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Volume 26, Issue 1
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Abstract

The Faroe–Shetland Basin, NE Atlantic continental margin, hosts a number of important hydrocarbon fields; although deep water and narrow weather windows mean that drilling costs are considerably higher than for other parts of the UK Continental Shelf. Any additional drilling complications are therefore important to predict and negate as such issues can result in avoidable multi-million pound cost implications. This study focuses on the Corona Ridge, an intrabasinal high which contains the Rosebank Field, where a plethora of drilling issues, of enigmatic origin, are common within a key stratigraphic marker known as the Balder Formation. Drilling fluid loss, bit balling, wellbore breakouts and wellbore ‘ballooning’, where lost drilling fluid returns to the wellbore, are all recognized within the Balder Formation along the Corona Ridge. We find that many of the drilling incidents can be traced back to both the lithological character of the Balder Formation and the mid-Miocene tectonic inversion of the Corona Ridge. Moreover, we find that this geological explanation has wider implications for exploration in the region, including the mitigation of drilling incidents in future wells through drill-bit selection.

: A table detailing the drilling acronyms and terminology used in this study (adapted from ) is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4290602

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London for GSL and EAGE. All rights reserved

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This article is accompanied by the following content:
Development of intra-basaltic lava-field drainage systems within the Faroe–Shetland Basin

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This article is accompanied by the following content:
Controls on the distribution of volcanism and intra-basaltic sediments in the Cambo–Rosebank region, West of Shetland
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Raiders of the Lost Mud: the geology behind drilling incidents within the Balder Formation around the Corona Ridge, West of Shetland
Petroleum Geoscience 26, 110 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1144/petgeo2018-060
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