Drilling & Completion News
First gas delivered from Chuandongbei project in China
Chevron subsidiary Unocal East China Sea has begun natural gas production from the first stage of the Chuandongbei Project in the Sichuan Basin of southwest China. Chuandongbei is one of the largest onshore gas projects developed by an international oil company and a national oil company in China.
The project covers more than 800 sq km in Sichuan Province and the Chongqing Municipality. Unocal East China Sea holds a 49% participating interest as the operator, and China National Petroleum Corp holds a 51% participating interest.
The start-up of the first train commences stage one of the project. Production is planned to ramp up over the coming months as all three trains come online. The three trains have a combined design outlet capacity of 258 million cu ft/day of natural gas.
The Chuandongbei Project is estimated to contain potentially recoverable natural gas resources of 3 trillion cu ft.
Kosmos strikes gas in guembeul-1 well offshore Senegal
Kosmos Energy announced that its Guembeul-1 exploration well, located in the northern part of the St. Louis Offshore Profond license area in Senegal, has made a significant gas discovery.
Located approximately 5 km south of the basin-opening Tortue-1 gas discovery (renamed Ahmeyim) in approximately 2,700 m of water, Guembeul-1 was drilled to a total depth of 5,245 m.
The well encountered 101 m of net gas pay in two excellent-quality reservoirs, including 56 m in the Lower Cenomanian and 45 m in the underlying Albian, with no water encountered. Guembeul-1 has demonstrated reservoir continuity, as well as static pressure communication with the Tortue-1 well in the Lower Cenomanian. This suggests a single, large gas accumulation.
The well has provided additional calibration of the operator’s seismic attribute exploration tool, confirming its reservoir and fluid predictive capability for these primary exploration targets.
Kosmos holds a 60% interest in the Guembeul-1 well, along with Timis Corp at 30% and Petrosen at 10%.
Gulf Drilling takes delivery of 5th KFELS Class B jackup
Keppel FELS has delivered the Halul jackup to Gulf Drilling International (GDI) of Qatar. The KFELS B Class jackup is the first rig that Keppel FELS has delivered this year.
Halul is also the fifth KFELS B Class jackup delivered to GDI, which has renewed options for two more KFELS B Class rigs for deliveries in 2018 and 2019. Halul’s sister rigs Dukhan and Al Zubarah are operating for Qatar Petroleum while Al Khor is working for Shell.
Built to GDI’s requirements, the jackup has been designed to operate in the higher ambient temperature of the Middle East. The KFELS B Class is equipped with larger spud cans for reduced bearing pressure and expanded operational coverage, especially in seabeds where soft soil is predominant.
The rig can drill wells up to 30,000 ft with a cantilever that can skid out 70 ft from the edge of the hull.
It features offline standbuilding capabilities and 7,500-psi mud pumps, with accommodation for 150 people.
Latshaw Drilling deploys newest rig to the Permian
Latshaw Drilling’s newest AC rig began operations in the Permian in January for Diamondback Energy. The 1,500-hp NOV Ideal rig is equipped with 12 P-160 pumps with a 7,500-psi circulating system and three shakers. In addition, the rig can move up to 120 ft with the walking system. This is the first NOV Ideal rig with a racking capability of 25,000 ft of 5-in. drill pipe, according to Latshaw. The addition of this rig brings the company’s total fleet to 41, including 10 late-model AC rigs and 30 late-model SCRs.
