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Step Changes Reduce East Texas Drilling Time

A willingness to improve an old process led to innovative changes to drilling mud, rigs and drillbits.
By Sherry Duvall, Drilling Engineer, ChevronTexaco from a footage rate to a day rate and employed a new fixed cutter bit designed for hard-rock drilling.

Carthage field geology

Panola Countys Carthage field is on the eastern flank of the East Texas Basin. Under-pressured zones; swelling shales; and hard, abrasive sandstones complicate drilling in the area.

Standard drilling practices

The typical procedure for drilling Cotton Valley wells in the Carthage field begins with a 12 1/4in. hole to 1,000ft, set with 9 5/8-in. casing. A 7 7/8-in. PDC bit is then used with a low-solids, nondispersed mud to about 4,900ft, which is the top of a large anhydrite interval. After the anhydrite has been drilled, the mud is treated and weighted up to 10.6 ppg to 10.7 ppg to drill the over-pressured Rodessa formation beginning at about 5,200ft. Drilling continues 400ft to 600ft into the Travis Peak formation to between 6,800ft and 7,000ft. Because of the high abrasiveness of the formations, insert bits have traditionally been used to drill the remaining Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formations to a total depth (TD) of about 9,900ft.
S.S. Harris #9 W.F. Beall #20 Tompkins Spencer #11 Hough Shivers A-15 C.H. Shives 13 J.T. Ross 17-B CGU 3A #14 Hicks GU 13 S.E. Matthews 14 E.C. Powers 13 CGU 3A #11 S.E. Matthews #15 S.E. Matthews #16 J.D. Brasher 13 Mae Sealy #11 Beall Barksdale #17 Emma Eddy #18 W.F. House 17 CGU 3A #13 CGU 3A #12 Hough Shivers A-16 R.S. Mangham #10 Beall Norman #19 Shivers Peeples #18 Shivers Peeples #12 Hough Shivers A-18 Shivers Peeples #17 W.F. Beall #16 C.H. Shivers 11 J.W. Harris #9

Figure 1. Changes to mud, rilling operations in East Texas are rig and bit resulted in a almost as old as the drilling industry itself. steady reduction in Panola County, where ChevronTexaco drilling time from spud has an active development program, is to total depth in the one county east of where Columbus M. Dad Carthage field. Joiners Daisy Bradford No. 3 tapped the Woodbine

Sands in 1930 to usher in the great East Texas drilling boom. In the intervening decades since that discovery, many technologies and methods have been applied in the region to improve the drilling process. With such a long history, the prospects of making a major improvement in drilling efficiency might appear rather slim. But in fact, drilling time in the Carthage field has recently been reduced by an average of 37% through innovative changes to mud, rig and drill bit. This improvement is the result of the drilling teams conviction that the process could be improved and their acceptance of the risks inherent in trying something different. The willingness to change traditional practices led to an integrated effort that revised the fluid program, replaced the conventional rig with an advanced unit, changed 16

Fluids program changes

Efforts to improve the drilling efficiency in the Carthage field began with the fluids program. In advance of rig and bit changes, the drilling fluids service company M-I LLC modified fluid loss properties to limit swelling and sloughing of water-sensitive shales and anhydrites. These changes optimized the fluids program and established a baseline from which future modifications to the drilling program could be more effectively identified and executed. As rig and bit changes were implemented, additional fluid program modifications were critical to support and enhance efficiency gains.
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Introduction of the new rig and the hard-rock PDC bit in turn resulted in significant improvements in rates of penetration. Changes to the fluid program were primarily aimed at dealing with the increased annular cutting loads generated by the higher ROP. However, compressed drilling times also placed a greater emphasis on careful fluids management for the full scope of fluid services from materials delivery to circulating times. To ensure adequate hole cleaning, greater funnel viscosity and higher yield points were designed into the fluid system. M-I began prehydrating gel sweeps in the slugging pit and pumping them in 15-bbl to 25-bbl sweeps on a regular basis. This maximized hole cleaning as well as the volume of material to be lifted in each sweep. It also allowed sweeps to be immediately available when conditions indicated more hole cleaning was required. In addition, treatments of Poly Plus, a viscosifying polymer, were incorporated to enhance hole cleaning and stabilization. To drill the anhydrite section, a pre-treatment of soda ash, Drispac (a pure, high molecular weight polyanionic cellolosic polymer for shale inhibition) and Desco (a deflocculant) was added to minimize a viscosity hump and limit fluid loss to about 25 cc/30 min. In preparation for the Rodessa formation, barite was added to increase mud weight to 10.7 ppg to 10.8 ppg. While in the Rodessa, hole conditions were monitored to ensure formation pressure balance so kicks were avoided. Once through the anhydrite, the filtrate calcium was aggressively treated to less than 80 mg/1. Thinners and Drispac were added to condition the mud for the depleted Pettit section. While drilling the Pettit, it was found that lowering the fluid loss to about 12 cc/30 min and adding fine lost circulation material (LCM) resulted in shorter connection times and less hole trouble. Keeping the pipe moving while the bottomhole assembly (BHA) was across the zone was imperative to preventing differential sticking. After drilling 7,000ft of hole at a high rate of penetration (ROP), bridges of slough and cutting beds were sometimes found when tripping the bit. To minimize the development of these knots, the hole was swept several times before making the trip. These sweeps, along with the LCM mixed for the Pettit, offered the best solution for making the trip as quickly and with as little trouble as possible.
Drilling December 2003

