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Planning Extended Reach Wells for Deep Water

Article · February 2002

DOI: 10.2118/74400-MS

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SPE 74400
Planning Extended Reach Wells for Deep Water
J. C. Cunha, SPE, A. L. Martins, SPE, C. H. M. Sá, P. Dore Fernandes, Petrobras S. A.
Copyright 2002, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE International Petroleum Conference and
Exhibition in Mexico held in Villahermosa, Mexico, 10–12 February 2002.
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 any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
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acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
Abstract
Although Extended Reach Wells (ERW) have recently
reached limits that would not even be dreamed a few years
ago, most of those wells were drilled from onshore locations.
Even though there are some experiences offshore, they are
related to wells drilled on shallow waters from
fixed platforms.
In Brazil, where the major oil field producers are located in
deep waters, ERW may be in some cases the only technical
and economical viable solution to the development of such
fields. ERW, besides minimizing problems related to fluid
flow, will also diminish the cost of development in large
extension fields by reducing the number of production units
per field. Also it may be the mandatory option in case of
development of a large field by means of using a dry
completion system (a TLP for example).
To drill ERW in deep water from a floating vessel such as
a semi-submersible rig or a drill ship, is much more complex
than performing the same job onshore. In Campos basin,
Brazil, some of the problems that may be faced when drilling
ERW in deep water fields are the presence of very unstable
formations and small sedimentary coverage above
the reservoir.
Due to studies indicating the feasibility of the use of ERW
to develop oilfields in that basin, an R&D project was created
aiming to develop techniques and operational procedures to be
used when drilling those wells. Main tasks of the project were:
- Well planning;
- Wellbore stability;
- Horizontal completion and sand control;
- Drilling and completion fluids;
- Cuttings transport.
This paper shows which methodology was used to manage
the project and also some results and benefits obtained.
Introduction
There are many advantages in the use of ERW to develop
deep-water fields, among them it may be mentioned:
- Produce large offshore fields using fewer wells and less
production units.
- Drill a number of wells from one single location and still
produce from the entire field.
- Possibility of use of TLP or Spar production platforms
(dry completion).
- Minimize costs of production lines.
- Less energy necessary to produce the wells.
- Flow assurance issues (avoid organic deposit, hydrate
formation).
It may be noted that there will be various challenges for
the use of this type of well in deep water1. These challenges
will vary depending on each field characteristics. Specifically
for the case of Campos basin, problems related to wellbore
stability, well cleaning (cuttings transport) and sand
production were expected.
Another important point would be the rig capability to drill
the wells. ERW, due to its large extension and high inclined
angles, will need much more rig power to overcome torque
and drag requirements. Also, large diameter drill pipes will be
necessary not only to increase drill string resistance but also to
reduce friction loss during drilling fluid circulation.
Project Structure
Due to the multidisciplinary characteristic of the project, it
was subdivided in five main areas each one with a coordinator
that would be responsible for its own planning, chronogram,
deadline and budget. The coordinators would be also
accountable for the gathering of the necessary resources
(human and material) for the accomplishment of the project
tasks as well as to present periodically progress reports to the
general coordinator.
The five subdivisions were well design; wellbore stability
(including analysis of simulator reliability); hole cleaning and
cuttings transport; drilling and completion fluids; horizontal
completion and sand control. Some of the topics investigated
in each area were:
2 J.C. CUNHA, A. L. MARTINS, C. H. M. SÁ, P. DORE FERNANDES
Well Planning. This part of the project had the objective to
prepare the well design for each candidate field, investigate
the maximum possible reach for each area of the basin and
also do the torque, drag and buckling simulation2 and
determine the design of drill string that should be used to drill
the wells. Also it dealed with overall operational procedures
and contingency plans to kick and blowout control and fishing
problems (mainly stuck pipe). Besides that, this part of the
project gathered inputs from the other areas to complete the
well project.
Hole Cleaning and Cuttings Transport. When drilling
Extended Reach Wells it is of foremost importance to have the
well cleaned in order to avoid stuck pipe and also to decrease
torque and drag problems. This part of the project did
experiments and simulation for evaluation of hole cleaning
and cuttings transport efficiency and to determinate optimum
circulation time. Also a system to quantify solids returning
while drilling was developed.
Wellbore Stability. The main objective was to analyze
wellbore stability for the design of wells in deep water with
low sedimentary coverage, determine mechanical properties of
the formations to be drilled including determination of “in
situ” stresses. Also a methodology for sampling and testing
was established. Finally, the available simulators were
