BP had long recognized the benefits of MPD, having been using it for years to deliver very challenging wells in Egypt, Trinidad and the North Sea; and it was time to bring these benefits to its GoM operations. Once the company team identified a portfolio of suitable candidate wells to allow the economics of the application to be advantageous, they partnered with Seadrill to provide the MPD service integrated into the West Capricorn drilling rig. This approach builds on synergies within the drilling contractor organization to achieve long term economic, competency, and risk management benefits, resulting from integrating this drilling method on the rig, and eliminating interfaces with 3rd party providers. The paper will discuss how the company and the drilling contractor teams, together with equipment suppliers and training providers, managed the project from initial system design, to installation and commissioning, to the successful delivery of the first well using MPD, at top quartile performance. It will discuss the process for optimizing the design and testing it from a reliability and process safety perspectives; engaging the regulatory authority and the classification society; integrating MPD in the well planning process and developing operational procedures for use on the rig; and delivering a training program for the wider team covering the technical and the human factors aspects to ensure a successful delivery.

Successfully cementing production casing strings is one of the main challenges of well construction in mature fields. The implementation of cementing best practices can be difficult in the narrow pore pressure-fracture pressure (PPFG) window associated with reservoir depletion and complex well architecture. The increased risk of losses can lead operating teams to compromise on these best practices, often jeopardizing the zonal isolation objectives. This can result in significant additional time, cost, and production deferral/loss. Managed pressure cementing (MPC) is a viable technique to address these challenges. Using the managed pressure drilling (MPD) system's capability to precisely control bottomhole pressure, coupled with the use of mud weights that are lower than conventionally needed can expand the PPFG window; enabling operating teams to achieve a higher success rate in meeting the zonal isolation objectives. This paper will offer an optimized design methodology and critical considerations and parameters for MPC operations. It will also briefly describe the primary applications of MPC and specific, unique design considerations associated with each, namely, (1) mud weight less than pore pressure (PP), (2) losses prevention, and (3) wellbore stability control. Lastly, it will provide a case history illustrating how MPC was used in one of the operator's mature fields, by giving an overview of the job engineering design process, the operational planning (inclusive of contingencies), and the key highlights and learnings observed during execution.