wellbore instability problems which have negative impact on time and cost. The case study, well FX-3 is a well drilled by one of the major oil and gas companies in the Niger Delta. The tophole was planned to be drilled in two sections: a pilot hole to the planned section total depth and then with a hole opener to open the pilot hole to the required hole size. Due to the abrasive formation type and difficulties encountered while drilling to the planned depth, decision was made to set the casing shallower than planned. This necessitated drilling the 12-1/4" hole section longer than planned. With this decision, several challenges were encountered and eventually overcome. The well was successfully completed. The objective of this paper is to present the lessons learned in drilling a long open hole interval and the recovery operations from a stuck pipe incident within that interval in the well. It discusses both the well design and actual field practices, with significant emphasis in the recovery operations from the stuck pipe incident. One of the key events is the spotting of special pipe freeing pills, which in combination of other activities led to the freeing of the stuck bottom hole assembly which had a radioactive source. Some of the key learnings are the need to optimise the well design, proper hole cleaning and mud conditioning prior to drilling to section total depth. The knowledge of the pipe sticking mechanism and the application of the right pipe freeing formulations are important considerations in freeing any stuck pipe