Design, Drilling, and Testing of a Deviated

HTHP Exploration Well in the North Sea

K.P. Seymour, SPE, Ranger Oil (U.K.) Ltd., and Robert MacAndrew, SPE, Consultant

Summary or entering the transition zone. After reviewing these options, we

Significant quantities of hydrocarbon reserves are contained in placed the 133/8-in. shoe above the Paleocene sand.
North Sea high-temperature, high-pressure (HTHP) reservoirs. De- The original intention was to place the 95/8-in. casing shoe in the
velopment of these reserves will require deviated wells. This paper Lower Cretaceous Cromer Knoll group before entering the transi-
outlines the planning, drilling, and testing of the first deviated tion zone in the Upper Jurassic. However, examination of offset
HTHP well in the U.K. sector of the North Sea. leakoff data indicated that a casing shoe in the Cromer Knoll group
would probably not be strong enough to allow the transition zone to
be penetrated and the top target sands to be reached without a dril-
Introduction ling liner. With a long section (3,760 ft) below the 95/8-in. casing to
Within the oil industry, the general term “HTHP drilling” has slight- the predicted total depth (TD), we realized that early recourse to a
ly varying definitions in different areas. In this paper, we use the def- drilling liner would jeopardize the attainment of the planned TD be-
inition of the U.K. Health & Safety Executive, which has the statuto- cause contingency hole sizes would be extremely small for this
ry responsibility for safety in the U.K. This definition, contained in depth of deviated hole (Fig. 5). While we recognized that the pore-
Continental Shelf Operations Notice 59,1 states an HTHP well must pressure transition zone at the top of the Jurassic could be extremely
have an undisturbed bottomhole temperature u300°F and that the short, we decided to attempt to place the 95/8-in. casing in the top of
pore-pressure gradient must exceed 0.8 psi/ft or require the use of the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge clay group.
well-control equipment at u10,000-psi working pressure.
These wells may be characterized by (1) a rapidly rising pore- Directional Program. The directional program was constrained by
pressure profile, (2) convergence of pore and fracture pressures, (3) several factors: (1) the need to deviate the wellbore deep enough to
high gas levels from source rocks, (4) loss/gain phenomena, (5) po- come in under the major bounding fault, (2) the need to have all
tentially long sections that lead to high overbalances, and (6) ele- planned directional work completed before downhole temperatures
vated temperatures. approached the operating limits of measurement-while-drilling
The high temperature requires mud systems, downhole equip- (MWD) equipment, and (3) the desire to have a well profile with in-
ment, and tools designed to work at elevated temperatures. The con- clinations that would be relatively easy to maintain without being
vergence of pore and fracture pressures (Fig. 1) leads to problems too high.
owing to the narrow band of mud weight between inducing losses The simplest directional well design is a “build-and-hold” design,
and inducing a kick. This aspect of these wells probably causes the and this was selected with the kickoff placed in the Ekofisk chalk at
the base of the Paleocene sequence. Fig. 5 shows the well plan. This
most trouble. The high mud weights required for well control leads
plan resulted in a maximum 32° inclination. The build section was
to a situation where, owing to the large difference between forma-
therefore completed long before the temperature operating limit of
tion-fluid and mud pressure gradients (Fig. 2), mud overbalance be-
the MWD tools was reached.
