Master's Thesis
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Faculty of Science and Technology MASTER’S THESIS Study program/ Specialization: Spring semester, 2014 Master of Science in Well Engineering Restricted access Writer: Knut Jørgen Brodahl ………………………………………… (Writer’s signature) Faculty supervisor: Prof. Bernt Sigve Aadnøy External supervisor: Sigmund Stokka - IRIS Thesis title: Applied Well Integrity Credits (ECTS): 30 Key words: Pages: 64 ERD, Drilling challenges, Hole in One Producer, Technology qualification, + enclosure: 14 Stavanger, 16.06/2014 Date/year Acknowledgements I would like to use this opportunity to thank the all the people that have encouraged and contributed in my work with this thesis. I would like to thank my fellow students for five great years at the University of Stavanger. I would like to thank Sigmund Stokka at IRIS and Hole in One Producer for letting me study the HOP concept and his contribution to the thesis. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my faculty advisor Professor Bernt Sigve Aadnøy for encouraging and challenging me during this thesis. Without his contribution and guidance, this thesis would not be possible. iii Summary Extended reach drilling is the result of industry focus to exploit fields efficiently with a minimum financial and environmental impact. Two of the ERD pioneer fields are Wytch Farm in UK and Statfjord on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. These two fields have contributed largely to the development and evolution of ERD technology and methods. ERD technology have been used to increase the drainage radius for platforms, which resulted in fewer offshore platforms in the development and a large cost saving. Throughout the three last decades, technology have been rapidly improved towards what seems to be the limit of the conventional drilling method and technology in terms of the wells reach. The first well to break the 10 km mark was M11 at Wytch Farm in 1997. In 2013, the Z-42 was drilled on the Sakhalin Project and is with its horizontal reach of 11.7 km the world’s longest ERD well. This shows that the evolution of technology and methods have not contributed largely in increasing the maximum reach over the last decade, but the reliability and cost of equipment and operation have been greatly improved. Limiters in ERD are elaborated in this thesis along with simple examples used to illustrate the different challenges associated with the limiting factor. Two different available technologies that can reduce impact from limiting factors are presented to show that it is possible to increase drilling efficiency with only adding one new tool. The Hole in One Producer concept presents a new method of drilling and completing ERD wells and is thought to have a potential reach of 20 km. The concept is still in the conceptual stage and some of the technical and operational challenges are presented along with the technology qualification phase. The success of this concept is dependent on developing new technology and is therefore associated with a large financial and operational risk. A cost comparison of the HOP concept and a subsea development shows that the HOP is approximately three times as expensive as the subsea solution. Subsea solutions is a regular operation on the NCS and are not associated with large financial risk, this is a challenge for the commercialization of the HOP concept. Identified potential areas for the HOP concept are environmental sensitive areas where conventional technology is not applicable and the use of HOP traction unit to deploy completion and pulling objects from the well. iv Table of Content Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ iii Summary ................................................................................................................................................ iv Table of Content ...................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... vii List of tables ......................................................................................................................................... viii Nomenclature ......................................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Extended Reach Drilling ................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Wytch Farm ............................................................................................................................. 4 2.1.1 Challenges encountered at Wytch Farm .......................................................................... 5 2.2 Statfjord Field .......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2.1 Challenges Encountered at Statfjord ERD Wells ............................................................ 8 2.3 Learning From Wytch Farm and Statfjord ............................................................................ 10 Limitations of Conventional ERD Wells....................................................................................... 11 3.1 Sakhalin Project ..................................................................................................................... 13 3.1.1 The world’s Longest Horizontal Reach ......................................................................... 15 3.2 Limiting Factors .................................................................................................................... 16 3.2.1 Torque and Drag ............................................................................................................ 17 3.2.2 Hydraulics ..................................................................................................................... 20 3.2.3 Hole Cleaning ................................................................................................................ 23 3.2.4 Buoyancy ....................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.5 Vibration ........................................................................................................................ 26 3.2.6 Wellbore instability ....................................................................................................... 29 Hole in One Producer .................................................................................................................... 30 4.1 Functionality .......................................................................................................................... 30 4.1.1 Dual Casing ................................................................................................................... 31 4.1.2 Traction Unit ................................................................................................................. 32 4.1.3 Drilling .......................................................................................................................... 33 4.2 Well Control .......................................................................................................................... 34 4.2.1 Gas Migration in Annulus ............................................................................................. 35 4.2.2 Kick ............................................................................................................................... 35 4.3 Wellbore Instability ............................................................................................................... 36 4.4 Hydraulics ............................................................................................................................. 37 v 4.4.1 Frictional Pressure Drop in HOP ................................................................................... 38 4.5 Design Issues ......................................................................................................................... 41 4.6 Compliance to NORSOK D-010 ........................................................................................... 42 4.6.1 HOP Well Integrity........................................................................................................ 42 4.6.2 HOP Failure in Hole ...................................................................................................... 44 4.7 Qualification of New Technology ......................................................................................... 46 4.7.1 DNV RP-A203 Qualification Procedure ....................................................................... 46 4.8 Application of Hole in One Producer .................................................................................... 52 4.8.1 Advantages with Hole in One Producer ........................................................................ 52 4.8.2 Operational and Practical Challenges ............................................................................ 53 4.8.3 Spinoff Application of Hole in One Producer Technology ........................................... 54 Comparing HOP and