Society of Petroleum Engineers

SPE 26337

Slimhole Exploration Requires Proper Technical Preparation

F.E. Shanks II, Mobil E&P Technical Center, and K.R. Williams, * Longyear Oil & Gas Div.
'SPE Member

Copyright 1993, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 68th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in Houston, Texas, 3-6 October 1993.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect
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ABSTRACT Many technical aspects of the application of the

Any application of new technology requires proper
preparation to ensure a safe and efficient field program.
Slim hole technology requires different preparation and
procedures than conventional rotary drilling techniques.
Application of the mining industry's coring techniques,
small wellbore annuli, precise fluid flow measurement for
kick detection, and specialized drilling fluids requires
significant technical understanding and preparation. For
Mobil in 1991, to prepare for a first application of Slim Hole
Drilling Technology, the preparations included drilling a test
well with Longyear Company's Oil and Gas Division at
Mobil's Dallas Research Lab and using the information to
prepare for two slim hole oil and gas exploration wells to
be drilled in Bolivia, South America. The test well gave
Mobil drilling personnel practical hands on experience with
the technology and provided a slim hole test laboratory to
perform extensive borehole hydraulics tests and practice
well control techniques. The information gained from the
test well was used to plan two exploration wells in the
Madre De Dios Block in Northern Bolivia.
Industry has proven the economic advantages of utilizing
this emerging new technology for Oil and Gas Exploration,
especially in the remote frontier areas of the world. The
planning, technical, and operational points of interest are
highlighted in the paper. The advantages and
disadvantages of the technology observed during the wells
are illustrated. Methods available to allow the technology
to adapt to Oil and Gas and API standards are discussed.
technology are discussed which will give an insight to the
minimum technical preparation a company needs to
perform to be comfortable with a first application. Areas of
technology are highlighted where additional development
of the technology is needed.
INTRODUCTION
The drilling industry has applied many definitions to the
term Slim Hole Drilling. As applied to conventional
drilling, slim hole typically indicates a well is designed to
reach total depth (TD) at the next smaller hole diameter
than would be normal. For the purposes of this paper, the
definition will reflect the more common definition relating to
mining slim hole technology.
Most of all slim holes drilled to date have used the mining
industry technology. The mining industry has been drilling
slim hole for mineral and precious metal exploration for
decades. A complete and separate infrastructure from the
oil field has grown to support this industry. Therefore,
while many same requirements exist between the mining
and oil and gas industry, they have used different methods
to accomplish the same tasks. This requires an operator
to study the mining industry technology carefully so as to
adequately transfer the technology to its exploration needs.
Figure 1 illustrates the generic differences between the
drilled hole diameters and sizes of casing typically run in
conventional and slim hole wells. A major characteristics

235
 2 SLIM HOLE EXPLORATION
REQUIRES PROPER TECHNICAL PREPARATION
of Slim Hole Drilling are the utilization of high RPM
diamond bits with low weight on bit (WOB) to achieve
optimal penetration rates. This results in primary
equipment differences as compared to conventional drilling
rigs. The precise WOB control is typically accomplished
using hydraulics for feed and WOB control. Because of
the high RPM requirements, the diameter of the hole being
drilled is only fractionally larger than the drill rod because
of lateral drill string stability requirements. Therefore,
smaller annular clearances are associated with slim hole
wells than conventionally drilled wells.
The reduced annular clearance affects several major areas
of drilling engineering requirements. In conventional
wellbores the cross section area of the annulus is much
larger than the area of the drill pipe. For long strings of
pipe, or deep holes, the pressure loss in the drill pipe
dominates over the annulus because of flow area.
However, in slim holes, the cross section area of the drill
rod is greater than the area of the annulus. Therefore, the
greatest pressure loss will occur in the annulus. With the
pressure losses occurring in different geometries of the
wellbore between conventional and slim hole, the historic
data and equations for hydraulic design of wellbores of
conventional wells are not valid. This was the requirement
for Mobil to drill a test well in 1991 and perform extensive
hydraulic research to technically prepare to drill oil and gas
wells.
There are two types of rigs available to drill slim holes.
Rigs have been specifically built by the mining industry
and are dedicated slim hole rigs. The other type is a
converted conventional rig. While these type rigs are
capable of efficiently drilling slim hole wells, the
conventional rig has less mobility because of its size and
weight. The high speed diamond drilling system, capable
of continuous coring, require top drives capable of rotating
at RPM's to approximately 1000. This requires precise
weight on bit control and controllable feed rate.
Slim hole rigs built by the mining industry typically are
diesel powered hydraulic. The hydraulic packages are
smaller and lighter than electric rigs. Rigs are designed
compact and many are built in small modules for ease of
movement in and out of remote areas. It is typical for
mining rigs to be designed primarily for continuous coring.