comes so high at the bottom of long permeable hole sections that dif-
ferential sticking becomes likely. These problems are magnified
Well Operations
when drilling small-diameter directional holes. The most important
single factor in controlling these problems is the mud system design. The directional work in the 12¼-in. hole was carried out as pro-
grammed. The section was completed with angle-holding rotary
bottomhole assemblies (BHA’s), setting the combination
Well Background and Design
10¾ 95/8-in. casing 100 ft into the Kimmeridge clay formation. A
Well 22/22b-2 was a farm-in exploration well. The objective was to sharp rise in gas levels (from 20% to 65%) accompanied the penetra-
test a Jurassic fault block by drilling to 16,000 ft. The well was tion of the Kimmeridge clay. Attempts to raise the mud weight from
planned to penetrate the Jurassic in an updip location on the up- 14.0 lbm/gal to suppress the gas levels resulted in losses, probably
thrown side of the large fault; therefore, the well had to be deviated to the open Paleocene sands, at 14.4-lbm/gal mud weight. This high-
(Fig. 3). lighted one of the problems of not casing the Paleocene sands; if
losses are induced, establishing where they are occurring is difficult.
Casing. The casing design was conventional by North Sea stan- The 10¾ 95/8-in. casing was drilled out with 16.5-lbm/gal mud.
dards (Fig. 4 and Table 1). Krus and Prieur 2 have described the fac- A kick from a small sand stringer forced the mud weight up to 17.8
tors in HTHP well design in U.K. waters. lbm/gal, which was higher than the predicted 17.6-lbm/gal maxi-
Despite its conventional appearance, two major points had to be mum pore pressure. Further signs of well instability resulted in the
addressed. The first was placement of the 133/8-in. casing shoe. The mud weight being steadily increased until it reached 18.2 lbm/gal.
question was whether to place the shoe above or below the Paleo- A subsequent repeat-formation-tester reading indicated a pore pres-
cene sands. Two schools of thought exist on this. One is that the shoe sure of 18.0-lbm/gal equivalent mud weight in the Kimmeridge.
should be placed above the Paleocene sand with the top of the deep This unexpected high overpressure in the Kimmeridge placed the
casing cement below the bottom of the sand. An argument for this well in jeopardy. The 8½-in. BHA became stuck, and a 7-in. drilling
is that any overpressure in the annulus caused by thermal expansion liner was subsequently set after sidetracking because of further hole
in the 133/8 95/8-in. annulus can be relieved into the permeable Pa- problems. More than 2,500 ft of hole remained to be drilled. A
leocene sands during testing with a semisubmersible rig. The alter- 55/8-in. hole was drilled out from the 7-in. liner. Losses were induced
native view is that the 133/8-in. shoe should be placed in a competent when the equivalent circulating density (ECD) was higher than ex-
formation below the Paleocene; this provides superior protection pected despite a formation integrity test of 19.2-lbm/gal equivalent
from potential losses if the mud weight is raised when approaching mud weight.
Problems occurred with the mud system that resulted in severe
Copyright 1994 Society of Petroleum Engineers losses being sustained on circulating bottoms up after bit trips.
These problems ultimately led to the entire system being displaced
Original SPE manuscript received for review May 3,1993. Paper accepted for publication July
1, 1994. Paper (SPE 26874) first presented at the 1993 Offshore Technology Conference
with new mud. A second sidetrack had to be carried out after the
held in Houston, May 3–6. drillstring became differentially stuck at the start of a bit trip because