analyzed in order to insure accuracy in modeling
and simulation.
Drilling Fluids. Special drilling fluids were designed for the
Extended Reach Wells. Low solids content and highly
polymeric fluids have been recommended to provide the least
formation damage and the best cuttings carrying capacity.
Horizontal Completion and Sand Control. This part of the
project developed experimental facilities to evaluate sand
control equipment (screens) and to simulate sand production.
Also a numerical simulator was developed. Besides that,
studies were conducted to determinate the most suitable fluids
to be used when drilling into the reservoir (“Drill in”
fluid evaluation).
A Few Examples of Activities Carried Out and
Results Obtained by the Project
Cuttings Transport. In the past in Brazil, SIMCARR®, a
software for cuttings transport analysis have been successfully
used for the design and troubleshooting while drilling high
angle wells. The model included in the software is known as
the two-layer model and consists of a simple and efficient way
to describe solid-liquid stratified flow3. This software however
is a 1-D steady-state simulator which does not reflect many
important aspects of real drilling operation, such as: rotation
effects, time dependency of input parameters, efficiency of
viscous/pills circulation, removal of cuttings generated by hole
instabilities, wiper trips efficiency, etc. Motivated by the
SPE 74400
importance of the topic in the drilling of ERW´s, the following
were developed:
Time Dependent Simulator. This step consisted in the
development of a time dependent mathematical model, along
with a computer implementation of it, which is based on the
well-known two-layer model approach. An innovative feature
of this model consists in the consideration of the added
amount of solids that comes from the crumbling and cave-in
of the wellbore. The unstable effects of this added amount of
solids are taken into account through a variable representing
the added volume of cuttings per unit time and length. A
finite volume approach is used to solve the system of
differential equations4.
The drilling of ERW brought a new concern to cuttings
transport analysis. Due to the extension of the high angle
section, the total amount of solids deposited in a cuttings bed
is much larger. Additionally, the effect of some change in one
of the variables will only be felt in the surface when the
problem is already of major concern. Figure 1 shows the
dynamics of bed erosion for a 3000 m long horizontal 12 ¼ in.
hole. It is clear that the time for steady state achievement is
increasing with section length. In this simulation it can be
seem that after 6000 seconds the end of the long section still
did not present any effect due to the beginning of drilling.
The next step on the global analysis of hole conditions
during drilling is the evaluation of the transport of solids
generated by well instabilities. At this point, the instability
will be represented by a pulse function where solids are
injected at a certain portion of the well during a given time.
Figure 2 shows a 6000 seconds run for a 1000 m well in
the same dynamic situation of bed build up shown in Fig. 1,
where solids fell into the well, due to borehole instabilities,
during 100 seconds in the section between 200 and 400 m
from bit position. Total instability represents a 25% of hole
enlargement in the mentioned section. The results shown up to
2000 seconds reflect the huge increase of solids deposited in
the instability area. Additionally, due to ROP effects, cuttings
bed is starting to form in the section close to the bit. In the
following 4000 seconds it is possible to see that the well is
being filled up due to drilled cuttings, while the section where
the instability started is partially being cleaned and transferred
to the last portion of the section.
The simulation for different well lengths emphasizes the
critical aspects of cuttings transport in ERW drilling, the total
amount of solids in the well can be too high and the delay in
the transport phenomena in the long sections can hide cleaning
problems for too long. Based on that, special hole cleaning
procedures should be used during the operations.
The analysis of the transport of cuttings not generated by
the bit shows the potential of drilling with lower mud weights,
if there is enough hydraulic capacity. In this case, it would be
possible to keep drilling in the presence of instabilities and
keep hole cleaning in a satisfactory level. On the other hand, if
there is already a considerable solids bed in the annulus, any
instability can be too risky.
Bidimensional Steady State Simulator. Drillpipe rotation
has a major effect in hole cleaning5 and, of course, has to be
SPE 74400 PLANNING EXTENDED REACH WELLS FOR DEEP WATER
addressed in cuttings transport simulation. This was the
starting point of another development of a 2-D steady state
simulator consisting in the following steps6:
• laminar single phase flow with a bed of cuttings;
• turbulent single phase flow with a bed of cuttings;
• solid liquid flow;
• helical flow.
This software is able to predict solids concentration on an
inclined section, as well as the velocity component profiles in
helical flow.
Real Time Evaluation of Solids Return. One major
limitation in evaluating how good is cuttings removal while
drilling a well is to quantify dynamically the amount of solids
that are really returning to the surface. Several methods were
analyzed and one option, which seemed applicable, is under
development and being tested: an equipment to measure and
record automatically the weight of solids in the shakers7. With
this measurements it is possible to continuously establish the