New rig and a day-rate contract

Hiring a state-of-the-art Helmerich & Payne drilling rig and a concurrent change from footage to a day-rate contract had a significant impact on drilling efficiency. The change to day rates gave ChevronTexaco engineers better control of bit and mud selection, which allowed greater emphasis on improving the process. Selection of the FlexRig, which added 20% to 30% to rig costs, was predicated by being able to offset the additional expense with faster drilling times. This decision was quickly rewarded as the Helmerich & Payne rig was phased into the drilling program. Compared with footage work with a conventional rig, the FlexRig reduced drilling time per well an average of 28%. Footage work averaged 427 rotating hours to drill a well from surface to TD. The FlexRig averaged 306 rotating hours per well. The improved efficiencies of the FlexRig over conventional rigs are achieved by innovative drilling technology and a worker-friendly design that attracts and retains good personnel. Among the many advantages of the rig system, several were key points in enhancing Carthage program drilling rates. Bit dynamics were enhanced by a greater range of torque and speed performance provided by the units AC top-drive system, powered by a variable frequency drive control system. The top drive also allowed drilling with stands, which eliminated two-thirds of the connections as compared with the conventional rig. The FlexRigs electronic operating information systems allowed for better management and control of drilling parameters by drilling personnel. The system controls the top drive, drawworks and mud pumps. During drilling, the technology maintains a constant control of ROP, weight-on-bit, torque and pump pressure (deltaPSI) to optimize drilling parameters, which reduces time-to-depth and bit wear. This control was important in managing bit performance to reduce vibration when applying synthetic diamond cutter technology to hard rock intervals.
Pettit Limestone

Travis Peak Sand

Cretaceous

Knowles Lime

Jurassic

Cotton Valley Sand

Figure 2. A key element in improving drilling in the Carthage field was using a new synthetic diamond cutter bit to successfully drill the hard, abrasive Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formation.

PDC bits for hard rock performance

Penetration rates were further enhanced in the Carthage field when a special ReedHycalog fixed cutter bit design was applied to the hard, abrasive
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Figure 3. The new TReX/SteeringWheel design yielded a 37% improvement in drilling time and a 29% reduction in drilling cost in the Carthage field program.

Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formations intervals that previously had been drilled with insert bits. The new bit technology mounts sharp, wear-resistant, high ROP TReX synthetic diamond cutters on an inherently stable SteeringWheel design that lessens impact damage in the hard rock. When the FlexRig and TReX/SteeringWheel bits were used together, surface to TD drilling time was reduced by an additional 5.7 days to an average 9.9 days. Compared with FlexRig rates using insert bits, this was a 37% improvement in drilling time and a 29% reduction in drilling cost. The Carthage field application builds on recent ReedHycalog experience in East Texas, developing a fixed cutter bit that combines TReX cutters with a laterally stabilized directional drilling bit. Using fixed cutter bits to improve drilling economics in similar East Texas and western Louisiana applications has been attempted, but surface-set natural diamond bits, impregnated diamond bits and PDC bits have yielded disappointing results. Most attempts to drill the hard rock sandstone using standard fixed-cutter bits have not been economical and typically have suffered cutting structure failure. The TReX cutters have a thermostable layer on the cutting face, which has unusually high abrasion resistance that keeps the cutters sharp as they wear. This is achieved without the trade-off in impact resistance required with conventional PDC materials. The significantly longer section lengths and higher ROP being achieved with the cutters suggested there might be an advantage in applying them to the difficult East Texas formations. Several attempts were made to drill the hard 7 7/8-in. intervals of the Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formations using the new synthetic diamond cutters with standard, heavy-set PDC bit designs (see SPE/IADC Paper No. 79797). Although the technology showed the ability to drill economically, the cutters were prone to vibration damage. Bit whirl and slip stick damage was apparent in the dull bits. To increase stability, the cutters were combined with a SteeringWheel bit. The SteeringWheel design was originally developed to provide smooth torque response for steerable motor systems. Its 360 full-contact gauge ring reduces bit whirl and improves cutter life by preventing outer cutters from overbiting into the hole wall at the gauge. This ability to restrict lateral movements provides added stability in straight-hole applications.

After nearly 2 years of testing and more than 300 bit runs, the combined technology is successfully providing a cost-effective option for drilling the Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formations and may ultimately provide a synthetic diamond cutter alternative for drilling even harder and more abrasive formations.

Conclusions
Even in mature applications, improvements in drilling efficiency are possible when there is a willingness to apply new technology and methods. Making changes in the Carthage drilling program required higher unit costs for fluids, rig and bits. But the economic risk was more than offset by greater efficiencies. With rig, bit and mud changes in effect, the best well was drilled in just 167.5 rotating hours (8.9 days from spud to TD). The new Carthage program has resulted in an average time of 9.9 days from spud to TD, compared with 15.6 days with the conventional program. This average reduction of 5.7 days vs. the conventional drilling program is a 37% reduction in drilling time and a 29% reduction in drilling cost. s

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following professionals for their contributions to the outstanding success of the Carthage drilling program and for their help in producing this article: Terry Allen, ChevronTexaco drilling superintendent; Chuck Treska, ChevronTexaco geologist; Bob Fabian, ReedHycalog regional evaluation engineerArklaTex; Austin Harrison, Helmerich & Payne operations engineer-Houston; Chris French, M-I LLC project engineer; and Tom Nelson, M-I LLC project engineer-Southern US Land. TReX and SteeringWheel are marks of ReedHycalog FlexRig is a mark of Helmerich & Payne Poly Plus is a mark of M-I Drispac and Desco are marks of Drilling Specialties

Reference
Robert T. Fabian, SPE, ReedHycalog; Edward J. Schell, SPE; and Duane Phillippi, SPE, Anadarko Petroleum, New, Stable PDC Technology Significantly Reduces Hard Rock Cost Per Foot, SPE/IADC Paper No. 79797.
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