SPE/IADC-168954-MS

The First Application of Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling in Ultradeep

Horizontal Well in Tarim Oilfield
Teng Xueqing,Yang Pei,Li Ning and Yang Chengxin,Tarim Oilfield PetroChina,Jin Yan,Lu Yunhu,China University
of Petroleum(Beijing),Zhou Bo,Wang Xiaoliang,Zhang Feng,Zhang Tao and Zhou Xiaohong, Tarim Oilfield
PetroChina

Copyright 2014, SPE/IADC Managed Pressure Drilling and Underbalanced Operations Conference and Exhibition

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IADC Managed Pressure Drilling and Underbalanced Operations Conference and Exhibition held in Madrid, Spain, 8-9 April 2014.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE/IADC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed
by the Society of Petroleum Engineers or the International Association of Drilling Contractors and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers or the International Association of Drilling Contractors, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the
Society of Petroleum Engineers or the International Association of Drilling Contractors is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not
be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE/IADC copyright.

Abstract

In Tarim Oilfield the Ordovician carbonate reservoirs develop lots of cracks and caves. The formation pressure is very
low(>6000m,less than65MPa), leading to the narrow mud weight window(MWW) problem. Serious lost circulation and
reservoir damaged was encountered when we use the traditional overbalanced drilling method, also the oil and gas reservoirs
cannot be discovered timely, therefore whole process underbalanced drilling technique must be employed. The
underbalanced drilling technique has been applied in the narrow MWW formations, but there’s no report of the whole
process underbalanced drilling technique (including the underbalanced drilling, underbalanced tripping, underbalanced
logging and underbalanced completions, etc.) being used in such formations in China.

Based on the analysis of difficulties encountered by traditional overbalanced drilling methods such as serious lost circulation,
horizontal wells cannot reach the design sections, serious damage to the reservoir, the feasibility analysis and construction
plan of the whole process underbalanced drilling in Y block is proposed. The first whole process underbalanced drilling of
horizontal wells in Tarim Oilfield was conducted and completed. Finally 6 layers of reservoirs are being discovered (2 layers
are not discovered by the prospect well), the cumulative thickness is 16m, which increases the rate of oil and gas discoveries.

Compared with the on-site well, the efficiency of drilling is greatly improved, no lost circulation and no complex situation
encountered ; the ROP increases 74% compared to the adjacent wells in the same layers. It also created the deepest drilling
depth record using the inflatable mud in China. The whole process underbalanced drilling program formed in this thesis
provide an effective drilling and completion mode for the Y block in Tarim Oilfield ,which greatly increased the rate of oil
and gas discoveries, and reduce non-productive time, while this method has some reference significance for the low-pressure
reservoir development in the other parts of the world.

Introduction

YingMai reservoir of Tarim Oilfield is a carbonate reservoir, which had lots of fractures and caves. But the problem of lost
circulation is very common when we use conventional drilling technology (EMW>formation pressure), and the
horizontal well is very difficult to drill to the design target, serious damage to the reservoir was also encountered, which
reduced the effect of exploration and development.

In this paper, based on the actual engineering geological characteristics of YingMai area, the engineers of Tarim Oilfield
carry out the feasibility study of whole process underbalanced drilling and complete the first whole process of underbalanced
drilling in Tarim Oilfield, and achieved remarkable results. The whole process of underbalanced drilling in the successful
application of technology will provide an effective exploration and development drilling and completion mode for Tarim
Oilfield.
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The Technology of Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling

The whole process underbalanced drilling technology refers to keep the whole process underbalanced, including drilling,
tripping, coring, well logging, well completion etc. Its main advantages are: to discover and protect reservoirs, reduce the
amount of lost circulation, prevent differential pressure sticking, and improve ROP. But because of the lack of domestic four
phase separator used in drilling, the surface process cannot guarantee the closed loop of whole process underbalanced while
drilling. Therefore, in view of well control safety, whole process underbalanced drilling is currently limited to the application
of non hydrogen sulfide or sulfide formation.

The whole process underbalanced drilling technology including the pressure control of underbalanced drilling , tripping with
pressure, underbalanced coring, underbalanced logging and underbalanced well completion technology.

The pressure control of underbalanced drilling is through manual or automatic control the casing pressure, ensure
the bottomhole pressure stable and below the reservoir pressure. The key equipment includes rotary control head, liquid gas
separator, under balanced manual or automatic choke manifold, under balanced data acquisition system, bottomhole pressure
gauge or bottomhole pressure monitoring instrument (PWD) etc.