For oil and gas drilling it is an option to continuous core or
full hole drill. The primary modification to the mining rigs
is the addition of well control equipment. For normal
operations this is a straight forward procedure. Attention
has to be given to the drilling contractor to ensure
everyone is in agreement as to the procedures to use the
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SPE 26337
well control equipment. Conventional rigs, which are
modified for slim hole to be capable of continuous coring,
have the high RPM top drives added as well as
modifications to allow accurate WOB and feed control.
Another option has been developed to allow slim hole
drilling as a retrofit for existing rigs. It uses a down hole
motor and a bumper-sub to produce controlled weight on
bit without modifying the drawworks. The system is not
designed for continuous coring and is primarily intended
to be used to finish drilling the wells at deeper depths.
The continuous coring systems developed by the mining
industry are very efficient at producing high percentages
of core recovery. Disadvantage of their systems is the
difficult compatibility with API type of tubulars and
equipment. Therefore, for short drilling programs, it has
been more cost effective to learn and adapt the mining
industry techniques to O&G (Oil and Gas) rather than
introduce API requirements to the system. However, there
are modifications to the mining industry systems which
would make the O&G wells more efficient. These will be
discussed in the equipment review section.
There are several options available for drilling with the slim
hole system. For the mining type rigs the options are
conventional type drilling, full bore diamond drilling, and
continuous coring. The rig is capable of conventional type
drilling with tricone bits when necessary. However, for
larger diameter holes, the rigs typically do not have
sufficient horsepower to compete with conventional rigs for
penetration rates.
A full series of full bore diamond bits has been designed
for O&G applications. For bits of diameters other than
what has already been designed, it is a simple matter to
custom design bit diameters and types at very little
increase in cost or delivery time. Full bore drilling can be
accomplished any time in the well. To change out to
continuous coring simply requires a trip to change out
bottom hole assemblies.
Continuous coring bits are available for almost all hole
diameters. The basic coring assemblies most commonly
used in the mining industry are as follows:
1. CHD 134 WIRELINE SYSTEM, 3.345" CORE DIA
2. CHD 101 WIRELINE SYSTEM, 2.5" CORE DIA
3. CHD 76 WIRELINE SYSTEM, 1.713" CORE DIA
 SPE 26337 F. E. SHANKS AND K R. WILLIAMS
OPERATIONAL NEEDS FOR 1991
Dallas Research Lab Test Well: During mid-1990, Mobil
Drilling began a technical project to obtain the in-house
capability to apply slim hole technology. Discussions
commenced with several slim hole contractors to determine
the technical requirements necessary for a successful oil
and gas exploration effort. The Mobil New Exploration
Ventures group entered a farm-in agreement with
Occidental Boliviana for the Madre de Dios Block in
Northern Bolivia. It was decided to fully understand the
technology and requirements of slim hole drilling.
Therefore, a test well would be drilled at Mobil's Research
lab in Farmers Branch, Texas, 10 miles North of Dallas.
An agreement was made with the Longyear Company, Oil
and Gas Division, to provide the rig and crew. The Mobil
Drilling Technology team continued with the planning and
design of the well in order to initiate a safe and efficient
operation that would provide crucial information and slim
hole operations experience.
After inspection and approval by Drilling Technology,
Longyear's Rig #PM603 was mobilized from Salt Lake City,
Utah and the well was spud February 26, 1991. A 12-1/4"
hole was conventionally drilled to a depth of 106' where a
string of 9-5/8" casing was set and cemented. A string of
6-5/8" casing was set inside the 9-5/8" to provide lateral
support to the flush-joint drillrod while coring at high
RPM's. A 5-1/2" core bit was picked up on the rig's CHD-
134 core barrel assembly using the CHD-134 (5.0" 0.0.)
slim hole drillrod. The wellbore was continuously cored to
a final depth of 2,509' with open hole hydraulics tests
conducted every 500'. A total of 2,401.06' of core (3.345"
0.0.) was cut with 2,088.39' recovered for a recovery rate
of 87%. Although this was significantly lower than the
industry claim of 98% most of the coring in the test well
occurred in shallow unconsolidated sandstones.
After reaching TO, the well was logged with a variety of
slim hole logging tools provided by two logging
companies. To accurately model well control and drilling
fluids pressure profiles, an instrumented casing string was
required so that pressure losses in the annulus could be
measured at various operating parameters. The 5-1/2"
core hole was opened up to 8-1/2" to allow the running of
the instrumented 5" casing to TO where it was cemented
back to surface. The instrumentation consisted of two 1"
coiled tubing lines connected through injection ports at
2,413' along with five 3/8" lines connected at pressure
ports at 500' intervals. Thermocouples were also ran
above each pressure port and below the wellhead. CHD-
101 (3.7" 0.0.) drillrod and coring assembly were then ran
237
3
to bottom. Over the next ten days a series of cased hole
hydraulics tests, swab and surge tests, and well control
simulation tests were conducted. The rig was released on
April 10, 1991. The wellbore was .capped and remains
available for future testing as deemed necessary. The
depth vs.days curve is shown in Figure 10.
