.

Offshore South East Asia 82 Conferettee GEOTHERMAL SESSION

9– 12 February, SinFjore

Drilling Unconsolidated Surfhce Alluvium

With A Downhole Mud Motor -ode
by Delbert E Pyk Union Oil Co. Qf Calijiornia,USA
and John D. Bush, Philippine Geothermal. Inc., Philippines

Drifling the 26 in. surface hole in the Tiwk GeothenssafFkfd knthe PhiKppknes is cfsuaeteriz.edby
low penetration rates and rough driUing due to the preaerseeof hard andeskteboulders in the
unconsolidatedsurface alhwhurs. Thks paper describss how dzilling time .nnd problems assoekatd
with rough drilling were reduced by using is downhok mud motor to power a stabilized 26 in.
driilissg aisemb!y.

httroductkon
The l%i Geothermal Field is Ioeateti on the flanks of the extinct.
Yfaiinao Voieano approximately two hundred and Iiity miks
southeast o!’ Manila on the Island of Luzon in the Republic of
the Philippines. Approximately 80 wells have been drilled in the
Tiwi Field since exploratow work was begun in 1972 by Philippine
Geothermal. Inc.. a wholly owned subsidiaw of ti’e Union Oil
Company of California.
These geothermal wells range from 1000 ft. to 9000 ft. in depth.
with the average well being about 5000 ft. deep. A typical easing
program consists of 20 in. casing cemented in 26 in. hole at 300 ft..
13—3 S in. easing cemented in 17— I 2 in. hole at 1300 ft.. and
9–5 /? in. easing cemented in 12— 1 4 in. hole at 3000 ft. .%
8 _; ~ in. hoi: is drilled through the prtxfucing
reservoir and7 in.
perforated liner is set from the 9—5/ 8 in. casing shoe to the well
TD as shown in fig. 1.
The top 300 ft. of formation consists of uncotisolidated surface
vokanics and alluvium containing large andesite boulders up to
10 it. in diameter and other volcanic debris from past eruptions.
The extreme size of these boulders was proven during the
excavation for the first power plant built in Tiwi. T!re underlying
iormation {o 1300 ft. is altered to fresh andesite with streaks of cfay.
It is the upper seetions ot’ hole. especially the unconsolidated
surface voleanics. where we found a down-hole mud motor
extremely useful.
In the tirst wells. the 26 in. hole was completed by first drilling a
17— I 2 in. pilot hole and opening it to a 26 in. hole. This method
was ve~ time consuming txeause of low penetration rates and
very damaging to drilling equipment due to high torque
encountered in drilling and opening unconsolidated forma(ion.
With the development oia 12 in. downhole mud motor. we are now
able to drill a 26 in. hole using a stabilized bottom-hole assembly
so that hole-opening and reaming are no longer required. By
using an assembly consisting of 26 in. tungsten+trbide (TCI) bit.
a ZS— 15, 16 in. integral-blade netwbit stabilizer. a 1~ in. mud
motor. a 26 in. roller reamer and 10 in. drill collars. we have
redueed rotating time in the 26 in. hole from 88 hours to 22 hours.
Downtime due to rough drilling conditions has been reduced by
aImcst I00 permnt.
Original Dni Procedure
In the Tiwi Geothermal Field. a 30 in. conductor is cemented in
a hok dug with a backhoe to 15 ft. below ground level. A 26 in.
hole is drilkd to ~ 300 ft. and 20 in. casing is cemented to
consolidate sloughing hok. seal off surface water. and isolate the
sometimes massive lost cireukstion zones associated with the
uneortsolidatcd surface rubbk.
The extremely hard andesite boulders are sometimes encountered
as soon as drilling out of the conr.itsctor pipe. Since only milled
tooth bits were available in the 26 in. size at the beginning of the
project. penetration rates would be as low as a few inches per hour
while trying to drill through these boulders. In order to use
available TCI bits. a 17— I ~2 in. pilot hole was drilled to f 300 ft.
and then opined to 26 in. diameter. Even with the TCI bits.
penetration rates were vew low due to lack of adequate bit weight
when drilling close to surtace,
An additional problem was downtime due to the rough drilling
conditions. Even with the use of mult!ple shock subs in the drill
stritr~ extreme vibration and bouncing caused by driiling the
boulders would literally shake the drilling rig aparr as nuts and bolts
would fall from the derrick. The drill swing not only suffered
from the high impact forces d~e to the bouncing. but was also
subject to many tomional failtmm as sloughing rocks would
intermittently wedge the bottom-hok assmbly. Rotary chains
were constantly breaking and rotary tabb suifered an unsssuaily
h@ rate of damage from the high torque. U rider these conditions
an average of 88 rotating hours was rteeded to drill and qx.n the
26 in. hofe.
F- Use Of The Mud Motor
It was felt that a downhole mud motor with its high bit rpm would
solve the problem of low penetration rms in the near surface
section of the hole where there was inadequate weight on the bit
to drill the hard andesite boulders. Using a 17— I 2 in. TCI bit on a
9—5 8 in. mud motor. the 17— 1,2 in. hole was drilled to 300 ft.
with penetration rates increasing from 6 fph with the conventional
assembly to 18 fph with the mud motor. The hole still needed to
be opened to 26 in.. slowing the combined penetration rate to
4 fph. an increase of I fph over the conventional rotating method.
When a 26 in. milled tooth bit was used on the mud motor. the bit
wore out so quickly it was not successful when drilling the andesite
boulders.
In 1977, in cooperation with setwiee companies, a 26 in. TCI
bit was designed and manufactured for use on the downhok mud
motor in drilling the very hard formations. The 26 in. TC1 bit
was used on a 9—518 in. mud motor to drill the 26 in. hole in Tiwi
with exceptional results. Rotating time for the top 300 ft. of hole
was reduced from an average of 88 hours to an average of 34 hours
with the 9—5; 8 in. mud motor on a 26 in. TC1 bit.
AddMonaf Probhcs usingTheDownhok
‘Mud
Motor
Although using the downhok mud motor had improved the
drilling of the sutfaee 3X3 ft. signihamly. there were still probkms
with the system.
When the downhole mud motor was drilling. through the softer
ponion of the alluvium agglomerate.penetrationrateswould reach
as high as 80 iph generating4.9 cu. ft. of cuttings per minute.