Non-snubbing service is a technology that allows the bottom hole pressure is lower than the reservoir pressure in
the drilling process. The key equipment including downhole casing shut-off valve, not snubbing device and gel valve. At
present, the downhole deployment valve has two kinds ,one is mechanical and the other is hydraulic casing valve (DDV).
Not snubbing device has two kinds of specifications, 60 tons and 15 tons, which are the device being used for the most times.
Gel valve developed by CNPC has beensuccessfully applied in 12 wells.

Underbalanced coring is a technique to obtain the core in under balanced condition. The key
equipment including underbalanced coring tool and coring bit. At present, the technology has been successfully used in
20 wells in the Sichuan Basin.

Underbalanced logging is one of logging in under balanced condition. At present,CNPC have developed the compensated
neutron underbalanced logging, compensated sonic underbalanced logging, logging into the logging equipment
and technology of process pipe supporting.

Underbalanced well completion is a technique in the process of completion that is notkilling and directly put into production.
The main way of completion include underbalanced open hole completion, underbalanced liner completion, all the
completion pipe string are used with pressure tripping tools.

The Feasibility Analysis of The Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling in YM area

The whole process underbalanced drilling is suitable for all the pollution or sensitive reservoir, natural fractured
reservoir, abnormal pressure reservoir, the high pressure and low permeability oil and gas reservoir and the content of H2S
should be less than 50PPM.

According to the results of seismic reflection, YingMai block of Tarim Oilfield favorable carbonate reservoir has three
types, type I is fractured and vuggy reservoir, type II is fractured reservoir, type III is fracture vug reservoir. The pressure
coefficient of these three kinds of reservoir is about 1.10, the maximum temperature of 134.21 ℃. The crude oil in this
reservoir includes sulfur and gas, shows low viscosity oil, which belongs to the normal temperature and normal pressure
system.

The drilling data show that the wellbore is stable, but lost circulation was very serious in this area (Table 1), and part of the
horizontal well unable to reach the design target (Table 2). In addition, the reservoir containing little hydrogen sulfide, which
were not found in the drilling process , but hydrogen sulfide were found in some of the wells in the process of testing oil, the
highest content of 21PPM.

Table 1 Statistics of YM block lost circulation

Well No. Depth (m) Mud Density (g/cm3) Discription Lost time (h)
YM1 6084 1.20 lost circulation ,minimum leakage rate 4m3/h，maximum leakage rate50m3/h 284
YM2 5847 1.20 lost circulation ,lost drilling fluid74m3 25.25
YM3 5824 1.25 sticking by lost circulation, broken BHA 3267.7
5875 1.17 Lost circulation 330.22m³，average rate 5.2m³/h 246
YM4 6031 1.13 Lost circulation 2203.65m³，average rate 6.2m³/h 686
6066 1.13 Lost circulation 979.78m³，average rate 3.2m³/h 621
SPE/IADC-168954-MS 3

Table 2 Horizontal Section of YM X block

Well No. Design horizontal section (m) The actual footage (m) The completion rate (%)
YM-1H 362 233 64.4
YM-2H 403 272 67.5
YM-3H 350 310 88

The YingMai block is a fractured reservoir, , there will be serious formation damage if drilling fluid invasion was
accrued.The average crack width < 100 µm, filtrate invasion depth is shallow, but in the near wellbore zone will cause the
damage of liquid trap, solid invasion, water sensitive, chemical adsorption etc.If,100 µm < the average crack width <
1000 µm, the solid particles in drilling fluid along the fracture network into the micro particle blocking matrix pore and
throat of deep reservoir, Subsequent drilling fluid to enter deep reservoir, resulting in the late reservoir transformation
difficulty. If the average cracks width > 1000 µm, plugging fracture is more difficult, drilling fluid invasion into
reservoir, deeper, more serious damage, it is difficult to restore the late reformation.

All analysis results show that the whole process of underbalanced drilling technology suitable for testing in YM X block.

The Design of Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling

1).Well Structure

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the well structure

2).The Whole Progress of Drilling

Second section:the KOP is 5630m,then directional drilling to the depth of 6004.00m with 241.3mm Bit→Then trips the
177.8mm casing and cement, at the same time the casing valve was set into the well depth 800m→Third section is from
6004m to A using the mud under balanced drilling technology → Past the third section point A 50-100m, If
the mud underbalanced drilling can not find the equilibrium point because of lost circulation, then converted into aerated mud
drilling → The remaining section of the well to design depth 6511m, using aerated mud drilling → Transmission of
memory logging → DST → Display good, Then underbalanced well completion → Display is not good, then conventional
completion.