Based on the information gained from the test well, generic
slim hole well control procedures, hydraulics modeling, and
operational procedures and recommendations were
prepared. The information and experience obtained from
the test well was immediately applied in the planning for
slim hole drilling operations on MNEV's Madre de Dios
wildcat wells in Bolivia
PANDOX1, MADRE DE DIOS, BOLIVIA
Original agreement for this project was a joint operation
between Occidental Boliviana Inc. (OXY) and Mobil
Boliviana with each company having 50% interest in the
project. OXY operated the project with Mobil providing
slim hole technology, key supervisory personnel, and
engineering support. After OXY sold its Bolivian assets to
a third party, Mobil became the operator of the Madre de
Dios slim hole drilling project. As operator, Mobil was
responsible for rig site operations during testing of Pando-
X1. The location is shown in Figure 3.
Longyear Rig #604 was mobilized from Salt Lake City,
Utah to Houston, Texas by truck. It was shipped to Arica,
Chile by ocean freight and then flown to Puerto America,
Bolivia by Hercules C130 airplanes. The well was spudded
16 days after the mobilization operation into Puerto
America began. The weUbore schematic is shown in
Figure 6.
The Pando-X1 well was spud at 0900 hours, July 26, 1991,
with 12-1/4" hole to 100 meters. A string of 9-5/8" casing
was run to bottom and cemented in the 12-1/4" hole. After
nippling up the BOP's and testing the shoe, an 8-1/2" hole
was drilled conventionally with CHD 134 drillrod (5.0" 00)
to a depth of 665 meters. Minor rig problems caused
occasional down time during this interval. The 8-1/2" hole
interval was logged using dual induction, sonic, gamma
ray, spontaneous potential, and caliper tools. A string of
7" casing was run to bottom and cemented. First shoe test
was unsuccessful. A squeeze cement job was required to
get a satisfactory shoe test.
A 5-1/2" coring assembly on CHD 134 drillrod was used to
core out the cement and start the next hole interval. A 20
meter washout occurred while coring at 665 meters,
directly below the 7" casing. The washout resulted in lack
 4 SUM HOLE EXPLORATION
REQUIRES PROPER TECHNICAL PREPARATION
of lateral stability for the drill pipe. This caused excessive
vibration and high torque while rotating at high RPM. The
101 mm saver sub backed out of the 134 mm crossover
causing damage to the chuck and the drillstring to drop
into the hole. The chuck was repaired, and the fish was
successfully retrieved. Coring continued to 729 meters
until the 101 mm saver sub parted and dropped another
fish in the hole. This fishing job was unsuccessful, and the
top of the fish was left at 684 meters.
The well was sidetracked around the fish, and coring
continued to 730 meters until a 2-7/8" double pin sub
twisted off. This fish was recovered with minimal trouble,
and coring continued to 880 meters until the coring
assembly parted from the drillrod during a trip out of the
hole. Fishing operations were successful, and coring of
the 5-1/2" hole continued without any serious problems.
Downtime was minimal below 880 meters, but aerated mud
and low drillrod RPM due to excessive torque caused by
vibrations due to the washout area slowed the rate of
penetration considerably. Coring operations stopped at
1347 meters, and the 5-1/2" hole was logged using dual
laterolog, gamma ray, high temperature litho-density,
compensated neutron, caliper, formation micro-scanner,
temperature, spontaneous potential, and borehole
compensated tools. Upon completion of logging
operations, a string of 5" casing was run to bottom and
cemented.
A 4-1/16" coring assembly on CHD 101 drillrod (3.7" 00)
was used to core below the 5" casing to the final well
depth of 1981.3 meters. Coring operations in this interval
were more efficient than in the 5-1/2" interval due to higher
drillrod RPM. Drillrod RPM in the 4-1/16" hole was 400-450
compared to 200-250 in the 5-1/2" hole. The higher RPM
was possible because the 5" casing provided good lateral
stability for the CHD 101 drillrod.
Approximately 4200 ft of core were recovered from 4264 ft
of core cut during Pando-X1 for a 98.5% recovery rate.
The 4-1/16" hole interval was logged using duallaterolog,
gamma ray, high temperature litho-density, compensated
neutron, caliper, formation micro-scanner, temperature,
sonic, spontaneous potential, borehole compensated, and
well seismic tools. Upon completion of logging operations,
the 4-1/16" hole was plugged, and two intervals behind the
5" casing were tested. After the completion of well testing,
the well was temporarily plugged. The rig was released at
0600 hours, October 12, 1991, and moved by road to the
Manuripi-X1 location. The road was constructed during the
drilling of Pando. Figure 4 shows the average caliper size.
