SPE/IADC-194186-MS

Offline Cementing Technique

Javier Urdaneta, Halliburton Services Ltd.; I Made Adi Wiriawan, Chevron Indonesia Co.; Gabriel Barragan,
Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd; James Curtis, Curtis Energy Consulting LLC; Carlos Casado and Preston Schaefer,
Halliburton Services Ltd.

Copyright 2019, SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IADC Drilling International Conference and Exhibition held in The Hague, The Netherlands, 5-7 March 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE/IADC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s).
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Abstract
The expansion phase of the offshore Mafumeira major capital project in Angola commenced in 2015.
Because ofthe global low-oil-price environment, the team was challenged to revise the basis of design and
operational procedures to help reduce well construction time by more than 50% and accelerate the date of
first oil production.A major focus of this effort was to conduct as many offline activities as possible during
the well construction.
Offline activities were performed before or after the jackup rig movedonto the slot, reducing the overall
project cycle time. The feasibility of conducting offline cementing was evaluated and risk-assessed for
several of the planned casing strings. The concept was conceived and implemented, initially for the 20-in.
surface casings, for the second batch of wells in the expansion project. The ability to cement the surface
casing offline allowed the rig to move to another slot and drill the next well in the batch campaign while
simultaneously cementing, cutting the casing, and installing the wellhead on the previous well.
Nine tophole sections have been cemented in Angola using the offline cementing technique, providing
USD 4 million intotal cost savings and reducing rig time approximately 18 hours per well, which helped
achieve the overall target of reducing well construction time by 50%.The cementing objectives were
successfully achieved in all cases, including adequate top of cement (TOC) and formation integrity tests
(FITs) upon drilling out the shoes.
As part of continuous performance improvement, the opportunity to perform cementing offline in deeper
hole sections of the well is being assessed.

Introduction
Mafumeira Sul (Fig. 1) is located 15 miles (24 km) offshore from Cabinda province in approximately 200
ft (60 m) of water. The project includes two wellhead platforms, Sul and Centro, which comprise a main
production and processing facility; a living quarters platform; pipelines totaling approximately 75 miles
(121 km); and 50 wells (34 producing and 16 water injection).
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Figure 1— Mafumeira Sul location.

The Mafumeira Sul drilling program is located offshore Angola and characterized by shallow-water-
depth wells with bottomhole static temperatures (BHSTs) ranging from 255 to 290°F. These wells (Table 1)
are drilled to an average of 13,500 ft measured depth (MD) and 11,000 ft true vertical depth (TVD) using
a batch drilling strategy.

Table 1—General information.

Field and/or block name Mafumeira/Block 0, Area A

Mafumeira Centro wellhead drilling and production
Platform name
platform
Water depth (ft) 157
Rig type Jackup rig
Well type Development oil producer
Development oil producer: 20-in. surface, 13 3/8-in.
Well design
intermediate, 9 5/8-in. production

This batch campaign follows a batch drilling campaign from the MC field, where a 12 1/4-in. pilot
hole was drilled riserless on Well MB1 using logging-while-drilling (LWD) [gamma ray (GR), resistivity,
and density/neutron/pressure-while-drilling (PWD)] to confirm the absence of any shallow gas hazards.
Nine other wells were drilled, further confirming the absence of shallow gas. Furthermore, based on
interpretations of sparker and high-resolution seismic data, no shallow gas hazards were identified in the
vicinity of the field. Additional geophysical evaluations to support a more comprehensive subsurface drilling
hazard assessment of shallow gas hazards were conducted, which validated the initial findings.

Well Architecture/Parameters
Three types of wellbore architecture (Fig. 2) are implemented in Mafumeira field. For the tophole section,
two options are used: a) run and cement 20-in casing and b) use tapered 20-in. × 133/8-in. casing.
SPE/IADC-194186-MS 3

Figure 2—Wellbore designs.

Offline Concept
During the initial project, cement operations on the surface section were performed online, including waiting
on cement (WOC), cutting 20-in. casing, and installing the wellhead. The overall learning curve during
batch drilling for the tophole section resulted in a reduced hole section time. Continuous performance
improvement has been a focus to help reduce well cycle times, ultimately decreasing well costs. However,
further operational efficiencies were needed, and solutions included applying previous batch lessons learned
and identifying other types of improvements, such as offline cementing during batch drilling.
In this field, the 12,000-ft MD/8,200-ft TVD wells were typically drilled in approximately 4.5 days. The
factor that most contributes to this level of performance is making as many drilling rig activities as possible
"offline" (Upchurch and Graves 2010).
Cementing operations contribute significantly to the time required for wellbore construction. In Thailand,
cementing under rig floor (URF) is the preferred option. This allows the rig to move to another slot and drill
the next well while cementing is being conducted on the previous well URF (Brandl et al. 2010).