This overloaded the surface mud quipment as well as created a
problem of fill and sticking on connections.
In order to handk this amount of cuttings, the shale shakers on the
drilling rig were increased from two to four shakers, Since the mud
viscosity was held high to support the fargc number of cuttings
and to prevent till and sticking on connections. a large amount of
the high viscosity mud was being lost as it was canied over the
shakers with the cuttings. Screen size on the shakers had to be
increased from a 40 mesh to 20 mesh to prevent screen clogging
and excess mud carry-over. As the screen size was increased. & large
percentage of fines was allowed in the system and additional
desanders and desikers had to be tun to keep the solids content
of the mud at a level that would noI cause excessit’e wear to the
mud pumps. drill strinf& and downhok motor. lts some cases,
where penetration rates became very high and the cuttings volume
could not be handled efficiently. the penetration rate was purposely
lowered to solve the problem.
A second problem encountered with the 26 in, bit on the 9—518 in.
mud motor was ledgK in the hole. As the 350 rpm bit encountered
smaller but hard boulders in the agglomerate. it tended to take
the path of least resis!wtce and drill off to the side of t!te boulders.
When the 26 in. bi( was past the boulder and again into softer
formation it would swing back to vettiml since the 9—5; 8 in.
mud motor and 10 in. drill collars contained no stabilization. This
left a hole that was vertical at 300 ft. but contained sufficient ledges
that [he 20 in. easing could not be run to bottom. The hole then
had to be reamed with a stiff reaming assembly consisting of a
17— I 2 in. x 26 in. hole opener on 10 in. drill collars. with 26 in.
roller reamers at 30 and 60 ft. This operation usually took an
average of 10 hours and again subjected and rig components and
drill string to high torsional and impact shocks whik removing
the ledges in the 26 in. hole.
in an attempt to solve the ledge problem. a 26 in. OD roller reamer
was placed in the bottom-hole assembly on top of the mud motor
and the drill string was rotated at 30 to 50 rpm. As the reamer was
30 ft. off bottom it did not help the crooked hok problem and
tended to hang up on the ledges. keeping string weight off the bit
and slowing penetration. The reamer would also knack loose
Nbbk which woukf fail down and stall the mud motor. requiring
the string to be pulled free before continued drilling,
1ss
tmducbn of the 12 hr. MssdMotor
The 9—5; 8 in. mud motor. which was designed for 12— I i 4 in.
to 17— I 2 in. hole. was too underpowered to be using the 26 in. bit.
The bit caused stalling of the mud motor even at low bit weight and
when rubble fell down on top of the bit. In 1979, during the latter
runs with the 9—5. 8 in. motor and large bit. industry was able
to provide a 12 in. downhole mud motor that tripled the amount
of torque available at the bit. With this tool available. we were able
to stan improving the bottom-hole assembly so as to eliminate
the problem of ledges. A 25— 15/16 in. integral-blade nearbit
stabilizer was added to the bottom-hole assembly beneath the
mud motor. The stabilizer was embedded with tungsten-carbide
slugs to resist the high rate of abrasion from the andesite boulders,
The stabilizer was kept as short as possibk to minimize weight
below the mud motor. Combined weight of the stabilizer and 26 in,
bit is over 3.300 Ibs. The 12 in. mud motor had no problems
rotating this load with drilling weights up to 3WM0 Ibs. on bit.
but off-bottom reaming and circulating were kept at a minimum
to reduce load on the thrust bearings of the mud motor.
A chmp-on 25— I; 2 in. OD stabilizer was added to the kdy of
the 12 in. mud motor. This stabilizersfipson thebt%$y ofthemud
motor and is attached by tightening the end caps on the stabilizer.
It is pfaced just above midpoint on the 33 ft. long mud motor
to funher stabiliiethe system. This stabilizer was built slightly
tmdergauge to redwx the toque that could tend to loosen the
locking mechanism. The 26 in. roller reamer on top of the mud
motor compkted the stabilized bottotn-hok assembly.
Present Oparadoss
Fig.2 shows the bottom-hok assembly that is currently used to
.
driU the 26 in. hole. This assembly includes the 26 in. TCI bit.
25— 15116 in. OD integral-blade stabilizer with tungsten~rbide
slugs on the blades. the 12 in, mud motor with the 25— 1/ 2 in.