Figure 5 gives the days vs. depth curve. The time
238
SPE 26337
distribution for the well is given in Figure 7.
MANURIPIX1, MADRE DE DIOS, BOLIVIA
Longyear Rig #604 was moved from the Pando-X1 location
to the Manuripi-X1 location during early October 1991. The
Manuripi-X1 well was spud October 18, 1991, with 8-1/2"
hole to 96.6 meters. The wellbore schematic is shown in
Figure 11. A string of 7" x 26 ppf casing was run to bottom
and cemented in the 8-1/2" hole. The next hole interval
was drilled conventionally with a 6-1/8" tricon,e bit to the
top of the Copacabana limestone at 798 meters. The 6-
1/8" hole interval was logged using dual induction, sonic,
gamma ray, spontaneous potential, and caliper tools.
Wellbore stability problems encountered while drilling the
top of the Copacabana limestone during offset wells and
Pando-X1 were avoided by penetrating the Copacabana
limestone prior to setting 5" casing. Casing seat was
selected by coring into the formation to a total depth of
813.4 meters using a 5-1/2" coring assembly on CHD 134
drillrod (5" OD). The CHD 134 drillrod was cemented in the
hole as 5" casing.
A 4-1/16" coring assembly on CHD 101 drillrod (3.7" 00)
was used to core below the 5" casing to the final well
depth of 1541.6 meters. The coring operation proceeded
without any problems and achieved greater than 97% core
recovery. Time from spud to total depth for Manuripi-X1
was 31 days compared to 56 days for the equivalent depth
for Pando-X1. This significant time savings is primarily due
to lack of problems during coring of the 4-1/16" hole
interval. Trouble time for the Manuripi-X1 was less than 2%
compared to more than 14% for Pando-X1. Proper
selection of the 5" casing seat for Manuripi-X1 protected
. the shallower unconsolidated formations and prevented the
severe hole enlargement suffered during coring on Pando-
X1. The nearly gage hole for Manuripi-X1 caused lower
torque and allowed higher penetration rate compared to
Pando-X1.
The 4-1/16" hole interval was logged using micro dual
laterolog, gamma ray, high temperature litho-density,
compensated neutron, caliper, formation micro-sC?anner,
temperature, sonic, spontaneous potential, borehole
compensated, and well seismic tools. Upon completion of
logging operations, the well was plugged and abandoned.
The rig was released November 21, 1991, moved to
Puerto America by road, loaded onto barges, and finally
moved to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
 SPE 26337 F. E. SHANKS AND K R. WILLIAMS
HYDRAULICS TESTING
There are several critical factors which must be thoroughly
understood when planning a slim hole well that is
associated with the borehole hydraulics. Due to small
annuli in a slim hole well, pressure caused by fluids flowing
in the wellbore is strongly affected by small variations in
wellbore geometry, position of the drill rod relative to the
wellbore axis, and drill rod rotational speed. These factors,
usually negligible in conventional drilling, significantly
increase the difficulty of predicting and controlling
pressures in slim hole wellbores.
Mobil recognized the significance of wellbore hydraulics to
slim hole drilling while planning the Dallas Test Well, its first
slim hole well. The drilling rig selected for this project was
instrumented to measure key drilling and mud system
parameters. Exlog's DrillByte system was used to
automatically record and display data from these sensors
during drilling and hydraulics tests. The latter consisted of
changing core barrel configuration, drill rod rotating speed,
and mud flow rate in a prescribed manner while measuring
rig standpipe pressure.
Experience and technology gained from the Dallas Test
Well were used to plan the Bolivian wells, Pando #1 and
Manuripi #1. Hydraulics testing at these wells was
designed to confirm test well results and improve
hydraulics modeling capabilities. Specific objectives of the
field testing were to:
1. Provide additional pressure and flow data
for evaluating and improving hydraulics
models.
2. Evaluate methods for estimating wellbore
geometry based on pressure distribution in
the annulus.
3. Confirm and improve estimates of
equivalent circulating density (ECD) for
well control purposes.
4. Est a b Ii s h s tan d pip e pre s sur e
corresponding to 'slow circulation rates'
for use during well control operations.
5. Confirm effects of factors on pressure
distribution in a slim hole wellbore annulus
including: Annulus geometry - ratio of drill
rod diameter to wellbore diameter, Drill rod
rotation, Bit depth (back pressure), Fluid
properties.
