Exploration drilling activities are not endeavors that afford optimization given the variability of the drilling environment and inherent uncertainty of the lateral discontinuous geology. The ongoing exploration drilling program comprising several wells and various wellsites in the shallow waters of the Red Sea is providing an opportunity to progressively refine exploration drilling practices, and extract incremental efficiencies while maintaining a zero saftey incident record. The Saudi Aramco shallow water exploration drilling program is targeting a transition zone corridor approximately 10-30 km wide in shallow to moderately deepwater straddling the coastline at the northwestern end of the Red Sea. Given the proximity of the Burqan and Midyan fields, geological and stratigraphic analyses are developed using analogues from extensively studied geophysical and geomechanical models. Initial well designs developed from the basis of design anticipated extensive salt sections and moderately divergent geopressure beginning in the rubble zone and extending beyond the Kial formation. After drilling two successful exploration wells, learnings from solutions developed to address drilling challenges are presented. Optimization of the casing design afforded by the use of large bore logging while drilling (LWD) tools is complemented by a bottom-hole assembly (BHA) reconfiguration based on results of a BHA dynamics study. The high temperature profile of the wells drilled also presented another dimension to the challenge as well the opportunity to test emerging high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) logging technology. The pore-pressure fracture gradient (PPFG) profile emulating a post-salt abnormally geopressured trend and strike-slip stress regime initially elicited the use of seismic while drilling technology to resolve poor imaging difficulties below the salt but subsequently discontinued to determine the best lookahead strategy and job design. Ensuring environmental stewardship required careful planning for the disposal of waste from drilling cuttings. For the frontier area in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, the extensive environmental impact assessment and measures to ensure compliance with national and corporate environmental policy is also presented.

Rank wild cat deepwater exploration wells present an escalated set of challenges beyond even those encountered in the most complex offshore well construction. The presence of salt diapirs and well documented stressed pre- and post-salt formation layers produce greater distortion and unpredictability to geopressure and temperature gradients. It is customary to approach these challenges with casing design configurations that afford deployment of contingency casing strings without compromise to mechanical strength, well integrity and reaching the bottom-hole depth objective with the right casing bore size for production testing. The use of expandable liners have become a panacea for extending hole sections — that may otherwise have truncated and narrowed the final depth — and terminating the hole size of deep reservoir targets respectively. Significant compromise in casing mechanical strength accompanies the application of expandable liners and their application must be carefully considered, alongside an array of qualified alternatives, especially above and across high pressured reservoir intervals. The Expandable Hanger and Packer Liner (EHPL) System offers the preservation of the maximum bore size for subsequent hole and casing size, while allowing deployment in the tightest annuli that otherwise will have prevented the pass through and space for a conventional hanger deployment to achieve liner design and effective hang-off capacity. In the account presented in this paper, the technical evaluation process, deployment planning and challenges, and successful application industry-wide of the first liner with an expandable hanger and packer system is enumerated.

The first deepwater well in the Saudi Arabian side of the Red Sea was going to be a rank wildcat well. Saudi Aramco Upstream leadership assembled a team of experienced, knowledgeable and dedicated professional staff across the Exploration Geology, Geophysics, Reservoir and Exploration Drilling organization to undertake the challenge of safe and successful well delivery. Contemporary frontier exploration projects utilize project development processes with long inter-nodal phasing schemes that follow traditional lateral cascade workflow methodology or the common waterfall process.Published works on project development best practices cite project development and management processes that are ostensibly an adoption of product development processes with stage gates and decision points. In order to meet the Saudi Aramco leadership challenge for project delivery --speed, scale and a safe delivery mandate, non-negotiable parameters established for the project --innovative project interface management tools and strategies devised to enable multidisciplinary resources both internal and external to recognize vertical and lateral impacts of decision, specification and system dependencies, compatibility, boundaries and critical path sensitivities was developed.The pervasive cohesion and shared sense of responsibility by the core project team and service partners, seamless communication protocols among stakeholders though fraught with complex and diverse perspectives was also a source of robust decision making. Several industry first technologies for well construction were successfully deployed and the meticulous engineering motions undertaken to ensure hitch-free deployment are noteworthy. The strategies for selection of service contractors along service and product lines, capabilities and compatibility for performance management are also described.This paper describes drilling engineering and operations preparation, front end engineering and design activities, and the project delivery success of Saudi Aramco's first deepwater exploration program in the Red Sea. The validation of the potency of the strategies, tools and systems employed is embodied in the drilling to record regional total depth of the first deepwater well of Saudi Aramco's Red Sea Deepwater Exploration Campaign Program

Although the main objectives of drillstem testing (DST) have remained largely unchanged over the years, operators are continuously seeking a means of improving operational efficiency (time/cost savings) while maintaining the highest level of operational standards, with safety and the environment being paramount. This paper presents a case history of the first retrievable dual packer testing string used to independently test two reservoirs in a single trip (toolstring conveyance into and out of the hole), which enhances operational efficiency. This case history is from an offshore exploratory well in Saudi Arabia in which a dual retrievable packer test string was deployed with a real-time telemetry system to successfully test two independent reservoirs in a single trip. Throughout the operation, real-time telemetry data above and below each packer enabled real-time understanding of the operational process and provided assurance of equipment/process integrity before proceeding with the next sequence of well testing operations. In this manner, operations were safely performed step-by-step, ensuring that the well test objectives and zonal isolation were met to determine the individual reservoir evaluation integrity. With the application of acoustic telemetry technology, the ability to acoustically communicate with and control downhole tools in real time is achieved. Communication to and from the downhole tools also provides the status of the downhole equipment in real time. In addition, knowledge gained from the real-time data enhances the ability of the operators to perform well tests with reduced uncertainties. The early availability of reservoir knowledge enables operational efficiencies, ensuring that test objectives are met, and may reduce the overall test period and significantly reduce well testing costs. The direct result of eliminating multiple trips is that operational efficiency is achieved, enabling the operator to save time and money without compromising data quality or health, safety, and environment standards. This case history represents a milestone for the industry, demonstrating the successful deployment of multizone testing, and serves as a stepping stone for even greater efficiencies by using real-time telemetry technology. This paper also discusses lessons learned and plans for additional well testing process efficiencies, enhanced with well application selection and DST toolstring acoustic control devices and technology.