Real Results

Performance By The Numbers

Victus Intelligent MPD and SeaShield® RCD

Save 5 Days of Drilling Through a Narrow Mud Weight Window

Objectives

  • Avoid kicks and mud losses while drilling through a challenging zone with high potential for lost circulation.
  • Perform dynamic formation-integrity test (FIT) and define ballooning gradient to properly assess formation strength and avoid operational problems.

Our Approach

  • Weatherford managed-pressure drilling (MPD) experts evaluated the  operator’s plans to drill through a narrow pore-pressure and fracture-gradient window. Recognizing that pressure-related kicks, losses, and influxes would make conventional drilling methods too risky, the MPD team recommended the Victus intelligent MPD system and SeaShield model 7875 below-tension-ring (BTR) rotating control device (RCD).
  • At the rig, Weatherford crews integrated the Victus MPD control system with the existing rig system to enhance influx monitoring and apply surface backpressure to adjust bottomhole pressures as required.
  • The crew rigged up the SeaShield BTR RCD, which is integrated with an MPD riser joint below the tension ring and the termination joint to provide closed-loop drilling while accommodating rig heave and delivering emergency-disconnect functionality.
  • While drilling the 12 1/4-in. hole section, the Victus intelligent MPD system detected a kick and automatically contained 7 bbl of influx. Well control operations fully displaced the kill mud weight in 17 hours, which saved at least five days of rig time compared with conventional drilling methods.
  • Crews used the system’s Dynamic FIT feature to perform formation integrity testing and identify potential ballooning problems as equivalent circulating densities approached formation fracture pressures.
  • All tripping operations were conducted with a mud density that provided an overbalance of 150 psi over the pore pressure.
  • The Weatherford deepwater MPD package provided influx monitoring and response by adjusting bottomhole pressures to enable the operator to reach total depth in a challenging drilling environment.

Value to Customer

  • In deepwater Myanmar, the Victus intelligent MPD system enhanced influx monitoring and applied surface backpressure to adjust bottomhole pressures while dynamic FIT evaluations enabled the operator to assess formation strength. This resulted in a savings of five days rig time in the country’s first-ever managed pressure drilling operation on a floating rig.
  • The MPD system created a closed and pressurized drilling system to deliver key environmental, cost, and safety benefits.
Details

Location

Offshore Myanmar

Well Type

Deepwater, deviated, exploration

Hole Size

8-1/2 in.

Casing Size

9-5/8 in.

Target Depth

13,225 ft (4,031 m)

Products/Services

Victus™ Intelligent MPD and SeaShield® RCD Save 5 Days of Drilling Through a Narrow Mud Weight Window

Contact Weatherford

Take the next step in realizing the field of the future. Submit your details and one of our optimization experts will be in touch.