Extensive hydraulics testing in open and cased holes in
the Dallas Test Well, Pando #1 and Manuripi #1 confirmed
the sensitivity of standpipe pressure to the factors
239
5
described above. A hydraulics model was used to predict
hydraulic performance of water in the Dallas Test Well with
reasonable accuracy. However, attempts to predict Pando
#1 and Manuripi #1 hydraulic performance with non-
Newtonian fluids was not as successful. Mobil has
performed additional work in this area to better predict
borehole hydraulic effects. For additional information, refer
to SPE Paper 26343, 'EFFECTS OF HIGH SPEED PIPE
ROTATION ON PRESSURES IN NARROW ANNULI.'
REVIEW OF EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES
During the three well Slim Hole Drilling Program in 1991,
the key elements of the slim hole drilling system were
evaluated. The following comments relate to the effects,
advantages and disadvantages of these key elements.
These comments are directed to the two mining rigs
adapted to Oil and Gas and the systems associated with
these rigs. Recommendations relating to these effects are
also given where applicable. The feasibility for the
changes will depend on the program being considered. It
may not be economically practical to implement some of
these recommendations on a single well program.
Any changes to the wellbore geometry affect many aspects
of the system. Of critical importance to wellbore geometry
is the lateral drill pipe stability which allows high RPM of
the drill pipe and will produce optimum penetration rates
using diamond bits.
Tubulars: Annular clearances between drillrod and the
hole are very small, about .15' to .25'. Advantages of the
sinall clearances are use of smaller & lighter tubulars than
that used in conventional rotary drilling, and in turn smaller
equipment (rig) needed to handle the tubulars. In
addition, the tubulars used to core the well can also be
used as casing for the same section of hole cored, so
additional casing is not needed. When used in remote
locations the lighter equipment and lighter and fewer
tubulars translate into cost savings due to significantly
lower transportation costs.
Casing Selection: Diameters of casing are related to the
hole diameters. With the small annular clearances
additional work needs to be performed on cementing
procedures. Because of the small annular clearances,
there are advantages associated with external or near
external flush casing. For remote frontier drilling, there are
advantages to using the drill pipe for casing. The negative
aspect of using drillrod is the lack of knowledge about the
drill rod connections when used as casing. The
connections should be tested to establish performance
levels. 3 1/2' liners that set inside 5' casing are now
 6 SLIM HOLE EXPLORATION
REQUIRES PROPER TECHNICAL PREPARATION
commercially available. These should be investigated to
determine if they meet the Operators completion
standards.
External Flush Pipe: The effects of external flush drill
pipe/rods appear to have more advantages than
disadvantages for slim hole drilling. It is apparent the
external flush characteristics are significantly advantageous
for producing a low force contact with the borehole wall
because of the large bearing area associated with being
flush. There also is a hydrodynamic bearing effect when
rotating at high RPM's and the pipe is eccentric in the
wellbore and close to the hole wall. The disadvantage
associated with external flush is the reduced strength in
the connection for the present designs of the drill rod and
coring systems. The annular space between the pipe and
hole I.D. is set by friction losses. The I.D. of the drill rod is
presently set by the O.D. of the core barrel. The difference
between the required drill rod O.D. and I.D. is all that is left
for connection thickness. The relative strengths of the
connection and main body of the drill rod is not equivalent
to what is normally used in API drilling tubulars. However,
the mining industry has not had an unusual amount of
trouble with the reduced strength of the connections. To
maintain external flush connections and increase the
strength of the connection will require the redesign of the
coring assemblies to make them smaller in diameter to
allow for greater cross section for the connection.
Power Head: The high speed pseudo-top drive was very
effective at producing the high RPM's and torque
necessary for slim hole drilling. There are several features
of the Longyear design which could be changed to make
it more efficient for Oil and Gas Exploration. The most time
consuming feature is the power head will not accept a
CHD 134 kelly. Rather, a CHD 101 kelly is used and a
crossover is placed directly below the kelly to increase the
diameter to be compatible with the 134 system. This was
the weak link during Pando where the two twist-offs
occurred. This also required the kelly to be set back when
retrieving cores using the 134 system. When using the
CHD 134 system, with the kelly smaller in diameter than
the drill rod, it makes using a rotating head very difficult.
Additionally, there are two sizes of pipe which are regularly
inside the BOP's.
Power Headaop Drive Requirements: For an existing
rig, it would be advantageous for the drilling tubulars to be
of the same diameter. This would allow use of a rotating
head as well as have uniform strength throughout the
drilling tubulars. For a new build rig, top drives with a
through bore large enough to pull cores has some
240
SPE 26337
advantages. A top drive will probably result in a slightly
heavier mast/derrick because of the need to carry the load
and transmit torque higher in the mast
Penetration Rates: Generally diamond core heads are
used in slim hole coring and in combination with low
weight (2,000- 8,000 Ibs) and high RPM (350-1000),
provide adequate penetration rates (2-15 m/hr). The single
mOst important factor in rate of penetration appears to be
RPM. The small annular clearances seem to benefit the
rotational capability by providing lateral stability to the drill
rod. This allows the drill rod to be rotated at speeds up to
1000 RPM, which allows for much greater rates of
penetration than the low RPM's (60 - 150) used in
conventional coring. Coring tests done at the PandO well
show an almost linear correlation between increases in
RPM and increases in rate of penetration.
