No abstract

Drilling horizontal wells at an average true vertical depth (TVDBRT) of 850-950m to exploit the high porosity and low permeability tight reservoir of Barmer Hill (BH 1 to BH12), in the Indian state of Rajasthan required overcoming many chal-lenges. These wells were drilled from both Aishwariya and Mangala fields. The highly layered BH reservoir is primarily composed of diatomite and porcellanite. Drilling ERD wells at such shallow depths and with land rigs that have limited capability (tubular and pump limitations) required detailed planning and flawless execution because of many inherent risks such as high torque and stand pipe pressures, poor hole cleaning, inadequate weight-on-bit transfer and stuck pipe events. Optimum trajectory in terms of good well placement, drillability and collision risk avoidance was a priority in planning these wells in a tight network of over 350 wells. An important concern was designing a Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) to meet multiple requirements. It had to be planned to maximize achievable doglegs with Rotary Steerable System (RSS) to land the wells despite high uncertainty in reservoir depths.High drilling torque anticipated in 6″ hole and narrow operating window with re-spect to helical buckling were major concerns.WOB transfer while drilling ~1000 m horizontal section was critical. ECD had to be carefully managed by a combination of good hole cleaning and the use of smaller drill pipe in order not to exceed formation fracture gradient. Good drilling practices specific to ERD wells and meticulous engineering/planning led to successful drilling of these shallow TVD ERD wells.

Government of India has set an ambitious target of reducing hydrocarbon import. Increasing oil & gas production is one of the measures by which oil & gas import dependency can be reduced. Despite relatively low crude prices globally, substantial E&P activities have been carried out in the country in the last decade, which has witnessed an exponential increase in exploration of oil and gas reserves. Many new fields were discovered during this exploration campaign out of which, few are potential traps containing hydrocarbons. Kutch and Saurashtra Basin off Gujarat coast is one of the exploration fields that involves trap drilling to explore reservoir sands below. Recently for the very first time, in a decade, oil reserves have been discovered in prospective sedimentary basin of Saurashtra. (DGH India Outlook, 2017-18) Drilling in this basin is characterized by slow rate of penetration (ROP), frequent bit trips, drill string failure, and high well cost. The 12 1/4-in section in this offshore block typically drills through very hard, abrasive and thick layers of Basaltic formation (known as Deccan Trap) with unconfined compressive strength (UCS) between 18-42 kpsi. Conventional polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits and roller cone (RC) bits faced extreme cutting structure damage and delivered poor ROPs in this section. In this paper, challenges of drilling approximately 2,200 m of hard and abrasive Deccan Trap in the 12.25-in section is discussed along with a proposed solution of hybrid bit design by combining conical (CDE) and ridged (RDE) diamond elements. Two new hybrid 8-bladed 16-mm bit were specifically designed for this application. The first bit drilled an interval of 952m with an average ROP of 1.9m/hr and the second bit drilled an interval of 960m with an average ROP of 1.83m/hr. Both the bits came out of the hole in good condition, thereby delivering a benchmark performance in drilling this challenging section. The runs resulted in 40% reduction in cost/meter for this section and saved 36 offshore days for the customer.

The 6"hole section in Raageshwari Field NW India (onshore) is typically between 600-800m long and highly challenging in terms of formation strength and abrasiveness. Lithology in the upper part is composed of sandstone, claystone and weathered basalt with unconfined compressive strength (UCS) between 3-5kpsi. The lower section contains basalt, felsic and sub-felsic igneous formations with UCS range of 15-30kpsi. Historically, a two bit strategy was employed. First, a PDC bit on a positive displacement motor (PDM) bottom hole assembly was used to drill the soft 6" section until ROP dropped to an unacceptable level. The BHA was then pulled and followed by a diamond impregnated bit on a turbine BHA to drill the very hard volcanics. Typical average on-bottom ROP for the entire section was 4.5m/hr and took approximately 170 hours to reach total depth (TD). To reduce costs, new technology was proposed to improve bit durability in the hard/abrasive volcanics and drill the entire 6" section in one run at a higher ROP. Recent bit and drilling data from offset wells was analyzed to assist in developing a new, cost effective PDC design to replace the expensive diamond-impregnated bits and drill the 6" hole section in one run. The study resulted in a new six-bladed PDC bit with 13mm cutters that incorporates superior cutter technology to improve durability and resist physical and thermal degradation. The design includes a row of backup cutters in the shoulder area to increase radial diamond volume for maximum durability. The new PDC bits have been run on a motor and rotary steerable bottom hole assemblies and drilled the 6" section on three consecutive wells in Raageshwari field totaling 2328meters with an average ROP of 10.7m/hr. This represents approx. 47% decrease in drilling time compared to that previously achieved by Impreg/TCI bit runs. Typically, the new bits are pulled in re-runable condition. This improved performance has saved the operator approximately six-days of rig time and approximately USD 480,000/well.

The 6"hole section in Raageshwari Field NW India (onshore) is typically between 600–800m long and highly challenging in terms of formation strength and abrasiveness. Lithology in the upper part is composed of sandstone, claystone and weathered basalt with unconfined compressive strength (UCS) between 3–5kpsi. The lower section contains basalt, felsic and sub-felsic igneous formations with UCS range of 15–30kpsi. Historically, a two bit strategy was employed. First, a PDC bit on a positive displacement motor (PDM) bottom hole assembly was used to drill the soft 6" section until ROP dropped to an unacceptable level. The BHA was then pulled and followed by a diamond impregnated bit on a turbine BHA to drill the very hard volcanics. Typical average on-bottom ROP for the entire section was 4.5m/hr and took approximately 170 hours to reach total depth (TD). To reduce costs, new technology was proposed to improve bit durability in the hard/abrasive volcanics and drill the entire 6" section in one run at a higher ROP. Recent bit and drilling data from offset wells was analyzed to assist in developing a new, cost effective PDC design to replace the expensive diamond-impregnated bits and drill the 6" hole section in one run. The study resulted in a new six-bladed PDC bit with 13 mm cutters that incorporates superior cutter technology to improve durability and resist physical and thermal degradation. The design includes a row of backup cutters in the shoulder area to increase radial diamond volume for maximum durability. The new PDC bits have been run on a motor and rotary steerable bottom hole assemblies and drilled the 6" section on three consecutive wells in Raageshwari field totaling 2328meters with an average ROP of 10.7m/hr. This represents approx. 47% decrease in drilling time compared to that previously achieved by Impreg/TCI bit runs. Typically, the new bits are pulled in re-runable condition. This improved performance has saved the operator approximately six-days of rig time and approximately USD 480,000/well.