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Drilling with coiled tubing has evolved from an experimental technique to a proven
technology now used for nearly half of all new wells on the North Slope of Alaska,
USA. Specially designed arctic coiled tubing units can move, rig up and begin work
in a matter of hours. By working concentrically through large production tubulars,
wells can be sidetracked at lower cost than with conventional drilling rigs.
Lamar L. Gantt
Erin M. Oba
ARCO Alaska Inc.
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Larry Leising
Rosharon, Texas, USA
Ted Stagg
Mark Stanley
Eric Walker
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.
Anchorage, Alaska
Rohan Walker
Anchorage, Alaska
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Arvell
Bass, ARCO Alaska Inc., Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, USA;
David Gallagher and Scott Tinkham, Dowell, Sugar
Land, Texas, USA; Perry Kline, Dave Smith and Russell
A. Wagstaff, Dowell, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska; Dale Meek,
Anadrill, Sugar Land, Texas; Andy Rike, Dowell, Sugar
Land; Jim Todd, Dowell, Rosharon, Texas; Tim Smith,
Wireline & Testing, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska; Rick Whitlow,
BP Exploration, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska; and Brock
Williams, BP Exploration, Sugar Land, Texas.
CTD (Coiled Tubing Drilling) is a mark of Schlumberger.
20
ARCO Alaska Inc. (ARCO) and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (BPX) have become
leaders in the development and use of coiled
tubing. The majority of their CTD techniques
have been developed by working together
and in partnership with Dowell and other
service companies.
Prudhoe Bay is the largest reservoir in the
USA and accounts for 5% of the total US oil
production. The eld, discovered in 1968, is
jointly operated by ARCO and BPX. First production came on-stream in 1977, and peak
production reached 1.5 million BOPD
[240,000 m3/d] in 1989.
1. Hightower CM and Blount CG: An Operators Coiled
Tubing Drilling History, presented at World Oils 6th
International Coiled Tubing & Well Intervention
Conference & Exhibition, Houston, Texas, USA,
February 9-11, 1998.
Kunkel B: Benets Fuel CT Growth, Petroleum
Engineer International 70, no. 7 (July 1997): 36-41.
Sjonberg G: Coiled Tubing Drilling: Successful
Drilling Offshore in the North Sea, presented at
World Oils 5th International Conference on Coiled
Tubing and Well Intervention, Houston, Texas, USA,
February 4-6, 1997.
Hill D, Neme E, Ehlig-Economides C and Mollinedo
M: Reentry Drilling Gives New Life to Aging Fields.
Oileld Review 8, no. 3 (Autumn 1996): 4-17.
2. MacDonald RR and Crombie DL: Balanced Drilling
With Coiled Tubing, paper IADC/SPE 27435, presented at the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Dallas,
Texas, USA, February 15-18, 1994.
Oileld Review
Summer 1998
21
1994
1996
1995
1997
1998
Nonsteered
300
200
100
0
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
CTD well count. Coiled tubing drilling continues to increase its share of drilling activity in
the Prudhoe Bay eld in Alaska. About 40% of the wells are drilled with coiled tubing, and
that number should increase when an additional CTD rig is brought in next year (top). This
trend follows the global increase in CTD wells as the technology becomes more economical to apply in other elds (bottom).
22
Oileld Review
Gravity drainage/
waterflood interaction
Gravity drainage
Waterflood
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,,,
,,,
,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,
,,,,
Shublik
8000
Zone 4
Zone 3
2500
Zone 2
Sag River
8400
Zone 1
Shublik
Zone 4
2600
8600
Zone 2
8800
Shublik
2700
8200
Zone 1
Zone 4
9000
Zone 3
Aquifer
Zone 2
9200
miles
8 kilometers
Water influx
Aquifer
2800
Prudhoe Bay eld cross section. As the Prudhoe Bay eld matures, remaining pockets of oil become smaller and smaller. Injection of
produced gas from above and water inux from below are the main reasons for shutting in wells. Coiled tubing drilling has found a
niche market by drilling horizontal sections into small pools of oil missed by these shut-in wells.
Summer 1998
23
Rig Designs
Cuttings box
Pill pit
Dry-add
hopper
Generators
Disposal tank
Mud pits
Doghouse
Injector
head
Pressure accumulator
Choke
Bottles
manifold
Prime
Generators movers
Shaker
Mud pump
Tool trailer
MWD unit
Directional
drillers trailer
Pipe rack
Upright tanks
Boilers
Solids-removal skid
Comparing CTD unit 4 with a conventional rig. The rst arctic CTD setup
(above), consisted of Dowell coiled tubing
unit no. 4 working in conjunction with an
arctic workover unit. This drilling package
occupies considerably less space than the
conventional drilling rig on the right in the
photo. With much less equipment, the CTD
rig can mobilize and demobilize much
faster. The current CTD equipment layout
(right) is shown with the coiled tubing unit
perpendicular to the well service rig. This
setup is used by ARCO Alaska Inc. in the
Prudhoe Bay Eastern Operating Area and
has drilled more than 70 wells.
