SPE/ADC 39263 Sosety 9 Petoleur Engiears Liner Top Milling Technique Integral to Successful Drilling of Uwainat Horizontal Side- tracks in Offshore Qatar MA. Simpson and S. Latif, Qatar General Petroleum Corporation, SPE Members one, PENADC wee Eating Tetons Cnfence ‘Tis pape wan orga fr grnriaton at tn 1007 SPEMADC Mite eat Drg Taawtigy Cotte adn Sea 2528 November 197, ‘his paper wae salcies o prmton by an SPEIADC Progam Conmtee flowng Inv fermen an antec suid by sue) Cots 2 Be tage n presona, hr nt been renewed yo Sey Pau Eres he [rato Aeon rong Ceecars ba we ap corecton 9 wee) ‘hare ao enriog sonnet ress te ny poston ce SPE © HOE, Oa hewn, otonorsPaprt previ tt SPETADC tetra ye 0 paon ‘oe y Eater Comma hw SE wD. crane yaad Setar {rms ay oat ru acre comme pupae wea wri cnn he ‘mh eran rarer nnd Pinan oroten Met rn {iron SOE FO Bon a8 Retro, Toke ae USA OL aTE OOS Abstract paper describes the production liner milling and side- tracking techniques used by Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) for Uwainat Formation Horizontal Side- tracks. The Uwainat Reservoir is 2 200 f thick Jurassic, Carbonate at 9000 ft TVD present in Maydan Mahvzam(MIM) and Bul Hanine(BH) fields, 70 nautical miles offshore Qatar inthe Arabian Gulf Introduction With the success of the first Uwainat Horizontal well, several existing BH and MM Vertical Producers. were targeted for Horizontal Side-tracks into the reservoir. Most of the existing ‘Uwainat wells had 7” production liners set across the Uwainat Reservoir, with 300 ft overlap into the 9 5/8” intermediate casing set in the massive Arab “D” formation at 7700 ft TVD (Fig. 1). Section milling a window in the 9 5/8” or 7” casing ‘would have resulted in a 6 1/8” horizontal section across the ‘Uwainat, whilst reservoir and drilling engineering preferred 8 1%" hole. However, if 426 ft of 7”, 29 ppf, L-80 Buttress casing liner could be milled to 100 ft below the 9 5/8” intermediate shoe, the entire horizontal section could be kicked off and drilled in 8%” hole in well BH-29A. ‘The first horizontal side-track well, BH-29A was subsequently drilled by first milling out 426 fof 7" liner to gain access 10 the 8 1" open hole. A 10.0 ppg Xanthan Gum/Bentonite based milling fluid with minimum, 45, 6 rpm viscometer reading was utilized in conjunction with 8 ¥ junk mills to mill out the 7” Liner PBR, liner top packer and hanger assembly at an average rate of | fph. The 8 %" section mills x 161 6° Taper mill assemblies were used with milling rates of up to 31 fph on the 7” liner body. An average overall rate of 26 fph for pipe body and couplings was achieved. The milling job ‘was completed in 5 days with a total cost of $239,000. The well was then sidetracked in 8%" hole and the medium radius 4,026 A horizontal section drilled in the Upper Uwainat, incorporating 1.75 deg/100 ft of left-hand turn. The well was Production tested on a. 1”choke and produced 3900 BOPD as compared to 300 BOPD in the original wellbore before the side-track. The entire cost of side-tracking BH-29A including milling, drilling and logging was $1.23 million, about one half the cost of drilling a new horizontal wel. Since BH-29A, 10 additional Horizontal Side-tracks have been drilled in the Uwainat, Arab “C” and “D” reservoirs by QGPC. Wells MM-4B, an Arab “A” Side-track, Deviated ‘Arab “B” Horizontal Dual Completion and BH-23 A & B, an ‘Arab “C” Sidetrack, Multilateral Re-Entry Completion ‘are currently being drilled. This paper details the Completion Retrieval and Abandonment Techniques, Milling Equipment, Milling Fluids, Surface Swart — Handling Equipment, Operating Parameters and Side-Tracking Techniques successfully employed on the QGPC Side-tracks. ‘Completion Retrieval and Abandonment ‘The 3-1/2" Completions were retrieved after squeeze killing the reservoir with 9.9 ppg brine in the case of the Uwainat wells oF 8.6 ppg brine or sea water for the lower pressured Arab “D" wells. Losses to the formation were typically cured with viscous pills and medium to fine Calcium Carbonate. ‘The permanent packer was milled and retrieved with a packer- retrieval tool or