A feasibility study for drilling & completing ERD wells on the Brage field

Abstract

In this master thesis, the potential for drilling an ERD well from the Brage platform have been studied. ERD wells can help operators reach isolated reservoirs located far away from the drilling facility. For mature fields like Brage, tapping into new remote reserves can help increase the lifetime of the field. A preselected well path with a TD at 9,390 mMD and horizontal displacement of 8,060 m was chosen as the basis for this study. The purpose for this study was to investigate the possibilities to drill this long well path from the Brage platform. It was investigated if it would be possible to drill and complete the well with the standard drill pipe already in use on the Brage platform. Afterwards it was investigated if it would be possible to do the same operations using a new type of composite drill pipe. An additional study was conducted by Reelwell for drilling the final well section (9 ½” hole) of the same well, using their technology. This was done to verify if it would be possible to drill the specific well section with their drilling method. All the results were compared and discussed, and limitations were be identified. At the end of the study it was investigated if there is new technology available on the marked that can help removing or reducing the identified limitations for drilling and completing this well. Wellplan™ was used to simulate the drilling operation and running of liner and lower completion. Simulations were performed for two well sections, and the results were investigated. Based on the simulation for the given well path, it was concluded that it would be difficult to reach TD with the conventional drilling method. The main challenge was related to the high value of ECD in relation to the formation fracture pressure when drilling the final section to TD.