Underbalanced MPD Technology Proved to be Effective in Drilling of Fractured Granitic Basement

Abstract

Abstract The basement hydrocarbon reservoirs have been discovered in a lot of places over the world. The remarkable characteristics of the basement reservoirs are their low pressure with narrow density windows and well developed fractures which usually resulted in probably massive losses. A case study on drilling of fractured granitic basement with application of UBD in Chad and MPD in Indonesia is presented in this paper. To tackle the common problems of drilling in narrow density windows and potential problem of losses, an underbalanced drilling (UBD) technology with a micro-foam drilling fluid was used in Chad. The pore pressure coefficient of the basement of Chad was predicted as between 1.02-1.06, and the density of the micro-foam drilling fluid was designed to be 8.7ppg. While an under-balanced managed pressure drilling (MPD) technology with a synthetic based gas-to-liquid (GTL) drilling fluid was utilized in Indonesia. The formation pressure coefficient of the basement of Indonesia was estimated to be 1.04, and the density of the GTL drilling fluid was designed to be 7.4ppg. Losses or severe losses existed in previous conventional near-balanced drilling in fractured granitic basement of buried hills of Chad. The problem of losses also encountered even UBD was later used. Losses and kicks continued almost all the time during drilling, coring and wireline logging in some wells. Losses happened as soon as pump started while overflow occurred no sooner than pump stopped. However, the potential problem of losses and kicks was completely controlled by utilization of under-balanced MPD technology in fractured granitic basement of Indonesia. The under-balanced MPD technology, a precisely pressure controlled drilling system, is able to accurately control the annular pressure profile throughout the wellbore, therefore it could effectively achieve safe drilling in narrow density window and cut non-production time. It is proved to be effective in drilling of fractured granitic basement.