Logging While Drilling in Kurdistan's First Horizontal Well Enhances Production Rates

The Bastora 1-A well is a horizontal side track well drilled in DNO’s original Bastora-1 vertical exploration well. The application of logging while drilling tools enabled the first horizontal well in Kurdistan to hit the target and enhance production in a difficult wellbore environment. The horizontal section was drilled through an oil filled carbonate zone using logging while drilling sensors in order to establish maximum flow rates by penetrating multiple fracture systems. Throughout the drilling phase LWD was used to verify the optimal trajectory was being followed by analyzing the logging data. By acquiring the data in real-time while drilling it was possible to intervene and correct the well trajectory when required. The horizontal well was drilled on the correct trajectory and increased the original well production more than five times to an initial 2000-2300 bopd with a crude oil of 18-19 API. The flow has since normalized at 1700-1800 bopd. It was vital to collect this data while drilling as the high angles, doglegs, and general borehole instability would have proved to be problematic for traditional wireline logging. Without the application of this technology the wellbore placement would have proven to be extremely difficult.