Backup
pump
24
Oileld Review
51/8-in. BOPs
71/16-in. BOPs
Choke line
Kill line
Master valve
Hydraulically
controlled
remote valve
Casing valve
Typical CTD BOP conguration. The lower 711 6-in., 5000-psi [3.5-MPa] double ram set
and annular preventer are used during BHA makeup and for running liners. The upper
518 -in., 10,000-psi [6.9-MPa] double ram set contains combination blind/shear and
pipe/slip rams for the coiled tubing workstring. A hydraulic stripper head sits atop
the BOP stack and provides an additional level of protection.
Summer 1998
25
26
Self-propelled arctic
CTD hybrid unit. Dowell
and Nordic Calista
jointly constructed this
hybrid CTD rig specically for arctic operations at Prudhoe Bay.
The coiled tubing unit
was attached to the
end of the mobile
workover unit opposite
the derrick. The selfpropelled rig can move
from one well and rig
up on another in
roughly 4 hr. This rig
began working for
BP Exploration (Alaska)
in the Prudhoe Bay
Western Operating
Area in late 1996 and
has drilled more than
40 wells.
readings go outside a preset operating window. Explosion-proof video cameras are part
of a closed-circuit television system that
monitors critical areas of the rig and allows
the operator located in the control cab to
visually check on components. Along with
the watchdog system, they give the operator
extra eyes to compensate for reduced rig personnel and provide earlier problem detection. Another signicant upgrade to the
electronics package uses a computer to override the injector in case the operator
attempts to exceed coiled tubing limits.
The electronics package and computer
can perform some drilling functions, and
an electronic autodriller with downhole
feedback has also been developed for this
system, which advances the coil into the
hole at a rate based on the pressure drop
across the downhole motor. As the motor is
subjected to additional weight from the coil,
more torque is required to rotate the bit
as indicated by a pressure increase at surface. Generally, the operator sets the pressure limit at a value less than the pressure at
which the motor stalls. The computer
advances the coil into the hole until the
upper pressure limit is attained; coil movement is stopped until the motor pressure
drops below the preset limit. When this
occurs, the motor no longer drills ahead,
indicating that additional weight can be
applied to the bit. The computer then
reengages the injector and begins advancing
coil into the hole.
Oileld Review
,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,,,,
0
97
ft
SS
Q-02A
R-29A
3000 ft
D-26A
D-22A
1000
300
2000 feet
600
meters
G-12A
2000 ft
1000 ft
H-22A
Q-01A
E-13A
D-14A
D-17A
G-03A
Drilling pad
Surface location
Gamma ray
Sag River
F-43L1
Shublik
S-28A
Zone 4
Zone 3
,,,,,,
,,,,,,
D-17A
R-29A
D-26A
Zone 2
Q-01A
F-13A
100 ft [30 m]
Ivishak
E-13A
Zone 1
Horizontal reach. This gure shows the range of horizontal sidetracks drilled from a
hypothetical wellbore. The well paths in the plan view (top) and vertical section are the
trajectories of wells drilled with coiled tubing. These paths (red) are all superimposed on
one hypothetical wellbore (bottom) to indicate the extent and variety of horizontal wellbores now being drilled.
Summer 1998
Drilling Operations
27
BHA Design
Coil
Connector
Check valves
Disconnect
MWD collar
Circulation sub
Direction and
inclination package
Nonrotating joint
Bleed sub
Orienter
Mud motor
Flow tube
Bit
28
Oileld Review
Polycrystalline-diamond-compact (PDC)
bits have been used extensively in CTD operations on the North Slope. The typical bit has
a ve-bladed design and contains a combination of round and attened 8-mm cutters
to reduce motor stalling and reactive torque.
Rates of penetration typically range 30 to
70 ft/hr [9 to 21 m/hr] in sands and 10 to
20 ft/hr [3 to 6 m/hr] in shale zones. Cutter
breakage typically limits bit life to approximately 1000 ft [300 m] of hole or 60 to 70 hr
of rotating time.
