DEPARTMENTS • DRILLING & COMPLETION NEWS
New discovery near Troll field in North Sea marks Equinor's 7th in the area since 2019
Equinor made an oil and gas discovery,
Røver Sør, close to the Troll field in the
North Sea. Preliminary estimates show the
discovery's size is between 17 million and
47 million barrels of recoverable oil equiv-
alent, of which the majority is oil. The two
exploration wells of the discovery were
drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen.
This is the seventh discovery in this
area since the autumn of 2019. The six
earlier discoveries are Echino Sør, Swisher ,
Røver Nord , Blasto , Toppand and Kveikje .
Equinor said it expects results from
the next exploration well in this area,
Heisenberg , to be ready in March. More
exploration wells are also being planned .
"As this discovery is close to the Troll
field and other discoveries we have made
in the area, we can already now state that
it will be commercial,” said Geir Sørtveit,
SVP for Exploration and Production West
Operations. Equinor's partners in the license are
DNO, Wellesley Petroleum and Petoro.
Shelf Drilling jackups working offshore
Egypt win 1-year contract extensions
Neptune Energy's new well at Germany's Adorf gas fi eld is
being drilled by KCA Deutag and expected to reach its fi nal
depth of approximately 4,700 m in June.
Neptune spuds 4th well in Adorf gas field,
expects to reach final depth in June
Neptune Energy has begun drilling at its operated Adorf Z18 gas
production well in the municipality of Georgsdorf, northwestern
Germany. The well is being drilled by KCA Deutag, with final
depth of around 4,700 m expected to be reached in June .
“The Adorf field is already an important contributor to domestic
energy supplies in Germany, providing enough gas to heat more
than 100,000 households,” said Andreas Scheck, Neptune Energy’s
Managing Director in Germany.
The Adorf Carboniferous gas field was discovered in 2020, and
the first well – Adorf Z15 – was brought into production in October
the same year. A second well – Adorf Z16 – increased Neptune’s
production from the licence to around 4,000 BOEPD at the begin-
ning of 2022. The third well – Adorf Z17 – reached its final depth
at the end of 2022 and will be tested for production in Q1 2023.
The construction of a modern treatment plant for the natural
gas from Adorf Z17 and Z18 is ongoing.
Drillship nets 910-day contract in Brazil
Transocean announced the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2, an
ultra-deepwater drillship, has been awarded a 910-day contract
by a national oil company for work offshore Brazil. The estimated
backlog of $392 million excludes a mobilization fee of 90 times
the contract dayrate. The new contract is expected to commence
in Q3 2023.
6 Shelf Drilling recently announced contract extensions for
two of its jackups working offshore Egypt. Rig 141’s contract
was extended for one year in direct continuation of its current
term with Gemsa Petroleum Company for operations in the
Gulf of Suez . Following this extension, the expected availabil-
ity of the rig is February 2024.
A one-year contract extension was also secured for the
Trident 16 jackup in direct continuation of its current term
with Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) for operations
in the Gulf of Suez . The contract includes a further one-year
option period. The Trident 16 has been working with Petrobel
in the Belayim fields since 2015. Following this extension, the
expected availability of the rig is February 2024.
Vito begins production in deepwater GOM
Production has started at the Shell-operated Vito floating
production facility in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). With an
estimated peak production of 100,000 BOED , Vito is the com-
pany’s first deepwater platform in the GOM to employ a simpli-
fied, cost-efficient host design.
The original design for Vito was rescoped in 2015, resulting
in a reduction of approximately 80% in CO 2 emissions over the
lifetime of the facility, as well as a cost reduction of more than
70% from the original host concept. Vito also serves as the
design standard for Shell's Whale project, which will feature
a 99% replication of the Vito hull and 80% of Vito’s topsides.
In separate news, Shell's Pensacola discovery in the UK
North Sea has the potential to be “one of the largest natural gas
discoveries” in the region in over a decade, according to a co-
owner of the license containing the discovery, Deltic Energy.
Deltic, which owns 35% of License P2252 alongside Shell’s 65%
and ONE-Dyas’ 5%, announced a “highly positive outcome”
from Well 41/05a-2, the first exploration well at Pensacola.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 1,965 m true vertical
depth subsea , and the presence of mobile gas and oil in the pri-
mary Zechstein Hauptdolomite carbonate target interval was
confirmed via wireline logs. The well confirmed a reservoir
thickness of 18.8 m .