Offline Cementing in Mafumeira Field

The offline cementing technique was implemented in the tophole sections for the Mafumeira field project
in Angola. URF cementing processes and lessons learned from previous operations in Thailand were used
as a reference to help achieve success in Mafumeira Sul field.
Fig. 3 compares online and offline cementing activities, illustrating the time reduction achieved during
wellbore construction.
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Figure 3—Comparison between online and offline cementing operations.

Risks were identified during the planning stage. Actions to mitigate these risks were discussed and
implemented during wellbore construction (Table 2).

Table 2—Key risks and mitigation.

Key Risk Mitigation

1. Incorrect spaceout relative to platform resulting from washout, 1. Circulate 15 ft off-bottom to avoid washout and tag bottom before
incorrect tally, and subsidence. pulling out of hole (POOH).
2. Wellbore packoff during circulating offline. 2. Prepare tally before drilling.
3. Setting up lines/working under hazardous areas 3. Design shoe track with side ports to help minimize washouts.
4. Install a double funnel guide centralizer on the first well as a
contingency in case any subsidence is observed.
5. Stop all operations while setting up and clear the area because of
the risk of dropped objects.

Methodology—Operational Sequence
The following operational sequence (Figs. 4 through 7) was used:
1. Design the batch drilling sequence to help minimizes kidding.
2. Measure casing and ensure the tally is ready before spudding (offline activity).
3. Skid rig over the appropriate slot according to the previously discussed drilling sequence.
4. Pickup (P/U) the 26-in. bottomhole assembly (BHA).
5. Run in hole (RIH) to the mud line at ± 345 ft, using caution while tripping through the funnel
guide centralizers.
6. Drill the 26-in. hole to ± section total depth (TD). At the 26-in. hole section TD, P/U15 ft off bottom,
pump a high-viscosity sweep, and circulate the hole clean while reciprocating the drillstring.
7. Spot 1.5 times the hole volume of a padmud on bottom.
8. Once spotted, stop pumping and tag bottom with 30,000 lbm weight on bit (WOB) to confirm TD.
9. Begin pumping out of the hole to the mud line using pad mud.
10. Continue to POOH and rack back the BHA to be used in the next well in the batch sequence.
11. Makeup (M/U) 20-in. casing with a float shoe and float collar. Flow test the shoe/collar joint before
RIH.
12. Run 20-in.,129 lb/ft, X-56, RL-3M casing as per the tally.
SPE/IADC-194186-MS 5

13. Land the 20-in. casing on bottom with the center of the "tide guard" coated joint across the waterline
and coated pipe to the wellhead deck. The last RL-3M connection should be positioned 2 ft above
the mezzanine deck.
14. Rig down (R/D) the 20-in. casing running equipment and rig up (R/U) the 5 1/2-in. landing string
handling equipment.
15. M/U the 20-in. RL-3M water bushing and landing string to the last 20-in. casing joint and run
casing to bottom.
16. Land casing on bottom.
17. Break circulation.
18. Back out the 20-in. swedge/landing string and rack back in the derrick.
19. Move the rig to the next well; cement the 20-in. casing offline.
20. Cement the surface casing offline.

Figure 4—(a) Staging on the rig floor; (b) R/Boffline and stabbed with a hydraracker; (c) M/U water bushing with a chain tong.

Figure 5—(a) Landing string going through platform deck; (b) 20-in. casing on bottom, checking for settlement.
6 SPE/IADC-194186-MS

Figure 6—(a) Last connection 1.5 ft above the mezzanine deck (wellbay
area); (b) all centralizers correctly spaced out across the funnel guides.

Figure 7—(a) Backing out the running tool using the top drive; (b) R/B the landing string at the rig floor for the next operation.

Cementing Engineering Design Process

Design considerations, objectives, and measurement criteria were discussed during preparation before
beginning drilling activities. A design of service (DoS) was created for each particular cementing operation.
As part of preplanning, information for the cementing solution development strategy (Table 3) needed to
contain, at a minimum, the following:

• The individual objectives for each section and particular risks expected (e.g., loss zones, high-
pressure zones, salt sections, etc.)
• Planned wellbore schematic with casing size, grade, and setting depths

• Wellbore directional survey

• Pore pressure/fracture gradient plot

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• Anticipated mud type/densities

• Anticipated BHSTs

• Communication plan

• Management of change (MoC) process

Table 3—Cement operation objectives and evaluation method.