OD clamfws sr,bilizer located about midpoint, a X m. OD roller
reamer. a IO in. shock sub, two 10 in. steel drill collars. and four8 in.
Steel drill CObs.
Surface equipment includes four conventional type shale shakers
with 20 mesh screens. a four 8 in. cone desander and a fotmen
4 in. cone desiker. an 800 bbi active surtace mud system, and mud
pumps capable of delivering 800 gallons per minute to the mud
motor. Special tools for the I 2 in. mud motor include 12 in. slips
and tong jaws and a break-out unit for maintenance of the mud
motor and installation and removal of the clamp-an stabilizer.
The drilling mud used is a lightweight bentonite-water mud with
weight kept at 63—65 pcf. viscosity at 45 —55 see:qt. PV at 16.
gel strength at 7:12, water loss at 20+ cc; 30 min.. and solid content
3—5 percent. Pump rates are &X) gpm with annular velocities
from 25 to 35 fpm in the 26 in. hole. 3fo jets are run in the ?6 in. bit.
Weight on bit is usually 25,000 to 30.000 Ibs. in the 26 in. hole,
with the 12 in. mud motor turning the bit at 125 rpm and the drill
string rotating at 50 qxn. a total bit rpm of 175.
By using the stabilized drilling assembly on the 12 in. mud motor.
average rotating time to drill the 26 in. hole has Ixen reduced to
22 houfi and penetration rate increased to 12 fph.
Results of tssingthe DowrsholeMotor
Tstbfe No. 1 shows the overall reduction in rotating lime for
drilling the top 300 ft. of 26 in. surface hole. This table follows
the reduction in rotating time from the original method of drilling
17— i, 2 in. hok and opening it to 26 in. hole to the present
stabilized bottom-hole assembly using the 12 in. mud motor.
A total of 66 hours is saved m drilling the 26 in. hole. whik
penetration rates have increased by 300 percent. After compensat-
ing for the additional costs associated with using the mud motor
assembly. this results in a savings of S16.000 Pr well at current
dsilfing prices. This does not include the intangible costs savings
from reduced rig downtime and quipment maintenance because
of rough drilling conditions.
Cmasskma
The following concktsimts were reached from our experience
using a downhok mud motor to drill unconsolidated surface
alluvium.
1. ‘“
I tse use o!“ a aownnole
- ‘ ‘ ““”emcuwny
mua‘ moror wm “’=--”’”
“’-”“-----”-
mcr:me
penetration rates in hard near-surface drilling where there is
little weight available to the bit.
2. Fishing jobs and equipment downtime due td high torque and
shock loading caused by rough surface drilling can be reduced
by almost 100 percent.
3. Milled tooth bits are not effective on a mud motor in hard
formations due to short bit life caused by tooth wear. TC1 bits
used on a mud motor in unconsolidated formations containing
hard boulders need additional gauge protection.
5. ..4 drilling assembly usirsga mud motor in an unconsolkfated
formation containing boulders must be stabilized to prevent
ledges that will result in additional reaming time before running
casing.
5. Surface mud systems must be matched to mud motor volume
requirements and pe .etration rates
for maximum etktiveness.
6. Afthough equipment costs are increased using a mud motor.
overall well costs are reduced because of increased penetration
rates and project on-stream time is reduced since more wells
are drilkd per year.
AdrssowkdwsssssIts
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and cooperation
of the staff of S11. LOR and the Drilling Department of Phtiippine
GeothennaL Inc.. for without ttitr contributions thu program
.,

would not have been possible.l%e authors also w“sh to thank the
management of the Union Oil Company of Qdifomia for
pemnissionto publish this paper.

t3mTHE;hlAL

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drilled in Ttwi Geothermal field
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TABLE 1

SUMMARY OF ROTATING TIME AND PENETRATION RATES FOR

DIFFERENT BOTTOM-HOLE ASSEMBLIES IN 26 IN. HOLE

Drilling Time Hole Opening Reaming Time Combined Time

Type of Bottom-Hole and Rate Time and Rate and Rate and Rate
Assembly used (Hours) (Ft/Hr) (Hours) (Ft/Hr) (Hours) (Ft/H~

Drill 17-1/2 in. hole

and open to 26 in.
hole 47 5.5 41 6.3 88 2.9

Drill 17-1/2 in. hole

with 9-5/8 in. mud
motor and open to 3.8
26 in. hole 14 18.2 55 4.7 69

26 in. TCI bit on

9-5/8 in. mud motor 23 11.1 11 23.9 34 7.7

26 in. TCI bit on

12 in. mud motor with
stabilized assembly 19 13.8 3 94 22 11.8