Based on the data collected during drilling and testing,
Deltic estimates the Pensacola discovery to contain P50 EUR
of 302 billion cu ft. The company also said it expects the dis-
covery will open a new Zechstein play in this mature basin.
M A R C H/A P R I L 2023 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R
DRILLING & COMPLETION TECH DIGEST • DEPARTMENTS
RSS sets record, saves 7 days
of drilling time offshore UK
160 Amplitude,e,e, rprprpmm
Amplitud 140
120 100
80 60
40 20
0 Non-dampene
Non-dam penedd
pene Competitor
HFTO HF
TO supp
supprereressor ssor
Using the suppressor tool decreased shock peaks by 64% relative to non-damp-
ened BHAs, according to simulations SLB performed using its IDEAS platform.
Simulations demonstrate how HFTO suppressor tool
can reduce shock amplitude in Permian wells
Recent simulations have shown that
using shock and vibration suppressor
technology can reduce shock amplitude
by 64% in Permian Basin wells, com-
pared with offset wells, according to SLB.
Operators in this region often experi-
ence excessive shock and vibration, par-
ticularly high-frequency torsional oscil-
lation (HFTO). Excessive HFTO is the
leading cause of downhole tool failures,
including cracked drill collars, broken
measurement tools and electronic com-
ponent failures. These can lead to addi-
tional trips, time and cost.
In the past, Permian operators have
used different types of shock and vibra-
tion dampening tools to mitigate the
effects of HFTO, but success has typically
been limited. Field data showed simi-
lar spikes in amplitude and frequencies
between dampened and non-dampened
BHAs. These high and sporadic shock
amplitudes resulted in costly, fatigue-
induced drillstring failures, including
twist-offs and broken components in the
rotary steerable and MWD equipment.
SLB designed its HFTO Suppressor tool
to reduce downhole shock and vibra-
tion while drilling in challenging for-
mations. The company used IDEAS, its
integrated dynamic design and analysis
platform, to simulate HFTO at various
points throughout the BHA. This helped
SLB engineers to determine the ideal
location for the HFTO Suppressor within
the assembly.
The IDEAS simulations verified that
the mechanical suppressor tool could
reduce shock amplitude by 64% com-
pared with drillstrings without dampen-
ing tools. Additionally, the data revealed
a 48% reduction in shock amplitude com-
pared with other shock and vibration
dampener tools.
In a North Sea production well, an oper-
ator sought to drill from a whipstock set in
13 ⅜ -in. casing in soft Tertiary formations
and complete the section drilling through
hard chalk formations. Other challenges
included kicking off successfully from
the main bore, as well as overcoming
challenging directional profile with anti-
collision. To achieve this, Weatherford deployed
an integrated solution that included the
950 Magnus rotary steerable system (RSS).
The strategy was to use the RSS on a sec-
ond bit run through the chalks. Based on
previous offset wells, the main challenges
expected for this section were fluid losses,
wellbore stability, abrasive wearing and
vibration. The well profile was S-shaped with a
3-3.5° dogleg severity requirement, with
the maximum inclination building to 40°
and turning a total 246° azimuth from
kickoff to section TD.
The Magnus RSS drilled a total footage
of 6,080 ft across the section, maintaining
a rate of penetration average of 50 ft/hr.
The optimized efficiency saved the opera-
tor seven days of drilling time.
The run met all directional objectives
and even achieved a record for the longest-
drilled run in the 12 ¼ -in. section to date
in the field.
LWD ultrasonic imager identifies fractures in Turkey well
In Turkey, an operator was encounter-
ing challenges logging the well due to
borehole conditions. The operator was
seeking high-resolution borehole image
data to identify fractures in the vertical
well, which was filled with 14.84 lb/gal
oil-based mud.
For this project, Weatherford ran its
UltraWave logging-while-drilling (LWD)
ultrasonic imager. The logging suite also
included a real-time telemetry system,
gamma ray, multi-frequency resistivity
and sonic tools. UltraWave allowed the
operator to directly identify fractures
and other features in the borehole even
in the presence of heavy mud and a high
concentration of solids. The LWD tools
were able to acquire gamma ray, resis-
tivity and sonic data together with high-
amplitude images from the UltraWave
for reservoir evaluation and completion
planning. Weatherford’s Magnus RSS helped to
save an estimated seven days of drill-
ing time in a North Sea production well
by overcoming challenges around fl uid
losses and wellbore stability.
D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R • M A R C H/A P R I L 2023
7