material balance of solids in the system and together with
simulation results, act immediately in order to solve a
potential problem.
Drilling Fluids - Rheology. Since horizontal, extended reach
and multilateral wells are becoming very common scenarios to
well designers and sometimes the only economically viable
choice to exploit an oilfield, drilling fluids have been changing
throughout recent years in order to face these new and
complex trajectories.
Under the rheological point of view, simple shearing tests
show only a part of polymeric fluids behavior, once they
exhibit viscoelasticity. So, modern rheometers and new test
methodology are necessary to represent rheological profile as
a whole.
Viscoelastic parameters as storage and loss moduli (G’ and
G”), relaxation time ( ) and complex viscosity ( *) are
powerful tools for the proper understanding of solids
suspension capacity (to avoid cuttings bed formation) and
cuttings transport of polymeric drilling fluids. Relaxation (H)
and complex (G) spectra are also important parameters (Figs.
5 and 6).
A new procedure8 was developed to test polymeric
systems using up-to-date rheometers to obtain rheological
pattern and therefore viscoelastic parameters. The “Time-
Temperature Superposition Principle” was used to build the
rheological “master” curves of different polymeric drilling
fluids. This kind of technique allowed condensing a set of
rheological measurements into a simple curve, representing all
temperatures and polymer concentrations evaluated, properly
shifting both axis.
Through this new methodology, it is possible to predict
solids suspension capacity and cuttings transport in polymeric
fluids that are being used to drill highly deviated wells,
optimizing well hydraulic project and minimizing
circulating time.
Horizontal Completion and Sand Control. Well completion
3
in unconsolidated reservoirs normally will ask for complex
and costly techniques to avoid sand production that may
seriously damage surface and sub-surface equipment. This
problem becomes more severe in the case of ERW with long
high inclined or horizontal sections crossing the reservoir.
These sections, when producing, will present instability
problems due to the flow of the produced fluid from the
formation to the well.
This part of the project concentrated on the study of sand
production mechanism, the analysis of sub-surface equipment
and materials to be used and determination of more suitable
“drill-in” fluids.
Two test facilities were developed for the project, one to
simulate production in a horizontal section and another to
simulate sand production. These facilities allowed
investigation of the performance of the sand control
equipment available in the market and also a better
comprehension of the sand production in unconsolidated
formations. Besides that, the results of the tests also allowed
the validation of a mathematical model for sand production.
Also, one important feature of the project was the
determination of which fluid should be used when drilling
through production formation. Normally, when drilling
through permeable formations, the drilling fluid will invade
the reservoir. Later on, when production starts, the fluid will
be produced back to the well, so these “drill-in” fluids should
be designed in such a way that its solid particles will not plug
the sand control equipment.
Conclusions and Final Remarks
The main purpose of this article was to present the
methodology used to form and manage a project which core
was to develop and implement new technology and procedures
for use of ERW in deep water. Also a few results of the
project were shown in the paper. A second part of this article
is now being prepared and will show some field results.
Drilling of ERW in deep water environment will require a
rig specially prepared for the task with proper drill string and
improved power and hydraulic capabilities.
Wellbore stability is a concern for any oil well operation,
however, for the case of ERW in Campos basin, due to its
particular characteristics, it was very important to verify the
reliability of the wellbore stability simulators available in
order to have the most efficient well project.
Special attention was given to hole cleaning since in long
and high inclined or horizontal sections this will be a major
factor in avoiding stuck pipe. A new simulator was developed
specially to simulate cuttings transport in horizontal sections
taking into account not only the cuttings produced by the bit
but also the ones originated from hole instability.
A new methodology was developed to predict solids
suspension and cuttings transport when using special
polymeric fluids used to drill ERW. This will allow hydraulic
optimization and minimization of circulating time when
cleaning the well.
Facilities for simulation of sand production mechanism
and to test the efficiency of sand control equipment were
4 J.C. CUNHA, A. L. MARTINS, C. H. M. SÁ, P. DORE FERNANDES SPE 74400

developed, which will allow comparison between the

equipments available in the market and use of the most
indicated for each case. Also use of the simulator will allow
the design of most suitable “drill-in” fluids, which will avoid
premature plug-in of the screens when production starts.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Petrobras for the permission
to publish this article.

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100

10

0.1
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MODIFIED ELASTIC NUMBER

Fig 4. Drag correlation to predict cuttings fall velocity in

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Fig. 1. Time Dependent Effects in Cuttings Bed Formation

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