SPE Drilling & Completion, December 1994 244

 Fig. 2—Differential pressure changes across a condensate res-
Fig. 1—Pore and fracture pressures. ervoir with 18.5-lbm/gal mud.

of a problem with the rig top drive. After this sidetrack, the hole was rig was following standard practice pumping out of the hole when
successfully drilled to TD by use of 4¾-in. turbines. a problem with the top drive resulted in the string becoming station-
ary, without circulation, across permeable sands for [20 minutes.
Drilling the Slim Hole This illustrates the potential detrimental consequences of surface
This well was completed with an extensive 2,535-ft, 55/8-in. section. equipment failures while drilling a deviated well.
The original well plan had not envisaged such a long section of this The hole was subsequently sidetracked by use of a turbine assem-
sized hole. This is discussed in the Contingency Planning section. bly. The resultant sidetrack was 883 ft above the TD of the old hole.
Initially, the section was drilled by conventional rotary tech- This offered an ideal opportunity to compare turbine drilling with
niques: a tapered drillstring of 5-in. drillpipe above the 7-in. drilling rotary drilling over the same interval. A 4¾-in. turbine was there-
liner and a 3½-in. drillpipe with a short section of heavyweight drill- fore run in the hole. The turbine drilling proved significantly faster
pipe, 4¾-in. drill collars, stabilizers, and bit below the liner. Hy- than the rotary drilling, with penetration rates up to four times those
draulic problems became apparent after drilling only 31 ft of hole; achieved by rotary drilling (Fig. 6).
losses started occurring although calculations indicated that the The problem of losses on bit trips was solved at the time of the
ECD was 0.4 lbm/gal below the formation integrity of 19.2 lbm/gal sidetrack (discussed later), and the hole was completed by the tur-
obtained from the 7-in.-liner-shoe integrity test. bines. One bit drilled a total of 1,544 ft in 308 hours (5 ft/hr). To
Later, when the driller was preparing to go back on bottom, we monitor hole conditions, wiper trips were made after every 24 hours
noted that an increase in rotary speed caused an increase in pump of drilling. Generally, the hole stayed in good condition, although
pressure for the same flow rate. By controlling rotary speed and flow the onset of differential sticking was reported near TD, probably be-
rate, drilling without losses was established. At high mud weights cause of the difference in hydrostatic gradient between the mud and
(in this case, u18.0 lbm/gal), cuttings transport is not a problem be- formation fluids (Fig. 2).
cause the cuttings density is generally less than the mud density.
However, problems with severe losses were experienced after bit Mud Weight
trips; these are described in the Mud Weight section. In any wellbore with a narrow margin between pore and fracture
After successfully establishing drilling parameters that allowed pressure, mud weight is a potential problem. Excess mud weight
steady progress (100 ft/D was achieved on occasion), 1,350 ft of that causes lost circulation, generally more difficult to deal with than
55/8-in. hole (half the requirement) was drilled. The drillstring be- a kick, can lead to quite severe well-control problems.
came stuck one stand off bottom at the beginning of a bit trip. The
High trip and connection gases were seen in the 8½-in. hole. This
was probably the result of the mud flushing the hydrocarbons out of
exposed sands because of good vertical permeability in the sand and
the great difference in pressure gradient between the mud and hy-
drocarbon. The difference in differential pressure between the top
and bottom of the sand sets up a system with the mud invading the
bottom of the sand and displacing hydrocarbon formation fluids at
the top, giving rise to the unexplained high gas peaks after circula-
tion had been stopped.

Sidetracking
The main directional work was carried out above the HTHP section
of the hole. However, two successful sidetracks were drilled, one
each in the 8½- and 55/8-in. sections. Assemblies used to sidetrack
were conventional in arrangement: a bit, motor, bent sub, universal
bottomhole orientation (UBHO) sub, crossover, collars, and jars.
Bent subs were 1.5 and 1° for the 8½ and 55/8-in. holes, respectively.
In place of the more-common positive-displacement motor used for
such purposes, a turbine was used in both cases. The turbine was se-
lected for two principal reasons: its inherent ability to withstand
Fig. 3—Well bottom location. higher temperatures than a positive-displacement motor (which re-

245 SPE Drilling & Completion, December 1994

 Fig. 4—Casing design for Well 22/22b-2. Fig. 5—Well plan.

