How to run mixed Lower Completion String to Bottom in Deepwater Extended-Reach Well

This ERD well in a Deepwater field has reached TD after 22 days. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent already. Now comes the tricky part: running the lower completion string. This is to connect the wellbore to the reservoir. If something goes wrong, those tens of millions of dollars will have sunk into the deep ocean without a sound. To make things even more challenging, this reservoir is a shallow burial, which means not much weight is available to push down the lower completion string and the client can face significant risk of lock-up due to buckling.

Something had gone wrong before in one of this client’s other Deepwater fields: a well was not lost but a side-track had to be drilled and more millions of dollars had to be thrown in to bring the well back on track, not to count the expensive string that was lost in the hole.

Torque & Drag analysis from the soft string model seems to suggest a trouble–free run to planned target depth even with a ridiculously high friction factor of 0.6 in open-hole. But that’s what it had said last time on that well, too.

It was under these circumstances that DrillScan was called–in to work with the client to ensure a successful run of the lower completion string into the tortuous wellbore. With the provided roadmap, and real-time follow-up during the running operations, the string finally reached the planned target depth to client’s relief. To find out what happened and how we helped our client regain the well, read our white paper by leaving your contact below.

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