Liner-Drilling Technology Mitigates Lost Circulation Offshore Mexico

Abstract

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 163418, ’Use of Liner-Drilling Technology as a Mitigation for Lost Circulation in the Faja de Oro (Golden Lane) Oil Fields Offshore Veracruz, Mexico,’ by L.F. Aguilera Naveja, Pemex, and Steven M. Rosenberg, SPE, and Marco A. Dominguez M., SPE, Weatherford, prepared for the 2013 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam, 5-7 March. This paper will demonstrate the benefit of liner-drilling technology used to drill and cement an operator’s 9?- and 7-in. liners in place, allowing for the continued development of oil reserves in the Carpa and Bagre fields of the Faja de Oro area offshore Veracruz, Mexico. Before the introduction of drilling-with-liner (DWL) technology, two previous wells drilled in the Carpa field encountered massive lost circulation and hole instability while drilling into the El Abra limestone, resulting in a total of 55 days of nonproductive time (NPT) for the two wells. Introduction Nine fields have been developed in the offshore Faja de Oro area of the Gulf of Mexico (Fig. 1). They are the Arrecife Medio, Isla de Lobos, Tiburon, Bagre, Atun, Morsa, Escualo, Marsopa, and Carpa fields, and to date the estimated cumulative production is some 210 million BOE of light crude ranging from 30 to 40°API from the El Abra Middle Cretaceous limestone.