Exploration Drilling Performance Optimization in Red Sea Shallow Water: Shifting West with Offshore Exploration Drilling Best Practices

Khalifa, Saleh; Azzouni, Suliman; Tiwari, Shrikant; Adewuya, Opeyemi

doi:10.2118/172174-ms

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…As reported by [5], in conjunction with Saudi Aramco Environmental Protection Department, the Marine Studies Department of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) was entrusted with the task of conducting EIA work ahead of drilling operations. As reported by [5], in conjunction with Saudi Aramco Environmental Protection Department, the Marine Studies Department of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) was entrusted with the task of conducting EIA work ahead of drilling operations.…”

Section: Developing a Red Sea Project Strategy -The Mandatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The governing well barrier philosophy was that "at least two independent and tested barriers shall, as a rule, be available in order to prevent an unintentional flow from the well during drilling and well activities" [2,5]. The governing well barrier philosophy was that "at least two independent and tested barriers shall, as a rule, be available in order to prevent an unintentional flow from the well during drilling and well activities" [2,5].…”

Section: Rig Selection and Basis Of Well Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Planning, Execution and Delivery of First Saudi Arabian Red Sea Deepwater Well: Project Management and Execution Case Study

Adewuya

Tiwari

King

et al. 2014

Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

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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

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Section: Developing a Red Sea Project Strategy -The Mandatementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rig Selection and Basis Of Well Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning, Execution and Delivery of First Saudi Arabian Red Sea Deepwater Well: Project Management and Execution Case Study

Adewuya

Tiwari

King

et al. 2014

Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

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Development of Innovative Formulations to Mitigate Differential Delayed Cement Setting in Long Deep Liners in the Red Sea: Lab Study and Field Application

Al-Yami

Jennings

2015

Day 2 Tue, September 15, 2015

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When cementing liners, the cement must develop compressive strength at the top of the liner before drilling is resumed. Sometimes at high temperature wells, it can take us up to 2 days just waiting for compressive strength development at top of liner conditions. This problem is common when cementing long liners in high temperature wells. An earlier study done by Yami et al. (2007) showed the development of two new retarded systems. The first system is used for non-latex cements for wells that do not show indications of fluid flow. The second cement system includes latex and is recommended for liners with potential for fluid flow. The new retarder systems were effectively applied in a well in Red Sea. This paper discusses the non-latex system field application and summarizes lessons learned. The field application was done by using sodium salt and alicyclic acid with aminated aromatic polymer in combination with sodium salt of organic acid and inorganic salt and aromatic polymer derivatives to cover differential temperature of more than 100 °F.

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Pore Pressure Prediction Using Look-Ahead Vertical Seismic Profile VSP - A Case Study from the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia

Planchart

Sierraalta

Saadan

et al. 2017

SPE Middle East Oil &Amp; Gas Show and Conference

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A case study is presented to illustrate the successful prediction of formation pore pressure ahead-of-bit using vertical seismic profile (VSP) data acquired from the Red Sea, offshore Saudi Arabia. Two look-ahead VSPs were collected at two intermediate depth (TD) levels. VSP data was analyzed through corridor stack and inversion to estimate the depth of potential reservoir and related interval velocity. Two strong reflections ahead of the bit were identified as having lower acoustic impedances and the deeper one was associated with a potential reservoir. After drilling for about 4000 ft from the bottom of the first VSP, a second VSP was acquired to better image the potential reservoir and to investigate any over-pressure zones ahead of the bit in an open-hole. The second VSP clearly revealed the potential reservoir and presence of velocity reversal ahead of bit, which could be associated with an increasing pore pressure. Further drilling for few hundred feet, events such as high torque and tight hole as indicators of over-pressure were encountered. These suggested that drilling to the target reservoir could greatly increase operational risk due to over-pressure. Therefore, the decision was made to call for final TD. The post-drill pore pressure evaluation revealed that the look-ahead pore pressure prediction was different only by a small amount from the actual measurements. This concluded that our look-ahead pore pressure prediction workflow can provide critical data for drilling engineers to call for final TD and successfully complete the well.

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Exploration Drilling Performance Optimization in Red Sea Shallow Water: Shifting West with Offshore Exploration Drilling Best Practices

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Planning, Execution and Delivery of First Saudi Arabian Red Sea Deepwater Well: Project Management and Execution Case Study

Planning, Execution and Delivery of First Saudi Arabian Red Sea Deepwater Well: Project Management and Execution Case Study

Development of Innovative Formulations to Mitigate Differential Delayed Cement Setting in Long Deep Liners in the Red Sea: Lab Study and Field Application

Pore Pressure Prediction Using Look-Ahead Vertical Seismic Profile VSP - A Case Study from the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia

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