Hendro

: Hi, Mike. What are you up to? You should have started

cementing.
Mike : They had some problem with the jet mixer.
Hendro

: Anything I can do to help?

Mike : No, thanks. They have got it fixed. Well start cementing soon.
Hendro: Oh, by the way, meet our new employee. He is curious to see how your
bread. Dwiky, this is Mike May, the cementing engineer. He is pain in the
tonsil. But he can teach you a lot.
Mike : Hi!
Dwiky : Hi! I just want to see how the cementing job is done.
Mike : Easy! All you need to do is to dump cement into annulus.
Dwiky : Annulus?
Mike : it is the space between the outer wail of casing the wall of the well.
Hendro: hey, Id better get going.
Mike : You cant insult me and get away with it. How about a reconciliation over
a cup of coffee?
Hendro: No way. I have my own fish to fry. Ill leave Dwiky with you.
Mike : No problem. He is in good hands.
Hendro: Make sure he is not starved.
Mike : Has anyone told you that you are bitchy? Of course he wont be starved.
We have a five star restaurant here. Now, Dwiki, hang around. We are going to get
the show on the road. We are geared up for a cementing job. Those guys are
putting the bottom plug in the cementing head.
Dwiky : what does it do?
Mike : it drives the drilling mud out of the casing when cement is pumped in. By
the time it reaches the bottom, it will be broken by the pressure and the cement
will flow through the casing shoe to the annulus.
Dwiky : How do you know how much cement is required to fill the annulus?
Mike : We calculate the volume of the annulus by using the data from the log.
The amount of slurry to pump is the volume of the annulus plus 15%.
Dwiky : I dont know what slurry is. Can you define it?

Mike : Slurry is the mixture of cement and water plus some additives. If we want
ement to harden quickly, we add acecelerator, and if its the other way round, we
add retarder.
Dwiky : How do you mix it?
Mike : There are two ways of mixing. One is called batch mixing. A batch of
cement and the right amount of water is mixed in a box and pumped. But its one
hell of a hard job. A better one is jet mixing. We make slurry by jetting water and
cement into the mixing box and at the same time keep pumping. For this system,
two pumps are required: mxing pump and feeling pump.
Dwiky : Then?
Mike : When we have got al slurry pumped, we run the top plug. It drives the
cement out of the casing to the annulus when we pump displacement fluid.
Dwiky : what do you use for displacement?
Mike : Water, drilling mud or brine.
Dwiky : What is brine ?
Mike : Salt water.
Dwiky : Suppose the cement does not fill all spaces in the annulus, what do you
do ?
Mike : We pump it slowly through casing valve with small pump until the whole
space is full. We call it top job. If it is the other way round, we have got to let the
slurry flow out the pit.
Dwiky : What a waste of money!
Mike : Its a part of the risk and is unavoidable. But, dont worry about it. That kind
of thing happens anywhere. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, we have got the
cement in the casing displaced.
Dwiky : Easy money, isnt it ?
Mike : No, sir. Sometimes it rains. There are cases in which the mixing pump is
broken and hundreds of sacks of cement has to be circulated into the pit, and the
company men raise hell with us.
Dwiky : Who are company men ?

Mike : The employees of Dynoco who keep their eyes watchful on everythinng
we do. Drillers, tool pushers, roughnecks, reservoir engineers, all company men,
including the Mr. Hendro

They were watching television in the recreation hall when the news about a
blowout at one of Pertaminas field in Cirebon was aired. Mr. Faisal Abdaoe
appeared on the screen, disclosing the terrible accident and stating that the
blowout would be handled by Pertamina people themselves.
Donny : Golly! Another blowout! Another big job!
Dwiky : What do you mean, another big job?
Donny : Its not the first blowout in that area. It happened five years ago at
Pemanukan Field. It took one month to kill it. Surely it is not an easy job.
Dwiky : Ive heard about a blowout before. But can you describe and explain how
it occurs?
Hendro : Blow out is an uncontrollable spew of oil or gas from a well. It begins
with a kick, that is when the pressure from the formation is greater than the
hydrostatic pressure exerted by the drilling fluid.
Dwiky : How do you detect it?
Donny : Its known by the significant increase in the level of the mud pit, which
means there is more fluid coming out from the wellbore than the one flowing in.
The indications of a kick could also be the flow of mud out of the hole when the
mud pumps are shut in or a show of salt water, oil or gas in the mud.
Dwiky : What kind of preventive action do you take in case of a warning sign?
Hendro: As soon as a kick is detected, we stop drilling and concentrate in killing
the threatening blowout. The Blowout Prevention Equipment, or BOP stack if you
like, is designed to allow the crew to shut in the flow of drilling fluid or mud from
the wellbore. It is also designe to allow the pumping of heavy drilling mud to
control downhole pressure.
Dwiky : If ti does happen.