pushed to bottom if unretrievable, The existing perforations were then low pressure, hesitation squeezed, by the Braden head method or with a down hole squeeze (ool. A drillable bridge plug was set above the sbandoned interval with a column of cement spotted above it All abandonments and testing of plugs were done in accordance with U.S. Minerals Management Service Regulations. On the most recent horizontal sidetrack, MM-38, the reservoir was cement squeezed with 1-1/2” coil tubing through the completion. The 3-1/2” completion string was2 LINER TOP MILLING IN OFSHORE QATAR |ADGISPE 39263, then cut above the top of cement and production packer, with, 2-5/8” chemical cutter, then retrieved. A 600 ft balanced cement plug was spotted above the tubing stub. The coiled tubing abandonment procedure is now the preferred option, as, it should generally save over two days of rig time as compared to the conventional retrieval of the production packer. Side-tracking Strategy and Milling Equipment Used A strategy which suited the conditions of each well was adopted to achieve the most economical side-track operation. Two wells had 7” casing extended to surface. The upper uncemented part of the 7” casing on both the wells was cut with a mechanical casing cutter and retrieved with a spear. On MM-22A after retrieving 1534 ft of 7” casing, a total of 2497 fof 7” 26 ppf L-80 casing was milled to 4031 f to allow the 9 5/8” casing to be cut and retrieved from 4000 ft and 12 14" hole to be side-tracked below the 13 3/8" shoe at 3600 ft. On MM-27A after retrieving 5087 ft of 7” casing, 1713 ft of 7” casing was milled to 6800 ft. The 9-5/8” casing was section milled from 6625 to 6750 ft where the 8 "4" hole was side- tracked. ‘On most of the wells the 7” liner was milled to below the 5/8” casing shoe to allow 8 14” hole to be side-tracked. Side- ‘track plans for representative wells are summarized in Figure 1 In most of the re-entries, a 7-7/8" Barracuda type pilot rill x 6” taper mill assembly was used successfully to. mill the 7” liner body and couplings at rates ranging from 15 to 30 fph. The longest milling run achieved was with an 8” Barracuda mill on well MM-22A where the 7” liner was milled from 2599 to 3521 f (922 ft) in 37 hours with an average overall rate of 25 fph. Usually 8 1" Junk mills were used to mill the liner PBR, packer and hanger at an average rate of 1 fph. In wellbores where the 9-5/8” intermediate casing had to be section milled to gain access to the open hole this was done with 9-5/8” section mills at an average rate of 8 fp Figure 2 depicts one of the 7-7/8" Barracuda mills before running in the hole and after milling 485 ft of 7” casing with 90% wear. Figure 3 shows an abandonment of existing perforations and side-track plan for MM-38A. Figure 4 shows proposed completion plans for MM.4B, a Dual ‘Completion/Horizontal and BH-23 A & B, @ Multilateral with, Re-Entry capability. Both wells are currently being side- tracked. Operating Parameters ‘A major concern during milling operations was to keep the swarf small enough such that annular pack-off of cuttings, (birds nest or stuck pipe did not occur. The milling fluid had to have the proper rheology and the annular velocity had to be high enough to effectively circulate the cuttings out of the hole, whilst an acceptable milling rate, ca. 20 to 30 fph, was being achieved. Desirable cuttings size was 0.36” (casing 162 thickness) x 1/8” deep x 4 to 5” in length and heavily spiraled Although weight on the mill and rotary speed were applied as required to achieve the desired cuttings size, some cuttings were up to 30” in length, and several large pieces of casing, including skimmed casing couplings came over the shakers. The parameters maintained whilst milling with Barracuda mills are given in Table 1. The fastest milling rate achieved to date was on the last well MML38A, where a newly designed 7- 15/16” six bladed tungsten carbide inserted pilot mill sustained an average milling rate of 56 fph on the 7° 26 ppf, L-80 casing liner at 30° inclination from 7866 to 7922 ft. The mill was being operated with 12,500 Ib weight