lies on elastomers to function) and its ability to detect bottomhole darts were pumped ahead and behind the cement. The darts were
pressures (BHP) in a well-control situation. Because downhole tem- caught in the sump of the cementing stinger below the perforations.
peratures are at or beyond the operating limits of MWD tools at The darts used were standard 5-in. drillpipe wiper darts modified on
325°F, hot-hole steering tools, run on wireline and landed in the the rig. The modifications to the darts were (1) turning down the alu-
UBHO sub, were used to provide directional information for the minium nose so that it would pass through the smallest ID in the ce-
sidetrack. Directional survey information was obtained by hot-hole, menting string, the 3½-in. tool joints, and (2) trimming back all fins
single-shot surveys and hot-hole, electronic-multishot surveys. except the top ones so the plug would pass through the 3½-in. drill-
pipe. The modifications were checked on the rig to ensure that the
Contingency Planning plugs would go through the 3½-in. drillpipe.
In small-diameter holes, the volumes of slurries required for quite
After the 7-in. drilling liner was committed in the Kimmeridge clays large plugs are small (10 bbl equates to 325 ft of plug in a 55/8-in.
and before the upper target sands were penetrated, we realized that hole). Also, pulling a stinger out of the plug after it has been laid will
the 55/8-in. hole could not be considered the final contingency hole almost always result in such severe contamination that the plug will
size, as had been assumed in the original well plan. A 4½-in., not be successful.
15.1-lbm/ft contingency liner had been procured for running in the The openhole plugs were laid on the run. When the cement
55/8-in. hole. This 4½-in. liner now became a potential drilling liner reached the stinger, the drillstring was pumped out of the hole, dis-
in addition to its original role as a contingency testing liner (Fig. 7). placing the cement under the stinger. The rate the pipe was pulled
The 4½-in. liner had Atlas Bradford ST-L integral-joint connec- was calculated to match the displacing pump rate to prevent over-
tions, which provided a drift diameter large enough to allow a or underdisplacement of cement. The wiper darts helped with this
3¾-in. hole to be drilled below. New float equipment that could be because they could be seen entering the 3½-in. pipe from the 5-in.
drilled by polycrystalline-diamond-compact (PDC) bits was or- pipe (pressure increase) and clearing the perforations in the stinger
dered and manufactured to ensure that a 3¾-in. bit could pass (pressure decrease). These indications helped to give a measure of
through. We expected that a 3¾-in. hole would be necessary below control over the cement placement, and the final pressure drop con-
14,500 ft. Rotary drilling with a tapered string (5, 3½, and 23/8 in.) firmed the position of the top of cement.
was not considered practical, and the contingency was to use slim-
hole motors and PDC bits. Turbines are not available in sizes smaller Cementing Through the Bit. This had to be done once on this well
than 4¾ in., so 27/8-in. hot-hole, positive-displacement motors were in the 8½-in. hole to allow the drillstring to be pulled and the 7-in.
found. As it transpired, the 3¾-in. hole was not required; however, liner run. All bits were run without nozzles to allow the pumping of
experience gained in drilling the 55/8-in. hole indicated that a 3¾-in. lost-circulation material (LCM) and cement if required. The cement
hole could have been drilled successfully with careful planning.

Openhole Cementing
Stinger Technique. Laying cement plugs in small, angled holes is
a problem. The method used on this well was a cement stinger made
on the rig from 3½-in. drillpipe (Fig. 8). To prevent contamination
of the cement while it was being pumped down the drillpipe, wiper

TABLE 1—CASING
Size Weight
(in.) (lbm/ft) Grade Connection Comments
30 310 X-52 ST2 —
20 133 X-56 VLS-2 —
133/8 72 P-110 New Vam —
103/4 101 C-95 NK-HWSL For sour service
95/8 53.5 P-110 New Vam —
7 41 Q-125 New Vam Liner/tieback
7 46 C-95 New Vam Sour service top,
8,000 ft of tieback
41/2 15.1 P-110 ST-L Contingency liner Fig. 6—Turbine/rotary rates of penetration.

SPE Drilling & Completion, December 1994 246

 Testing
The testing program was successful and trouble-free. The test string
design philosophy was to use the minimum number of downhole
tools. Tubing-conveyed perforating guns were used for perforating.
A “flex” run was made with the tubing. This was done by running
in the hole with only the tubing and a tester valve to perform a pres-
sure test on the test string and to clear the tubing before running the
test string into the hole with the guns, gauges, and tools.
Testing is the one phase where a semisubmersible rig is at a dis-
tinct disadvantage to a jackup rig. The reasons are the use of elasto-
mers in the subsea test tree and blowout preventer stack and their
temperature limitations. Generally, presence of elastomers restricts
the allowable maximum temperature at the subsea wellhead to
230°F. Low and Seymour3 and Ross et al.4 reported that installation
of a flowhead system with all metal-to-metal seals is possible with
a jackup, which can enhance the temperature rating to 350 to 400°F.