Conventional Rig Penetration Comparison: Comparing
offset data from Peru, penetration rates of slim hole coring
were comparable or slightly higher than those of
conventional drilling rigs while drilling the same formations.
Wireline core retrieval consumed approximately 1.0 hr per
12 meters of core cut. However, hole problems when
coring with the recommended lateral stability was
extremely low, with no fill, formation washouts, pipe sticking
or twist offs, etc.
High ECDs: High ECDs are associated with the small
annular clearance of slim hole coring. This can lead to lost
circulation in fractured or noncompetent formations. Care
must be taken to plan and control fluid properties,
especially viscosity, during the well.
Depth Limitations: Depth limitations of the Longyear 604
rig are approximately 9,000 feet for the CHD 101 system
and 12,500' for the CHD 76 system. However, with
changes to the mast and traveling equipment and the
correct drill rod, the rig could be rated to 15,000 feet.
Well Testing: Well testing tools are available for testing
slim holes. Existing tools can be used to test inside 5" or
the 3.7" CHD 101 system. However if the well is to be
tested inside the drill rods used for casing, sufficient pre-
planning is required as many components required may
not be readily available. For wells to be drilled with a TD
diameter of 4 1/16', or larger, 3 1/2" completion liners are
now available to land inside 5" casing.
Well Testing: A review should be made of the techniques
and equipment that are available for well testing slim holes.
For casing sizes as small as 5" the wells can be
 SPE 26337 F. E. SHANKS AND K R. WILLIAMS
conventionally tested, such as the tests at Pando #1. For
smaller sizes casing the techniques and equipment need
to be evaluated. Drill rod, CHD 101, or 3 1/2" casing can
be set in the 4 1/16" diameter holes. If these diameters are
liners, the packers can be set in the 5" casing section and
a 2 3/S" tailrod can be used to extend to the test interval.
For noncritical applications it could be possible for
tubingless completions in the smaller diameter casing. For
certain applications, open hole tests could be considered.
The contingency case of drilling a 3" diameter hole should
be investigated to determine if there are any options for
testing this diameter.
Cementing: Techniques need to be developed to give a
higher probability of success for good cementing jobs for
the small annular clearances. One suggestion from the
Drilling Fluids group is to use a technique called
Puddling." This technique was used many years ago in
the drilling industry. It requires the cement to be displaced
before the casing is run. The new retarders and other
chemicals which have been developed in recent years offer
an opportunity for this technique to be reevaluated for this
application. Without a more reliable technique to ensure
good cement displacement in the annulus, intervals to be
tested must be squeezed above and below the intervals of
interest.
Well Control Review: A well control situation was
encountered while drilling the Manuripi. An extremely
permeable and porous sand was cut from 1094 m to 11 OS
m. While attempting to retrieve the cored interval of 1117.3
m to 1125.6 m the well took a strong flow. The well was
shut in with a shut in stand pipe pressure of 135 psi and
casing of 170 psi. The well was then circulated through
the choke with standard drillers method kill procedure and
was again shut in with stand pipe and casing pressures
both steady at 205 psi. The well was monitored and
showed no increases or decreases in the shut in
pressures. The well was again circulated through the
choke, bottoms up, with no signs of gas. Shut in
pressures were again checked and found 200 psi on
casing and stand pipe. The well was opened up and
began flowing at 60 gpm, decreasing to 4 gpm in 14
minutes. The well was circulated through the flow line with
no signs of an influx. Coring operations were resumed,
but at each connection / core retrieval point when rotation
was stopped and the pumps were shut down a strong
temporary flow was seen. This type of flow signature
diminished over approximately two days of coring and was
not again seen to any extent.
Well Control Conclusions: It must be assumed that the
permeable hydrocarbon bearing sand encountered at 1094
241
7
m was responsible for the flows encountered. The drilling
fluid was such that no true filter cake was created allowing
large amounts of fluid to enter the highly permeable
formations. It is possible the sand contains gas which was
compressed by the fluids forced into the permeable matrix
by the high equivalent circulating densities (10.3 ppg)
experienced while coring. Once the ECD was relieved on
connections the gas could have expanded forcing the
drilling fluid back into the well bore. The differential bottom
hole pressure at 1100 meters between the static mud
weight and ECD could have been as great as 280 psi.
