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Abstract

An operator in offshore South China planned to develop a new field comprising multiple thin oil-bearing zones. It was decided to develop the field by upgrading an existing drilling rig on a platform rig 6 km away to drill extended reach horizontal wells. The objective was to place long lateral drains in a thin-pay reservoir. However, the foreseen high drilling torque risk within the backdrop of the drilling rig that has maximum 42,000 llbf drilling torque capacity may limit this option. In addition, subsurface challenges may highly constrain the ability to access the target reservoir optimally for production and reserve recovery optimization. This paper features successful approach using the latest Logging-While-Drilling (LWD) technology and Geosteering technique to overcome extended reach horizontal wells drilling challenges – executed under limited drilling rig capacity and highly subsurface uncertainties. The efforts described are performed in real-time while drilling and aim to place the well optimally along the thin pay zone by delineating and mapping the top and bottom pay zone boundaries simultaneously. With this ability, the lateral can be placed accurately without making unnecessary trajectory adjustment that can result in additional drilling torque.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.20131580
2013-09-22
2024-03-28
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