EMC was contracted by a client to provide products and services to complete the drilling of a previously abandoned well. The well had been abandoned as available technology could not satisfactorily handle the differential pressures and heavy loss zones encountered in the well-interval. The well is situated in a field renowned for its high differences in formation pressure regimes, with intermittent low and high-pressure zones necessitating accurate engineering and operations.
The well was expected to present considerable challenges related to high pressure differentials and severe losses of drilling fluids. EMC approached the challenges by applying a low concentration of the Non-Invasive Fluid product FEBRICOAT as a preventative measure to seal off minor fractures and leaks. For medium to complete losses, BOREMAT and FEBRIBRIDGE were applied in larges concentrations and spotted as pills.
“[…] Oil Field has one of the most complicated and challenging drilling operations in the region… This provides an ultimate environment for testing NIF and LCM materials to the extreme.”
"-Effectiveness of the EMC products helped in successful process of the drilling operation. We are looking forward to using EMC’s unique NIF and LCM products in other similar wells."
The drilling of the well section was started with representatives from EMC available on rig-site and as technical support to the Client’s operations team. As expected, the well offered a series of massive technical challenged to the operator, including a high-pressure aquifer positioned above a series of loss zones. Due to the high pressure, heavily weighted drilling fluid was used.
During the drilling of the well-section, a series of complete losses and large losses of drilling fluids were effectively sealed under differential pressures of 3700 psi by the application of FEBRICOAT/BOREMAT/FEBRIBRIDGE. The well-section was drilled to target depth, and a liner was run across the high overpressure environment with no indication of differential sticking or stuck pipe.
If you would like to hear more about this fascinating story, please contact EMC for more details.