Reactions to the kick by Longyear and Exlog were
extremely quick, correct and commendable. Initially no
more than .5 bbl of influx was taken before the well was
shut in. Though the kick was not gas, the ability for a slim
hole operation to identify influx and control pressures was
proven quite capable.
Coring: Approximately 50% of the total rig time at Pando
and Manuripi was spent coring and 25% was used to
retrieve the core. Any changes made to rig design or
operation that would give maximum positive change in
performance should involve one of these two parameters.
As stated already, RPM appears to be the biggest
contributing factor to increases of penetration rate, and
torque and harmonic drill string vibrations tend to be the
limiting factors of increases in RPM. Lateral stability of the
drill string appears to be important in controlling vibrations
and in turn torque. Fluid viscosities greater than water,
somewhere between 32- 3S sec/ qt seems to have the
most effect in decreasing torque, without increasing pump
pressure to unacceptable limits. Investigation into what the
effects of increased lateral stability would have on limiting
vibration might be important.
Core Retrieval: Design and use of a high RPM "Top Drive"
rather than the "Spindle Drive" used by Longyear would
have the advantages of being able to core at all times with
12 meter core barrels. This would cut down the number of
retrievals necessary. A top drive with full size through-bore
in order to retrieve the core without the kelly set back is
also a possibility. However the mast design changes
which would be required need to be investigated to
determine if other solutions are more practical for retrofit
applications.
Core Jamming: There were several intervals where core
barrel jamming produced time consuming trips of the core
barrel with only partial full barrels. These seemed to occur
mostly in the formations where multiple fractures were
present. The probability of occurrence of these type
formations needs to be addressed to determine if a
 8 SUM HOLE EXPLORATION
REQUIRES PROPER TECHNICAL PREPARATION
redesign of the core barrels is required. There is a need
to look into improved design of inner barrels to possibly
decrease jamming.
Hole Stability: Both Pando wells were drilled with almost
no hole trouble and almost gauge holes in an area with
very unconsolidated sands. This may be in part due to the
lack of external upset drill pipe and the gauging action of
the upsets on the formation walls.
Differential Sticking: While drilling extremely permeable
sands with a .5 to 1.0 ppg overbalanced mud system, with
high ECD's and leaving the drill string stationary on bottom
for long periods, no differential sticking was encountered.
This may be due to the low solids brine used as coring
fluid which does not effectively build wall cake.
Electric Logging: Problems in determining Rw for log
evaluation may have been due to the deep flushing
inherent with highly permeable formations, high ECDs and
drilling fluids that do not effectively create a wall cake.
Other drill fluids could be tried but also more emphasis
should be put on core analysis for formation evaluation.
The salinity of the formation waters increased with depth
on these wells from approximately 25000 ppm to possibly
in the range of 50000 ppm in the Devonian intervals. This
and the fact that few swelling clays were present, may
require using a low chloride mud in future wells.
Formation Evaluation: In both Pando wells, hole caliper
showed very close to gauge hole with few variations. Hole
stability appears to stay high and bore hole wall surface
tends to be smooth. For future wells where possible
production interval casing is not preplanned, open hole
DST's should be considered if packers are available.
Drilling Fluids: Additional work needs to be performed to
understand the types of fluids which are available for slim
hole drilling for coring and non-coring applications.
Additional completion fluids have been suggested for use
when coring. However, many properties for drilling
applications are not fully known. One operator has used
Pigment Grade Barite for weighing material in a cationic
polymer plus starch coring fluid and has indicated they
have had positive results. This is a very finely ground
barite with particle sizes of around 0.3 micron. This barite
is supposed to pass through centrifuges without being
thrown out with the cuttings. Mud ring effects of this
material need to be investigated.
Fishing Tools: Because of the small annular clearances
associated with slim hole drilling, the only open hole fishing
242
SPE 26337
tools which are available are primarily tools which will
access the bore of the drill pipe. These are spears, taps,
etc. Conventional over-shots do not have adequate
annular clearance. It should be studied to determine if
conventional type external fishing tools can be modified.
Drilled Hole Diameters: It is a simple process to specify
almost any bit diameter desired. The high speed diamond
bits for coring or full hole drilling is essentially custom
made. A detailed study to determine the optimum hole
sizes for slim hole drilling needs to be conducted. This
would consider ECD, core diameter, casing size,
cementing practices, lateral drill pipe stability, etc.
CONTINUING EFFORTS AND FUTURE APPLICATIONS
The application of slim hole technology has economic
application other than the remote frontier applications. In
many areas of the world, exploration wells are using
reduced bore techniques to reduce casing sizes at total
depth. This has reduced the cost of wells by as much as
20 to 25%. In the future there will be a natural merging of
conventional and slim hole technologies. Other
applications which are presently being pursued are
producing, platform recompletions through existing
production casing, and offshore floating drilling. Offshore
applications include jaCk-up, shallow water floating drilling
and deepwater.