Drilling Fluids
Fig. 7—Hole-size contingencies. The selection and maintenance of the fluids to be used for drilling,
packing, and perforating are very important.
plug was laid on the run with the annular preventer closed to prevent This hole was drilled with low-toxicity oil-based mud from the
U-tubing of cement when the pipe was stationary as stands were be- 17½-in. hole to TD. Oil-based muds originally were developed for
ing racked. While this plug was not very competent, it stopped loss/ this type of well because of their stability at elevated temperatures.
gain situations on the well and allowed the bit to be pulled without They are generally straightforward to run in the field and perform
trouble. better than water-based muds. However, persistent losses after trips
in the 55/8-in. hole eventually led to close examination of what was
Logging coming out of the hole on the first circulation after returning to bot-
The 8½-in. hole section was logged with a supercombination log- tom. Every time losses had been experienced, light mud had been
ging string [118.7 ft long with induction, sonic density, compen- observed in the returns just before the losses started. Laboratory
sated-neutron, and gamma ray logging tools. This logging run was work revealed that barite sag probably was taking place. Neither a
made without significant incident. laboratory nor a field solution to the problem could be found with
Owing to the combination of the hole angle (32°), high mud the existing mud; therefore, the entire system was changed out. The
weight, and small clearance between the wellbore and tools, logging difference in performance was dramatic. Trips could be made with-
the 55/8-in. hole on wireline proved impossible. The logs were ob- out spending days curing losses before resuming drilling. Losses
tained successfully by running the logging tools on drillpipe, pump- were induced when the first turbine was run in the hole after the mud
ing the cable down the drillpipe by means of a side-entry drillpipe changeout. These losses were from high shrinkage that the new mud
sub, and latching onto a special wet connector at the top of the drill- exhibited when cooling at the top of the hole during trips that re-
pipe-to-toolstring crossover when the logging tools were at the sulted in a 0.1- to 0.2-lbm/gal density increase. (The losses resulted
deepest casing shoe (Fig. 9). in LCM being pumped through the turbine before it had started dril-
Standard logging tool upper temperature operating limits are in ling). The problem was overcome by stopping on the way in on trips
the 300 to 350°F range. Logging suites therefore must be selected at 8,000 ft and displacing the hole to correct-density mud at ambient
from the tools available for high-temperature work. Generally, the temperature; no further losses were experienced after trips.
main services all can be covered by tools with maximum tempera-
ture ratings of 500°F and BHP ratings of 25,000 psi. Exceptions at Packer Fluid. The oil-based mud was used as the packer fluid for
present are induction/resistivity, sampling, and dipmeter tools that the drillstem testing. Its performance was trouble-free in this func-
are limited to 400 or 450°F and 20,000 psi. The major difficulty with tion. Pilot tests and a treatment to improve suspension properties
the high-temperature tools is that they may be in short supply. without excessive gelation were carried out.

Fig. 8—Cement-stinger and wiper-dart launching arrangement. Fig. 9—Drillpipe logging schematic.