Donny : Then you have to be preapared for a hard job. Som companies depend on
the famous red adair to kill blowouts that occur in their fields. Again, it is a big
job! Sometimes, a jumbo jet is required to move equipment required to kill a
blowout. Not to mention timen and people. Mobile Oil spent two months and
millions of dollars to kill a blowout at one of its wells in Aceh.
Dwiky : So, no oil company dares to do it.
Donny : Oh, yes! Pertamina, with its well-trained people, usually do it in house.
That saves the company millions of dollars.
Dwiky : I see! Now that Ive spent three days with you, Ive known so many
things about drilling operation. What next?
Hendro: Get your hand dirty?
Dwiy : Whats that supposed to mean?
Hendro: You will work with a drilling crew, so that you know exactly whats
going on at the rig floor.
Dwiky : You dont mean that I physhically will touch those things.
Hendro: Thats exactly what I mean. In fact, Ive made arrangements for you to
spend the next two days with the well pullers.
Dwiky : You mean.
Hendro: Tomorrow, drop by the warehouse and get a pair of safety shoes, gloves,
and a hard hat. Somebody will drop you at the well-pulling rig. Its a small wellservicing rig.
Dwiky : But as I only need to know something about drilling, Im not supposed to
do anything.
Hendro: Doing is believing. Thats what our philosophy is. Now, Ive got to have
some sleep. Have fun!

Well equipment
Completion is the phase of operation beginning when a well a well is drilled to the
projected depth. Oil companies have different system in doing this job. Most of
them do it in house, which means that they do it using their own completion rigs
along with therir own crews.
A well can be described as a pipe line, in vertical position, reaching from the
surface of the ground to the depth where petroleum reservoir is located. The
smallest string of pipe in a well is called tubing through which oil or gas flows.
The number of tubing strings depend upon the type of well completion. A dual
completion well has two strings of tubing.
The methods of completion is determined based on the reservoir characteristics
and its economic potential. Perforated casing completion is the most popular
method used world wide. The production casing called oil string, is cemented all
the way down to the producing formation and perforated. To do the perforation,
either bullet or jet perforators are lowered into the borehole and fired electrically
from the surface. They pierce the casing wall and cement to provide holes through
which formation fluids flow into the wellbore. The penetration should go as far as
possible in order to have maximum flow rate with minimum number of holes.
In case of hard formation, the well may not require casing at the producing zone.
In other words, the well may be left open or or barefoot. The completion method,
also called open-hole completion, is used only for single production zone with
low pressure. This allows the formation pressure flow unrestricted into the
wellbore.
Liner completion method is used for the well with loose producting formation. A
smaller string of pipe called liner, is run and set at the producing zone to hold up
sloughing shale and to prevent sand from entering the wellbore. The liner is
cemented and perforated. Sometimes, when the producing sand is made up of fine
sand grains, the liner is gravel packed. This gravel acts as filter to keep sand out of
the borehole.
Tubing is run to facilitate the flow of oil or gas from the reservoir. Based on the
information from a series of well tests, the company decides the type of well:

single, dual or triple well. To produce three different zones at the same time, triple
completion is required. But generally, wells are completed as single or dual wells.
Never have oil companies in Indonesia installed three strings of tubing in a well.
The type of downhole well equipment depends on the type of lift to be used to put
the well on production. Gas wells or oil wells which flow under natural drive do
not require complicated equipment. High pressure wells, especially the ones
located in the vicinity of public area, are sometimes equipped with tubing safety
valve (TSV). This type of valve is designed to shut a well at a certain flow rate. In
case of flowline rupture or if the well is opened quickly resulting in an extremly
high flow rate, the TSV will automatically close and stop the flow.
The simplest method of artificial lift is sucker rod pumping. The pump consisting
of a standing valve, a plunger with a travelling valve and a bareel, is attached to
the bottommost of the tubing. A pumping unit which from a distance looks like a
horse, imparts an up and down motion of the sucker rod to which the plunger is
connected.
For a well with electric submersible pump, a motor is installed at the bottom of
thetubing along with the pump. Electricity is supplied from the surface through an
insulated cable. This motor rotates at impellers of the pump which cause the
upward movement of the liquid in the tubing.
Another method of artificial lift is gas lift. This method requires gas under
pressure to lift the well fluids. The gas injected through the annulus, enters tubing
through a series of gas lift valves. These valves are run in side pocket mandrels
connected to the tubing and can be opened or closed by means of a wireline unit.
Fluid that is standing above the gas inlet port is lifted to the surface by the
expanding gas.
The topmost part of a well is a chrismast tree. It is so named because with large
number or valves and fittings branching out above the well head, it resembles a
chrismast tree. Generally, it consists of master valves, swab valves, shutdown
valves, wing valves and chokes. The type of a chrismast tree depends on the
method of well completion and the characteristic of the well fluids. Dual
chrismast tree is required for a well with dual completion method.