Floating Drilling: Essentially all of the necessary
technology for this design already exists in other
applications in the drilling industry. The development of
this system will not require a major Research effort.
Rather, The majority of the development efforts will be
spent repackaging existing designs for this application.
Existing motion compensators on floating drilling rigs are
used to reduce the bit weight variation to within 3000 to
6000 pounds with an average bit weight of about 40,000
lb.
To utilize Slim Hole Technology, the weight on bit may be
as low as 2000 lb. The high speed diamond coring bits
will not tolerate any significant weight on bit fluctuation
without damage to the bit. Slim Hole Drilling uses high
RPM diamond bits with relatively low weight on bit to
achieve optimal penetration rates. The reason slim hole
drilling has not been very successful offshore is the
problem of maintaining constant precise weight on bit.
The motion compensators used on offshore drilling rigs do
not have the capability to maintain accurate low weight on
bit.
 SPE 26337 F. E. SHANKS AND K R. WILLIAMS
To utilize slim hole technology in offshore drilling
applications, a means to accurately control the weight on
bit is a necessity. The existing motion compensators
found on most offshore drilling rigs do not have the
capability to give the weight on bit tolerance necessary to
use Slim Hole Drilling Systems. To modify the existing
designs would present difficult and costly solutions. This
design will allow existing surface motion compensation to
be utilized with the addition of a seafloor device to remove
the remaining load fluctuations in the drill pipe and provide
a controlled weight on bit and controlled feed rate to
control the rate of drilling penetration.
The seafloor compensator concept essentially takes the
important components of a surface slim hole drilling rig
and places them on the seabed. These components
control the weight on bit and hydraulically feed the drill
pipe down hole. The only difference is that the driller
controls the components remotely at the surface and the
pipe is rotated from the surface.
ULTRA-DEEPWATER: Today's economics does not
warrant huge expenditures by any single company or
group of companies to develop equipment for ultra-
deepwater exploration. Ultra-deepwater is water depths
between 6000 and 11,000 feet. Therefore, in order to
justify deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration, a lower
cost alternative must be available. Slim Hole Drilling
Technology has been used in 8000 feet of water to core for
the Ocean Drilling Project, a National Science Foundation
Project. They only had partial success because of their
inadequate motion compensation system. The Mobil
design eliminates the problems they experienced. A
schematic of the system is shown in Figure 12.
The design, which has been developed, essentially
includes the same type of components normally found on
deepwater drilling systems. The only differences are the
size and the addition of the seafloor compensator. A
dedicated built design uses a reduced diameter riser with
much lower weight than a conventional riser. This allows
the system to be utilized on existing dynamically positioned
drilling vessels with minimum modification. The smaller
riser allows a smaller Blowout Preventer and a smaller
wellhead to be used. Smaller casing sizes are also used.
In this case utilizing smaller equipment translates directly
into reduced costs. Because of the unique system design,
it is felt total depths of greater than 20,000 feet can be
achieved in water depths to 10,000 feet. As with
conventional Slim Hole drilling systems, drilled depths
approaching 12-15,000 feet is feasible.
HIgh Pressure And High Temperature Applications:
243
9
Another cost effective application for Slim Hole Drilling
offshore is for drilling high pressure and high temperature
(HPHl) wells. For this application a retrofit system
designed for water depths to 5000 feet could be used. A
significant advantage in reducing the drilled diameters is
reduced cost of tubulars. Smaller diameter, for the same
pressure, allows thinner wall, standard casing, for the same
design stress. Smaller diameters allow for normal design
safety factors to be used in the casing design. An
additional cost saving can be realized by reducing the
number of days to drill the well. The high speed diamond
bits have a potential of drilling faster in this application.
CONCLUSIONS
It has been proven by many oil companies that the
application of slim hole technology in the remote frontier
areas is a cost effective alternative. However, it was
learned in the three wells in 1991, there are specifications
of the mining industries equipment which can be modified
to better accommodate the necessities of oil and gas
drilling which are not necessary in the mining industry
drilling practices. This paper has documented the
preparations necessary to prepare to apply the technology,
lessons from these wells, discussed present state of the
art, and has made some recommendations for future
applications of the technology.
Slim Hole Drilling Technology is a proven method to
reduce well cost in the remote frontier drilling areas of the
world. When the technology is properly understood and
applied, it is a safe and efficient means to meet Exploration
objectives. The ability to continuous core gives a complete
geological record of all areas of interest without sacrificing
penetration rates. The principles of this technology offer
advantages over conventional drilling methods and will
provide advantages in other areas of drilling such as
offshore applications and production applications in areas
where the tubular sizes allow economic exploitation.
 ..
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11
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