For S-15 and S-14 wells at South S Field, drilling of the 12-1/4” hole section became the longest tangent hole section interval of both wells. There were several challenges identified where hole problems can occur. The hole problems often occur in the unconsolidated sand layers and porous limestone formation sections of the hole during tripping in/out operations. Most of the hole problems are closely related to the design of the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). In many instances, hole problems resulted in significant additional drilling time. As an effort to resolve this issue, a new BHA setup was then designed to enhance the BHA drilling performance and eventually eliminate hole problems while drilling. The basic idea of the enhanced BHA is to provide more annulus clearance and limber BHA. The purpose is to reduce the Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD,) less contact area with formation, and reduce packoff risk while drilling through an unconsolidated section of the rocks. Engineering simulations were conducted to ensure that the enhanced BHA were able to deliver a good drilling performance. As a results, improved drilling performance can be seen on S-14 well which applied the enhanced BHA design. The enhanced BHA was able to drill the 12-1/4” tangent hole section to total depth (TD) with certain drilling parameter. Hole problems were no longer an issue during tripping out/in operation. This improvement led to significant rig time and cost savings of intermediate hole section drilling compared to S-15 well. The new enhanced BHA design has become one of the company’s benchmarks for drilling directional wells in South S Field.