3).Optimization of Drilling Fluid

The reservoir pressure coefficient of YM block is between 1.06-1.1, in order to realize the whole process underbalanced
drilling, must use low density drilling fluid. Because of the high cost of oil base mud, the imitation oil based mud is
recommended to used, but the imitation oil based mud density is higher than 1.05g/cm3, therefore, the imitation of oil based
mud filled with nitrogen was used to reduce the density of mud to ensure that the bottom hole pressure below the
reservoir pressure.

4).Underbalanced drilling process

The process if there’s no sign of oil when using underbalanced drilling

4 SPE/IADC-168954-MS

Fig. 2 The process if there’s no sign of oil when using underbalanced drilling

Fig. 3 The process if there’s good sign when using underbalanced drilling

5).Tripping with pressure

Trip out with pressure:

① Close the throttle valve, sealing wellhead with rotary control head, then seal drill. During the trip, into
the corresponding amount of drilling fluid from killing manifold to the annulus filled with fracturing
truck, maintaining the wellhead casing pressure within specified limits.

② Bit reaches the casing valve above, closing the casing valve, draining off the wellhead casing pressure, remove
the rotating assembly, according to the conventional method of drilling and completion.

Trip in with pressure:

① In conventional round tripping near the casing valve, mounted rotating assembly.

② Open the casing valve, pressure control round tripping to the bottom.

6).Logging with pressure

The measuring project of well logging instrument includes the dual laterolog, natural potential, natural
gamma, lithology density, natural gamma energy spectrum, compensated acoustic, electrical imaging (EMI or FMI), the
bottom hole temperature, inclination, azimuth, dipole sonic, the same with conventional logging.During the
pressure transmission logging, using the casing valve with pressure tripping in and out.

7).Underbalanced well completion

The openhole completion in Tarim Oilfield were carried out in four ways: the open hole staged acid fracturing
technology, selective cementing technology, liner not cementing, liner cementing, perforating completion. Therefore, we
SPE/IADC-168954-MS 5

recommend liner not cementing underbalanced well completion, but if we have high yield, wellbore stability and do not
need to take some measures to prevent sand, we can direct the tubing completion.

The Application of Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling Technology

The under balanced drilling operation with imitated oil base mud was employed 3 trips in YM2-H30.

The first trip: section 6004m ~ 6353m, footage of 349m, net drilling time is 116:30,the ROP is 3m/s, poor oil and gas
shows, wellhead pressure was not controlled, separator outlet ignition does not burn.

The second trip: section 6353m ~ 6549m, footage of 196m, net drilling time 59:00, ROP is 3.22m/h. This trip made
three aerated drilling test, the measured drilling mud circulation hole equivalent density is 1.07-1.08g/cm3, aerated
mud drilling is equivalent density: 0.93-1.07g/cm3, the bottom hole temperature of 124.19 ℃.Oil and gas shows great in the
drilling process, wellhead pressure control of 0.5 ~ 2MPa.

The third trip: section 6549m ~ 6620, footage of 71m, net drilling time is 21:00, the ROP is 3.382m/h, oil and gas shows
great, separator outlet ignition combustible, wellhead pressure control of 0.5 ~ 1MPa.
Measurement results show that, casing pressure is 2.5MPa, the production is 116 m3/d. The ground ignition and oil
skimming as shown in figure 2.

Fig. 4 ground ignition and oil skimming

Evaluation of The Whole Process Underbalanced Drilling

The whole process underbalanced drilling technology has achieved significant results in this well.

1） Set the deepest record in the aerated mud drilling (depth 6620m).

2） During the underbalanced drilling, we found a total of 6 layers, the total thickness is 16m, the oil production was the
highest at present in this area.

3） The ROP of underbalanced drilling well section is 3.14m/h, which is increased by 74% compared to the same level of
adjacent wells.

4） Compared to site well, through the reasonable control of the bottom hole pressure, realized zero loss, zero complexity,
greatly improving the drilling efficiency, saving the cost of mud, effectively protect the reservoir.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank PetroChina for authorizing the publication of the data presented in this paper.We gratefully
acknowledge the encouragements and continuous support from China University of Petroleum(Beijing)
6 SPE/IADC-168954-MS

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