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Since 1994 Coiled Tubing Drilling (CTD) has completed over 650 sidetracks on the North Slope of Alaska. In many aspects the window milling and drilling phase can be considered a mature technology. However, recent developments in the completion phase namely with the generation II side exhaust liner running tool (Gen II SELRT) have further increased job reliability, safety, and efficiency for the liner cementing completion phase. This paper will begin with a brief update on the status of CTD on the North Slope (3 rigs drilling on a daily basis) and discuss how many of the challenges with drilling through/below the production tubing have been dealt with. The cost for a CTD sidetrack with an equivalent amount of reservoir exposure and zonal isolation is about one half that of a rotary sidetrack on the North Slope. This is due to efficiencies in leaving the production tubing in place (dominant savings) and less consumables. In addition, CTD’s enhanced capability for underbalanced drilling (UBD) and managed pressure drilling (MPD) make it attractive for some North Slope fields. While the electronically controlled drilling bottomhole assembly (BHA) has improved drilling performance, the electric line (EL) inside the CT has challenged the completion phase. CT wiper darts for separating cement from displacement fluid can no longer be used. The CT wiper dart would be damaged by the EL and visa versa. Instead, the new liner running tool discussed in this paper exhausts the contaminated cement/mud interface to the annulus at top of liner before launching the liner wiper plug (LWP). Over 76 liners have been cemented with the side exhaust technique. The last 34 jobs have been done with the Gen II SELRT that uses mechanical dogs to close the path through the LWP, side exhaust, and launch the LWP when desired. This new tool increases job efficiency over the first generation tool and continues to provide reliable liner cementing with EL in the coil.
Since 1994 Coiled Tubing Drilling (CTD) has completed over 650 sidetracks on the North Slope of Alaska. In many aspects the window milling and drilling phase can be considered a mature technology. However, recent developments in the completion phase namely with the generation II side exhaust liner running tool (Gen II SELRT) have further increased job reliability, safety, and efficiency for the liner cementing completion phase. This paper will begin with a brief update on the status of CTD on the North Slope (3 rigs drilling on a daily basis) and discuss how many of the challenges with drilling through/below the production tubing have been dealt with. The cost for a CTD sidetrack with an equivalent amount of reservoir exposure and zonal isolation is about one half that of a rotary sidetrack on the North Slope. This is due to efficiencies in leaving the production tubing in place (dominant savings) and less consumables. In addition, CTD’s enhanced capability for underbalanced drilling (UBD) and managed pressure drilling (MPD) make it attractive for some North Slope fields. While the electronically controlled drilling bottomhole assembly (BHA) has improved drilling performance, the electric line (EL) inside the CT has challenged the completion phase. CT wiper darts for separating cement from displacement fluid can no longer be used. The CT wiper dart would be damaged by the EL and visa versa. Instead, the new liner running tool discussed in this paper exhausts the contaminated cement/mud interface to the annulus at top of liner before launching the liner wiper plug (LWP). Over 76 liners have been cemented with the side exhaust technique. The last 34 jobs have been done with the Gen II SELRT that uses mechanical dogs to close the path through the LWP, side exhaust, and launch the LWP when desired. This new tool increases job efficiency over the first generation tool and continues to provide reliable liner cementing with EL in the coil.
In the last few decades, coiled tubing has been widely employed for post-stimulation drillout of composite or cast-iron bridge plugs and isolation sleeves used in multi-stage hydraulic fracture stimulation in horizontal wells. Due to its inherent capability of continual deployment, coiled tubing technology has increased in popularity for this application over conventional jointed-pipe snubbing with rig-assist snubbing units. Despite the increasing use of coiled tubing units, drillout practices have typically been based on "art" rather than science, often resulting in drilling problems such as poor fluid efficiency and hole cleaning issues, lost circulation, stuck pipe, lost-in-hole tools, and parted pipe. Unfortunately, a greater percentage of stuck pipe incidents are directly related to poor hole cleaning, and it is not surprising that the causes of these problems are often not well understood. Thus, various approaches have been utilized to prevent recurrence based on incorrect assumptions. While some of these problems have been adequately dealt with in several publications, the determination of optimum fluid properties for efficient hole cleaning as well as the effectiveness of short tripping have been given minimal attention. To a large extent, fresh water, or brine, is mixed with various additives such as friction reducer for pressure loss and pipe friction, hydrogen sulfide scavenger and inhibitor, biocide, scale inhibitor, and polymer gel while drilling plugs. A common hole cleaning practice is the use of intermittent high-viscosity gel sweeps, wiper tripping to kick-off point after drilling a predefined number of plugs, and flowing back the well in an underbalanced condition while drilling and short tripping. The effectiveness of these practices is worth questioning based on the occasional drag and stuck pipe encountered while tripping out of hole. This paper addresses the misconceptions related to coiled tubing hydraulics and hole cleaning, as well as reviews the common drillout practices and their cost implications including coiled tubing rig up, coil size selection, bottomhole assembly, fluids efficiency, and short tripping. Various best practices are recommended for improving post-stimulation drillout, with specific emphasis on how to minimize drillout cost.
Due to the declining reservoir pressures in some of its onshore gas carbonate fields, ADNOC decided upon an initial 3 well UBCTD, (Underbalanced Coil Tubing Drilling), campaign in its onshore Asab and Bab fields, with 2 wells to be drilled in Asab and 1 in Bab. Both target fields have high H2S concentrations up to 6% and ADNOC undertook the necessary candidate selection process, Basis of Design, and equipment selection to enable them to drill these wells using UBCTD techniques. Due to the high H2S content, it was required that a closed loop system design was implemented, which was the 1st successful one implemented in the Middle East. The project's given objectives were analyzed, and the planning was conducted considering the different aspects to achieve ADNOC's objectives and expectations. Several challenges were faced during the designing phase which had to be resolved prior the operations start-up. These challenges included extended drilling reach, closed loop returns handling system, handling high H2S levels at surface amongst others. One of the main design objectives, the drilling reach, was improved by optimizing the trajectories Dog Leg Severity, (DLS), and Bottom Hole Assembly, (BHA), configuration. Instead of a conventional mud motor, a turbine was used to give power to the bit and allowed having a lower Weight on Bit, (WOB), to drill the formation, thereby increasing the depth of the section. The trajectory was planned in a way to maximize the reservoir contact within the production layers and reduce footage in the non-productive zones between the producing formations, therefore maximizing the well productivity. Increasing the well production was key to the project economics and to prove the value brought by the UBCTD to ADNOC's hydrocarbons production. Several business disciplines collaborated closely under the IWC, (Integrated Well Construction), stewardship to provide practical solutions and design a system specifically tailored to achieve the objectives and overcome the various challenges associated with this project. The final solution was a closed loop system capable of:removing solids/drilled cuttings from the system.measuring flow rates of different fluid phases (gas, condensate & water).treating and removing H2S.exporting gas and condensate to ADNOC's production facility.whilst drilling the well in Underbalanced conditions. After the operations start-up on the 1st well, the returns handling system was modified to improve the efficiency and enhance the safety of the personnel and equipment. This paper will discuss the design and planning involved in the successful drilling of these three wells and the operational challenges and mitigations encountered while drilling.
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