Casing Size (in.) Cementing Objective Cement Evaluation or Measurement

• TOC back to seabed to provide structural integrity • Review of cement lift pressure

20 • Shoe isolation to drill ahead • FIT/leakoff test (LOT)

• Perform cementing operation safely and efficiently • No health, safety, and environment (HSE) incidents
or nonproductive time (NPT) events

• Lifting pressure reviewed following operation

• Shoe isolation to drill ahead
13 3/8 • FIT/LOT
• Perform cementing operation safely and efficiently
• No HSE incidents or NPT events

• Lifting pressure reviewed following operation

9 5/8 • Provide hydraulic isolation between reservoirs and
• Cement evaluation logs
isolate water and gas formation
• No HSE incidents or NPT events

Shoe Track Design

To allow landing the casing at bottom and provide afull equivalent area for fluids flow, special considerations
were followed for the shoe track design. A conventional 20-in. float shoe followinga 5-ft pup joint and
nonrotating float collar were considered. Eight 2-in. diameter holes with 45° spaceout were opened in the
pup joint (Fig. 8). This provided 22% of flow through float shoe, which was sufficient to wash any fill at
bottom, and 78% flow through the eight 2-in. holes was achieved.

Figure 8—Pup joint.

8 SPE/IADC-194186-MS

Plug Container
The plug container used for the operations included an integral quick-latch coupler (QLC) that allowed
safe and quick installation. The QLC also eliminated taper-threaded connections from the plug container
assembly, thereby eliminating maintenance associated with tapered threads (Halliburton 2018).

Cementing Operation
A typical cementing operation (Figs. 9 and 10) proceeds as follows:
1. Run and install cementing lines to the plug container.
2. Circulate at least two times the annular capacity with seawater before cementing to help prepare
the well to receive cement.
3. Pump 15.8-lbm/gal Class G cement slurry according to the program.
4. Release the top plug.
5. Displace with seawater.

Figure 9—(a) Running the cement head from the wellhead platform main deck using a rig floor
hoist while performing rig skidding preparations; (b) installing the 20-in. cementing head.
SPE/IADC-194186-MS 9

Figure 10—Typical cementing operation graph.

Results and Lesson Learned

Implementation of the offline cementing technique for the tophole section significantly reduced cycling
time. Enabling cementing activities during wellbore construction,fromplug container installation to offline
WOC while the rig was working in other wells, was a significant achievement (representing 18 hours saved
per well, on average).
Cementing the conductor offline reduced the average days to run and cement surface casing (Fig. 11).

Figure 11—Offline cementing results.

Lessons Learned
The following lessons were learned as a result of this program.

• Tailored pup joint design to match quick latch system in the plug container. Function integrity test
performed during planning phase.
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• Making scaffolding around the well on the mezzanine deck bigger allowed a better workspace to
M/U and break out the cement head and adapter with chain tongs.
• It was possible to reduce the openhole excess volume based on the cement operation lift pressure.

Conclusions
The following conclusions are a result of this work:

• It is possible to leverage global thinking and execute the work scope "offline."

• Risk assessment and mitigation plans facilitate the success of offline cementing.

• Offline cementing reduced cycle time by an average of 18 hours per well, limiting NPT, decreasing
authorization for expenditures (AFE), avoiding differed production, and allowing more wells to be
completed in the area as a result of the saved time, thereby creating asset value.
• To date, nine tophole sections have been successfully cemented using the offline technique, saving
USD 4 million and helping achieve the overall target of reducing well construction time by 50%.
• Cementing objectives were successfully achieved in all cases, including adequate TOC and FITs
upon drilling out the shoes.

Acknowledgement
The authors thank the management-drilling department from Chevron Angola (Cabinda Gulf Oil Company
Limited) and Halliburton for their contribution and permission to publish this paper.

References
Brandl, A., Valentino, V., Fauchille, G.et al 2014. Successful History of Cementing and Zonal Isolation in Thailand’s High
Temperature Offshore Wells. Presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu
Dhabi, UAE, 10-13 November. SPE-172125-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/172125-MS.
Halliburton. 2018. Plug Containers and Surface Circulating Equipment. In Casing Sales Manual, Chapter 3. Houston,
Texas: Halliburton.
Upchurch, E.R. and Graves, K.S. 2010. Under-Rig-Floor Openhole Logging in the Gulf of Thailand--Engineering Design
of the Oil Industry’s First Simultaneous Openhole Wireline Logging and Drilling Operation. SPE Drill & Comp 25
(01): 102–112. SPE-116335-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/116335-PA.