Drilling Operations

The Midland Basin teaches a hard lesson in drilling harder rock. SM Energy first drilled there in 2008 before launching a successful horizontal drilling campaign in 2013. This work focuses on a successful application of the limiter redesign process supported with downhole sensors. Whirl suppression generates ROP performance improvements. This objective is complicated with a coupling to stick slip in hard rock applications. High WOB and therefore high torque tends to excite stick slip. Torque oscillations start, speed oscillations follow, and result in inconsistent DOC.

Rod pumping unconventional wells can be challenging due to increased side loading conditions thru the curve section of the wellbore.  Likewise, ‘S’ shaped wells and unintentional dog legs present a similar problem with increased failure rates.  All of these conditions lead to higher side loading resulting in increased friction and wear and a corresponding decrease in Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). This phenomenon can make lifting fluids with rod pumps problematic due to extreme deviations and the resulting forces.

Case study of mill-out operations in the Permian Basin which evaluate chemical program and processes used. Results show how existing processes and chemicals used or lack thereof, can affect equipment and undo the preventative chemical treatments used during the hydraulic fracturing process. The study looks at field water testing performed during various mill-out operations and considered workover rig vs coiled tubing, equipment set up, water & chemicals used, and operational challenges. Water analyses were completed on injection water and returns at various interval of the mill-out.

Producers are continuously challenged to keep drilling costs as low as possible and retain operational flexibility so as not to compromise completion and production performance. Well construction cost reduction strategies that include a casing size reduction can cause long-term production inefficiencies. Smaller casing sizes impact the critical liquid lifting velocity necessary to support efficient artificial lift thereby compromising production.

Horizontal drilling and the need for effective completion techniques has given birth to a wide variety of solutions in North American oil and gas plays. For many operators, it has become a top priority to optimize proppant distribution using buoyancy enhancer additives and to achieve fracture diversion with clean solutions that do not require intervention. At the heart of these initiatives is the Permian Basin, which is being revitalized through the use of intelligent completion technologies to make those priorities a reality.