247 SPE Drilling & Completion, December 1994

Perforating Fluid. When perforating through oil-based muds, one Shell U.K. E&P Ltd., Oryx U.K. Energy Co., and Brasoil U.K. Ltd.,
problem is that the gases generated by the explosive charges destroy for extensive and open cooperation during the planning and drilling
the mud. This can result in considerable damage to the perforation of the well. We also thank the chairman and management committee
tunnels by mud solids. Because the oil-based mud was being used of Ranger Oil for permission to publish this paper.
as the packer fluid, we sought a suitable clean perforation fluid . We
found a clean fluid that was compatible with the mud system. This References
was a densified, clean, oil-based salt fluid stable to 425°F. The fluid 1. “Continental Shelf Operations Notice No. 59,” Health & Safety Execu-
could not be densified above 15.2 lbm/gal, but this did not create a tive, Offshore Safety Div., London (May 1992) 1.
problem because it was used only across the zone to be perforated 2. Krus, H. and Prieur, I.M.: “High-Pressure Well Design,” SPEDE (Dec.
and therefore did not reduce the hydrostatic balance significantly. 1991) 240.
3. Low, E. and Seymour K.P.: “The Drilling and Testing of High-Pressure
Conclusions Gas-Condensate Wells in the North Sea,” paper SPE 17224 presented at
the 1988 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Dallas, Feb. 28–March 2.
Well 22/22b-2 achieved its objectives and showed that directional 4. Ross, I., Seymour, K.P., and Whyte, B.: “The Role of Jack-Ups and Perma-
wells can be drilled and tested successfully in HTHP reservoirs of nent Completions in Central Graben Exploration Drilling,” Proc. PSTI
the Central graben of the North Sea. Seminar on the Central Graben, Edinburgh (1990) 1.
Mud weight and the mud system are the most important factors
to be considered and maintained. Every effort should be made to SI Metric Conversion Factors
keep the mud weight as low as possible.
HTHP wellbore conditions severely restrict the directional dril- bbl 1.589 873 E*01 + m3
ling techniques available. The well trajectory design should there- ft 3.048* E*01 + m
fore be as simple as possible (i.e., build and hold where possible), °F (°F–32)/1.8 + °C
with the main directional work completed before entering the HTHP gal 3.785 412 E*03 + m3
section of the well. While successful directional work is possible, in. 2.54* E)00 + cm
the techniques have to be those of the 1970’s (single-shot surveys, lbm 4.535 924 E*01 + kg
wireline steering tools, etc.). psi 6.894 757 E)00 + kPa
Overpressured sands in the Kimmeridge may require the early *Conversion factor is exact. SPEDC
commitment of a drilling liner and limit the potential TD of a well.
A key variable in HTHP well design is the length of HTHP section
to be drilled. In assessing the length of this section that can be drilled Ken Seymour is general manager of U.K. operations for Ranger
before the likely onset of differential sticking, several factors have Oil (U.K.) Ltd. in Guildford responsible for drilling, development,
to be accounted for: potential differential pressures, anticipated and production operations. His previous assignments with
lengths of permeable sections, hole size and inclination, and BHA Ranger were managing drilling operations in Aberdeen and
geometry. Great Yarmouth and of the company's first well in Pakistan. In
1990, he became drilling manager, responsible for all U.K. drilling
If long sections of high-pressure hole are required, increasing activity. Before joining Ranger, he worked as a drilling engineer
hole sizes in the upper, non-high-pressure section of the well may for British Petroleum in Aberdeen, Shanghai, and Great
be necessary to allow sufficient contingency hole sizes to get the Yar mouth and for Danbury Drilling. Seymour holds a BS degree
well to the desired TD. Alternatively, the planned TD may have to in mining engineering and a PhD degree in rock mechanics,
be adjusted to meet the available hole sizes. both from the U. of Leeds, and an MBA degree from Aberdeen
Well designs that set 133/8-in. casing shoe above the Paleocene U. Robert MacAndrew is currently working as a consultant in the
sands create problems if high mud weights are required in the Far East. Before that, he was drilling superintendent in the CenĆ
12¼-in. section. Because of the additional difficulties associated tral Graben Drilling Group for Ranger Oil. He previously worked
with directional drilling, deviated HTHP wells should set the for Chevron, Marathon Oil, Lithgows Ltd., Yarrow (Shipbuilders)
Ltd., and Kingstone Marine Technology Ltd. He holds a BS deĆ
133/8-in. casing shoe below the Paleocene sands. gree in naval architecture from the U. of Strathclyde and a postĆ
Logging on drillpipe provides a practical means of logging de- graduate diploma in offshore engineering from Robert GorĆ
viated HTHP in hole sizes t6 in. don's Inst. of Technology.
The use of turbines should be considered for drilling small-diam-
eter HTHP sections.

Acknowledgments
The material presented here was developed from work by Ranger
Oil (U.K.) Ltd. as operator of Well 22/22b-2. We thank our col-
leagues for their help, comments, and suggestions in the preparation
of this paper and the Well 22/22b-2 partners, Esso E&P U.K. Ltd.,

SPE Drilling & Completion, December 1994 248