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Landmark Technical Review 26

Significant casing-job planning and model-
ing, with a dynamic-surge model, enabled
BP PLC successfully to run and cement
the 13-3/8-in. intermediate casing, in the
subsea development well Marlin SS-1,
with the full or desired cement returns.
The company drilled the Viosca Knoll
Block 915 well last year in 3,540 ft of
water in 12,432-ft total depth with the
semisubmersible drilling rig Noble J im
Thompson (Fig. 1).
The 13-3/8-in. intermediate casing string,
currently set at 9,119 ft, cases off the
17-in. borehole. The integrity of this string
is highly critical both in terms of zonal
isolation and overall project life.
With information from the model,
engineers fine-tuned the mud weight
from 11.4 to 11.2 ppg to complete the
job successfully and without fracturing
the formation.
Model Accurately Predicts Intermediate
Casing-Run Surge Pressure in Marlin SS-1 Well
G. Robello Samuel
andFaris Bajwa
Landmark Graphics
Corporation
Mark Franklin
andJ ohn LeBlanc
BP PLC
Increased deepwater and
ultradeep drilling operations
have triggered the need to
control wellbore pressures
within a narrow window
between pore pressure
and fracture gradient.
Oil &Gas J ournal August 2002
Wellbore schematic, Marlin SS-1
MW =Mud weight, ppg
FG =Fracture gradient, mud weight equivalent, ppg
RKB =Rotary Kelly bushing
TOC =Top of cement
Figure 1.
Landmark Technical Review 27
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Drilling, cementing
operations
During drilling of the 17-in. hole section,
a pressure-while-drilling (PWD) tool moni-
tored bottomhole pressure and supplied
the equivalent circulating density (ECD)
data throughout the entire interval.
At 7,303 ft, crews increased the mud
weight from 11ppg to 11.2 ppg because
of background gas increase.
Drilling continued to 7,867 ft. where
crews further increased the mud weight
to 11.4 ppg because of background gas.
Drilling continued after increasing mud
weight. The hole began taking mud
at 7,970 ft and continued through
8,000 ft, where a lost-circulation material
(LCM) pill was spotted on bottom to
control losses.
The hole experienced severe losses
at 8,053 ft.
The simulation and design work that
had been done earlier made an easier
task of performing new sensitivity
simulations quickly as the drilling param-
eters, primarily mud weight, changed.
This helped the Marlin engineers to make
correct decisions with regards to ECD
management at this critical conjunction.
Several case scenarios were run with
different mud weights, which revealed
that running the casing with 11.4-ppg mud
in the hole with highly risky and might
have caused formation fracturing and
that 11.2 ppg would be the safest mud
recommended for the operation (Fig. 2).
The rig spotted another LCMpill on
bottom and pulled the drillstring to
6,641 ft to allow the LCM pill to soak.
At the same time, crews displaced the
11.4-ppg mud in the hole to 11.3-ppg
mud, which was eventually cut back
to 11.2 ppg.
If the formation had fractured, the casing
job would have required remedial cement-
ing, which would have added significant
cost to the project and resulted in
reduced integrity for the 13-3/8-in.
casing string.
Deepwater wells
Increased deepwater and ultradeep
drilling operations have triggered the
need to control wellbore pressures within
a narrow window between pore pressure
and fracture gradient.
Operators need to take precautions with
regard to dominant surge pressures and
counter-intuitive swab pressures while
running casing.
The case study of the subsea well Marlin
SS-1 clearly highlights the need to study
and analyze wellbore pressures prior to
and while running casing, especially when
the window between pore pressure and
fracture gradient is small.
Prejob design
Earlier on, during the design phase, the
Marlin team had identified the limitations
of using conventional study-state surge
models for the 13-3/8-in. intermediate
casing run due to pore pressure and
fracture gradient constraints.
The Marlin engineers decided to use
the computer application based on an
enhanced dynamic or transient surge-
swab model, which Houston-based
Landmark Graphics Corp. calls Wellplan,
to study the implications of running the
13-3/8-in. casing.
This dynamic surge-swab model stems
from the first model developed by
Lubinski and modified over the years
by various authors.
1
Engineers performed a very significant
amount of planning or front end loading,
using the surge model, to optimize
running speeds and mud rheologies
and to verify the surge-reduction
tool estimations.
Figure 2. *The dynamic-surge model calculated transient pressures assuming 11.2-ppg (actual job)
and 11.4-ppg mud weight, or the depth 6,552 ft, which was just above the 16-in. casing shoe. The
surge pressure with 11.4-ppg mud would have exceeded the fracture gradient. The velocity profile
surge pressure line, in red, combines the rigs hook load with the casing-running velocity to
calculate instantaneous casing shoe pressure.
Transient Surge Pressures*
1. Samuel, G.R., Sunthankar, A., McColpin, G., Bern, P., Flynn, T., Field Validation of Transient Swab/Surge Response with PWD Data, SPE Paper No. 67717, presented at
the SPE-IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, Feb. 27 - Mar. 1, 2001.
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Landmark Technical Review 28
Using the actual velocity profile of a
casing joint running into the well, along
the hook load, the authors calculated the
corresponding transient pressure, which
closely matched the simulated results,
which is apparent from the surge pressure
with velocity profile curve (Fig. 2).
The post-job results reinforce that the
decision to reduce the mud weight to
11.2 ppg was the correct one.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank BP LLC and Landmark
Graphics Corp. for permission to publish
this article.
After lowering the mud weight to
11.2 ppg, the rig ran the drillstring
back to bottom and continued drilling
9,144 ft. with no losses.
Crews logged the well and ran the
13-3/8-in. casing to the bottom with full
returns and subsequently cemented it
without problems.
Fig. 2 shows the transient pressures
with 11.2-ppg and 11.4-ppg mud weight
at the depth 6,552 ft, which is just above
the 16-in. casing shoe at 6,672 ft.
Hook-load confirmation
To verify the accuracy and yield
confidence in the models ability to
predict surge pressure during casing
operations, several post simulations
were run with the hook load data
available from the job.
In the absence of downhole pressure
data from the casing run, an attempt
was made to compare the hook load
predicted by the model with the actual
hook load collected during the casing
running-in operations.
Fig. 3 shows hook load predicted
using the transient model as well as
the actual data.
The model predicted slightly higher hook
load than the actual data, which was
primarily due to the method of measuring
hook load. The friction in the sheaves
of the crown and the traveling blocks
influences the actual hook load response,
which is not considered in the model.
Even with this limitation, the predicted
hook load matched the actual data
very closely.
Figure 3. Hook Load versus Time at Prior Casing Shoe.
Actual and Calculated Hook Load
Landmark Technical Review 29
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Robello Samuel is a technical advisor with Landmark Graphics, Houston. At present, he is the technical and engineering lead for the well
planning application suite. Samuel holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras, India. He also
holds MSand PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa.
Faris Bajwa is an engineering consultant with Landmark Graphics Corp. and for the past 2 years has worked as an onsite consultant
for BPs upstream technology group in Houston. He holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa and an MS in
environmental science from the University of Houston.
Mark Franklin is a senior drilling engineer with BP, currently working on deep-water Gulf of Mexico projects. He has 18 years of diverse
experience, holding various operations positions in the USRocky Mountains and working on drilling, completions, and production
projects in Latin America. He is a registered professional engineer and holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the University of
Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.
J ohn LeBlanc is a senior drilling engineer with BP PLC and currently works with Gulf of Suez Petroleum Co., in Cairo, Egypt. He holds a
BS in petroleum engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.