Coiled tubing geometry changes and the
coil begins to buckle as compressive force is
increased behind the bit. Initially, the coiled
tubing buckles in a two-dimensional, sinusoidal fashion and then deforms into a helical shape when the compressive force
exceeds a critical level. Additional slackoff
at the surface reduces the pitch of the helix
and increases the normal force of the coiled
tubing against the hole wall. This normal
2500
3000
Summer 1998
3500
4000
4500
10,100
Window depth
10,200
10,300
10,400
30/100 ft
build section
10,500
10,600
10,700
Horizontal
section
10,800
Parameters:
33/4-in. openhole
2-in. coil
0.156-in. wall thickness
80,000-psi yield strength
E=32 x 106 psi
8.8-ppg fluid
0-psi wellhead pressure
3500-psi coil pressure
Slackoff coefficient 0.26
in casing and 0.36 in openhole
10,900
2190-lbf weight on bit
at total depth
11,000
29
Window Milling
30
Oileld Review
Mechanical Whipstock
Summer 1998
Coil
Motor
Coil
Motor
Flex
joint
Watermelon
mill
Starting
mill
Flat face
mill
,,,,,,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,,,,,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,,,,,,,
31
Drilling Techniques
,,,,,,
,
,,,,,,
,,,,,,
41/2-in. tubing
95/8-in. casing
Cement
31/2-in. openhole
Seal assembly
Landing collar
Whipstock
Original perforations
Dart
Stinger
Float
Typical CTD well. A typical CTD well on the North Slope has a short build section and a
long horizontal section into the reservoir. The liner is made up in the derrick of the rig, run
at the end of the coiled tubing string and cemented in place. The wells are then perforated with coiled tubing-conveyed perforating guns.
32
Oileld Review
1600
1200
800
400
400
G-3A plan
800
Target
1200
8100
8300
8500
Original hole
G-3
8700
G-3A plan
8900
G-3
2400
Distance south of
surface location, ft
9100
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Departure, ft
Complex well trajectory. The G-3A well is one of the longest wells drilled to date with
coiled tubing. The sidetrack was drilled 2725 ft [830 m] directly into a small target
area. This well indicates the high degree of directional control now possible with coiled
tubing drilling.
Drilling Fluid
Summer 1998
40
1.5 ppb-xanthan
30
Viscosity, thousand cp
Critical uid functions are to provide cuttings transport and suspension in large
annuli, optimize pump pressure and ow
rate, minimize stuck pipe, provide lubricity
between the coil and wellbore, control
leakoff or uid loss, minimize formation
damage, provide wellbore stability, allow
accurate MWD and logging data acquisition,
and enhance cementing operations.
The rheologically engineered, solids-free
drill-in uid was designed to address the
unique challenges of CTD operations on the
North Slope. Rheologically engineered uids
exhibit viscoelastic, time-dependent properties and are designed to have elevated low
shear-rate viscosity (LSRV). A high LSRV correlates with the drilling uids capability to
suspend drilled solids, especially in the wide
annulus between the coil and original casing.
LSRV is measured at a shear rate of 0.06 sec-1
on a Brookeld viscometer (right). The
drilling uid contains ve basic components:
base liquid phase, biopolymer, lubricant, biocide and potassium hydroxide.
10
3.4-ppb HEC
0
0.01
0.1
LSRV
10
100
Low shear-rate viscosity (LSRV) drilling uid. High frictional pressure losses inside the coil
and BHA limit the ow rate possible during CTD operations. The low ow rate leads to low
annular velocity for the uid carrying drilled solids in the wide annulus between the coiled
tubing and casing. The xanthan biopolymer drilling uid used in CTD wells provides
better particle suspension at these low ow rates than hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) polymer uid. The measure of this property is low shear-rate viscosity, taken at a shear rate of
0.06 sec -1 on a Brookeld viscometer.
33
250
200
Downtime
Perforating
Drilling time
Liner
Other
Waiting on cement
Hours
150
100
50
0
Well 1
Well 2
Well 3
Well 4
Well 5
Well 6
Well 7
Well 8
Total drilling time improvement. Throughout the CTD programs on the North Slope, the percentage of nonproductive time on the rigs
has decreased steadily as the CTD learning curve progressed. The greatest improvements in time utilization were seen in the decrease
in drilling time. These improvements resulted from a better understanding of the CTD process and improved equipment reliability. On
average, on-bottom drilling time accounts for 49% of the total well time, liner operations 9%, downtime 9%, perforating 7%, rigging
up/down 7%, waiting on cement 5% and the rest miscellaneous activities.
34
Oileld Review
rate decreases, and the viscosity prevents further penetration. Temperature, overbalance
pressure, formation permeability and porosity, and formation uid viscosity control the
depth of uid penetration into the formation.
A gradual pressure gradient develops as
drilling uid enters the formation, reducing
the potential for differentially stuck pipe,
which is critical because there is no pipe
rotation to minimize the chance of stuck
pipe. The uid invasion depth has not been
quantied yet, but well productivity has met
or exceeded expectations, demonstrating the
uids nondamaging characteristics.
Minimal solids provide several benets.
Pump pressures remain low, improving coil
life. Stuck-pipe potential drops if the uid
system has less than 1% solids. At greater
solids concentrations, a lter cake begins to
form along with a greater differential pressure gradient. With lower solids content, the
coefficient of friction in the wellbore
decreases, and lubricants function better
because of less solids surface area to coat.
Plastic viscosity increases with increasing
solids content; a higher plastic viscosity
results in higher pump pressures and lower
penetration rates.
Outlook
Summer 1998
Contingency
10%
Before
rig up
6%
Plug and
abandon
7%
Mill window
18%
Run liner
8%
Logging
6%
Drill
build section
18%
Drill
horizontal section
13%
35