D&C Tech Digest

Huisman rig completes 1st well in 6 weeks; drills surface hole using drilling with casing

Huisman’s newly developed containerised drilling rig, the LOC 400, operated by the Northern Dutch Drilling Company (NDDC) for Northern Petroleum Netherlands (NPN), successfully completed its first well in Werkendam, The Netherlands. The unit drilled the well to a TD of 2,650 m (8,694 ft), from spud to rig release, in a period of six weeks.

The LOC 400 drilled its first well
to a TD of 2,650 m in six weeks.

In addition, the 780-m (2,559-ft) surface hole was completed using drilling with casing techniques, which is a first for The Netherlands, and the depth of the surface hole by drilling with casing is a record for Europe.

Besides the surface hole, the project scope comprised two additional well sections: section 2 with a target depth of 2,100 m (6,890 ft) and section 3 with a final depth of 2,650 m (8,694 ft). Both sections were smoothly completed using drill pipe and a steerable BHA with mud motor. After this first project, the rig will be transported with regular container trucks to the north of the Netherlands to start its next project.

Huisman introduced the LOC 250, a fully containerised super single drilling rig for on- and offshore use, in 2005. They built on that experience to develop the LOC 400. The drilling process does not require personnel on the rig floor for both drilling with casing and conventional drilling, which enhances safety for rig personnel. The pipe handling and connections can be controlled from the driller’s cabin.

The pipe handler can manage pipes without risk of damage to the thread, enabling the protectors to be removed and the pipe to be doped while on the horizontal pipe rack, just 1.5 m (4.9 ft) above the ground. The top drive, stabbing arm and power tong make connections easy, safe, fast and reliable. For drilling with casing, the top drive and power slips can make and break connections, while the make-up is also monitored closely, including torque graph recordings.

The LOC 400 has a small footprint and is easy to transport, with 27 ISO containers. It requires only four crew members to operate the rig.

China Oilfield Services (COSL) announced that a full-scale trial of its “Atlantis” Artificial Seabed System was successfully completed on 27 April on the Chinese Continental Shelf in the South China Sea. The Atlantis system is a patented technology owned by Atlantis Deepwater Orient (ADOL), a joint venture between COSL and the Norwegian company Atlantis Deepwater Technology Holding. It was deployed under the semisubmersible Nanhai V, owned and operated by COSL. The successful completion of this trial confirms that COSL can perform deepwater drilling using semis that deploy the Atlantis deepwater technology.

The concept is to use a buoy positioned at a depth of about 250-400 m below surface where the wellhead and blowout preventer will be located. The buoy is anchored to the seabed by means of a tieback casing, which is connected to the wellhead located on the seabed.

Enventure Global Technology announced its first commercial installation of the SET solid expandable technology in Australia in an offshore exploratory well near Broome. “Though we’ve run more than 1,000 expandable applications worldwide, we are still thrilled when we add yet another country or region to our portfolio,” said Asia Pacific GM Iain Jennings.

The Australian operator experienced wellbore instability and was forced to set the 9 5/8-in. casing higher than planned. Regaining formation integrity through cement squeezes was unsuccessful, and alternatives such as sidetracking, downsizing, and/or pulling the 9 5/8-in. string were not cost effective.

Instead, a 7 5/8-in. x 9 5/8-in. SET Openhole Liner was run through the 9 5/8-in. conventional string and into a shale formation about 65 m below the 9 5/8-in. shoe. The expandable installation enabled the operator to drill as planned into the production zone at a depth of 12,995 ft.

Halliburton’s Stim Star Angola can deliver
specialized fracturing and acidizing
treatments for offshore West Africa assets.

Halliburton’s Completion and Production Division is launching a next-generation stimulation vessel, the Stim Star Angola, in response to operators’ needs for stimulation treatments on offshore West Africa assets. The vessel will serve as a high-performance platform for delivering technology and helping reduce rig downtime and associated costs for operators.

“With the new Stim Star Angola stimulation vessel, operators will have cost-effective access to all phases of production stimulation, including acidizing, fracturing, sand control and conformance solutions for this developing deepwater market,” said Marc Edwards, VP of production enhancement.

Certified for DP2 dynamic positioning, the Stim Star Angola will be capable of working in difficult sea conditions in deepwater locations at tension leg platforms, drillships, large semisubmersibles, or single wellheads. Cycle time will be minimized by the vessel’s proppant, acid and liquid additives capacity, which permits loading sufficient material for multiple treatments, reducing trips to the dock. Cycle time will also be reduced by using the vessel’s onboard crane and water maker system.

The vessel is capable of delivering specialized fracturing and acidizing treatments such as the patented SurgiFrac service for fracturing deviated and horizontal wellbores.

The Stim Star Angola will be available by the third quarter of 2009 and will be based in Soyo, Angola.

The Intervention & Coiled Tubing Association (ICoTA) awarded Baker Hughes INTEQ its 2009 Intervention Technology Award. Presented at the SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing and Well Intervention Conference Exhibition in Houston in April, the award recognized INTEQ’s rib-steered motor (RSM) for coil tubing directional drilling. The RSM combines the proven quality borehole construction capabilities of closed-loop rib-steering technology with the drilling performance of INTEQ’s X-treme pre-contoured motors. This combination results in minimized tortuosity in slimhole wellbores, extending the envelope of complex well geometries. The RSM allows for smooth, straight trajectories, eliminating the need for the undulating wellpaths typically associated with coiled tubing drilling. The resulting quality wellbores reduce drillstring drag and allow for optimal extended-reach capabilities and 3D steering.

Baker Atlas was a finalist for the award. The Baker Atlas Deployment Risk Management system and perforating flywheel assemblies were recognized for significantly improving wireline deployment in deviated wellbores.

The buoyancy module is applied during the replacement of
steel flexible pipe with Flexible Fiber Reinforced Pipe.

DeepFlex announced the manufacturing and replacement of 490 m of flexible, 4-in. diameter pipe used as an oil export riser for PetroSA (the Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corp of South Africa). The pipe was connected to an offloading buoy located in 120 m of water in the ORIBI field near the coast of the Cape of Good Hope.

Upon routine inspection and subsequent detailed examination, it was found that the existing traditional steel flexible pipe was in a “failure stage” due to abrasion of the cover and subsequent corrosion. The riser was approximately 10 years old. The pipe needed to be replaced quickly and efficiently in order to avoid a costly field shut-down. The DeepFlex Flexible Fiber Reinforced Pipe (FFRP) was selected because of its non-corrosive properties, higher fatigue resistance and lower weight. Installation allowed production to be maintained without a shut-down.

Drilling optimization solutions for Comstock Resources have result in their first well with less than 30-day drilling time in the Haynesville shale gas play, according to Smith International. Comstock also realized a total drilling time reduction of more than 20% over a three-well drilling program. Services such as i-DRILL, Smith’s advanced drilling simulation technology, were integrated with PathFinder’s drilling optimization team. PathFinder is Smith’s directional drilling and formation evaluation services company, acquired last year as part of the W-H Energy Services merger.