@balance Services from M-I SWACO, a Schlumberger company, looks at every aspect of a drilling program to assess the expected conditions and risks, which are then aligned with a tailored MPD solution that meets all your drilling, HSE and economic objectives.
Eliminate up to 53% NPT risks
@balance Services will change the way you look at MPD in GOM. Here’s the scenario: In one Gulf of Mexico well, the operator encounters an extremely narrow drilling margin between the pore pressure and fracture gradient that threatens to render the prospect un-drillable. Meanwhile, in a well being drilled from a jackup on another Gulf of Mexico block, the pressure regime is not nearly as troublesome, yet dealing with chronic ballooning has already put the operator more than two days over plan.
If you assume only the first, and by far the most challenging scenario of these hypothetical wells, represents an ideal candidate for Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), you may want to take another look. The M-I SWACO @balance Services can show you how even conventionally drillable wells can be completed more safely and efficiently.
Whether you are unable to drill your well conventionally or else you find yourself persistently confronting AFE-wrecking non-productive time (NPT), @balance Services can customize an MPD program of unparalleled reliability to help put your prospect safely on track and within budget. @balance Services combines industry leading resources, engineering knowhow and support to deliver a fully engineered MPD solution a solution that is proactive, rather than simply reactive.
What separates @balance Services is an engineered design and automated control system that delivers constant bottom hole pressure. Rather than reacting to pressure events once they occur, the wells are designed to eliminate events by controlling bottom hole pressure at all times. In other words, rather than focusing exclusively on controlling abnormal pressure events, the constant BHP methodology of @balance Services helps ensure those events never materialize in the first place. In fact, the more precise and consistent BHP management that @balance Services MPD delivers has been shown to eliminate up to 53% of NPT risks that plague many Gulf of Mexico wells, regardless of the pressure regime. For you, this means reduced NPT, safer and more efficient drilling and considerably lower costs.
FEATURES
Engineered MPD technique
MPD solution customized for specific wells
Onsite and offsite engineering support
MPD permit assistance
Formation characterization capability
Highly trained, experienced MPD specialists
Proprietary VIRTUAL HYDRAULICS software and PRESSPRO RT software
Constant and accurate BHP management
BENEFITS
Delivers proactive, rather than solely reactive, solution
Mitigates drilling hazards
Eliminates up to 53% of NPT risks
Reduces mud weight to improve ROP, prolong bit life, reduce drilling risks
Reduces casing strings
Cuts number of trips
Improves early kick detection efficiency
Enhances overall drilling efficiency
Aids in deepening casing setting depths
Enables drilling of otherwise un-drillable wells
Reduces costs
Minimizes HSE risks
Enhances asset value
Identifying upper/lower operating limits
Maintain a smooth and constant BHP
Here, MPD often is your only option for getting the well down. Our reliable flow measurements that allow precise establishment of formation pore pressure, as well as the capacity to quickly change mud weight and pressures as conditions warrant, make @balance Services MPD the ideal solution for mitigating the full gamut of pressure-related issues, including:
Loss circulation
Wellbore instability
Stuck pipe
Swab mitigation
Breakout
Loss-induced need for cement squeezes
And, more.
But, as experience has taught us and @balance Services demonstrates consistently, MPD is much more than a corrective tool.
Compared to a typical conventional drilling operation, an engineered MPD technique from @balance Services can optimize your overall drilling efficiency and reduce your costs. Obviously, the capacity to drill with the lowest mud weight while being statically overbalanced consistently increases your ROP and extends the operational life of the bit and other downhole tools, thereby reducing the number of trips. Likewise, MPD can help you deepen the casing set points and in some cases even eliminate casing strings. By the very nature of closed-loop MPD technology and the delivery of constant BHP, @balance Services also provides you an added safety net by both heading off the issues that can lead to a well control event and enhancing the efficiency of early kick detection.
What’s more, the ability to quickly modify the equivalent mud density with applied annular surface pressure, and instantly finetune the system in response to well conditions that can change quickly, makes an @balance Services MPD solution an ideal wellbore characterization tool when facing the myriad unknowns that come with drilling on a new block or targeting a new horizon.
The predominant advantage of a finely developed MPD operation over the conventional methodology, however, is its capacity to help eliminate ultra-costly hazards, like ballooning and wellbore fatigue. It all goes back to our unique ability to maintain a smooth and constant BHP.
At the end of the day, throughout the Gulf of Mexico, as in all maturing theaters, all of the more easily accessible reserves have been exploited and put in the production stream. Now, with targets that are harder-to reach, an MPD solution from @balance Services gives you the best chance of moving those elusive reserves from behind the pipe and into the pipeline.
Application Case
The Situation
In planning a well in a depleted shelf environment, the operator faced a high potential for NPT associated with ballooning, including wellbore stability and stuck pipe, among other issues. As the prospective pay zone underlay the depleted zone, the resulting narrow drilling margin and low fracture gradient would be difficult to drill conventionally as doing so would require a mud weight with equivalent circulating densities (ECD) that would exceed the fracture gradient. Drilling conventionally with a given ECD would decrease pressure when the pumps were turned off and precipitate the formation returning fluid, or ballooning.
The Solution
The operator requested @balance Services design an MPD operation that would resolve the ballooning risk in the depleted well. With the MPD technique, the well could still be drilled with steady ECD parameters, but when the pumps were turned off surface pressure would replace the surface losses, and thus, downhole pressure would remain constant with no changes in pit volume.
The Results
The MPD solution resulted in the depleted zone being drilled trouble-free and the well successfully reaching TD while maintaining a near-constant overbalance BHP. The MPD technique eliminated ballooning and resulted in zero NPT instances and reduced by nearly 11 days the planned drilling time with an estimated $2.8 million in cost savings.
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