and 190 rpm, 13,000 fi-tb of torque, with 9.6 ppg milling fluid circulated at 500 gpm. Pack-offs, bird-nesting, high torque and rotary stall-out were experienced for the next few hours due to the annular build-up of swarf. So in actuality milling rate is, limited only by the capacity of the drilling uid to clean the hole whilst milling ¢s opposed to the mechanical limitations ‘of the mills. For the milling fluids currently used a sustained milling rate of 25 fph for 7” liners is targeted and generally achievable. The generalized performance of various milling assemblies used is presented in table 4. Milling Fluids A Xanthan Gum/Bentonite based milling fluid was found to have adequate lifting capacity to transport metal cuttings to surface with moderate to high annular vetocties. Circulation rates of 450 to 500 gpm which developed minimum annular velocities in the 9-5/8"casing and 13-3/8" riser of 225 and 90 fpm respectively, were adequate to circulate swarf out of the hole wi ling 7” casing at 25 fph. Of major importance ‘was maintaining the 6- rpm viscometer reading above 45, With exception to the first well where Barite was used to achieve the required milling fluid density, Sodium Chloride was used to minimize the mixing time and utilize a non damaging milling fluid which could later be difuted and used as a drilling fluid in the 8-1/2” open hole section. Bentonite usage was also discontinued, whilst the Xanthan Gum polymer concentration was increased to achieve the targeted low end rheology. Material concentrations and properties of the milling fluid are given in tables 2 & 3 respectively. Surface Swarf Handling Equipment To remove the metal cuttings the fluid was routed from the bell nipple through open flow ditches to two scalper shakers with primary 24 to $0 mesh screens. The fluid exited shale shakers through secondary 84 to 110 mesh screens. Large ditch magnets were strategically placed in the flow line and suction tanks. The magnets were cleaned at regular intervals The flow line was raked by rig personnel every half hour to remove any settled swarf. All the cuttings were collected in steel skips and weighed prior to shipment back to shore for proper disposal. Estimated weight of cuttings collected on the surface was hampered by the amount of cement which wasIADCISPE 39263, MA. SIMPSON AND S. LATIF 3 also circulated ovt and collected in the skips. However, in al cases. the estimated weight of swarf recovered was at least 95% of actual weight of casing milled To avoid flip-out of swarf inthe bell nipple and BOP riser and the subsequent bird-nesting and pack-offs which accompany, it was necessary to reduce the size of the BOP and bell nipple riser from 30” to 13 3/8". Prior to this modification it was also necessary to pump additional uid through annulus valve of the tubing head spool with the cementing unit, to provide sufficient annular velocity to keep the BOP’s and BOP riser clear of swarf. A rig air line was installed at the base of the bell nipple and Kicked on immediately before making connections to clear it of swarf before the mud pumps were shut down. All BOP and Wellhead cavities were cleaned with a Jetting tool before proceeding to next operation and immediately after setting the side-track plug. Side-tracking Techniques After the 7” casing was milled, a 17 ppg Class-G_ balanced ‘cement plug was placed typically 200” into the 8” open hole below the 9-5/8” shoe and 100" inside the 9-5/8" casing. The sidetrack plug was drilled out with a conventional 6-3/4" positive displacement motor with 1.5 deg bent housing and ‘TCI bit to about 60° below the shoe. Utilizing MWD surveys the PDM was oriented and the sidetrack kicked off in the appointed direction, As soon as 100% formation was ‘obtained in the returns, a formation integrity test was run. The milling uid was then displaced to a Calcium Carbonate/XC Polymer non damaging drilling fluid, The 8-1/2” hole was then built to horizontal and drilled conventionally to TD. Excellent performance has been obtained drilling the horizontal sections with PDMs and series 4.4.7. and 5.1.7 TCI bits. Conclusions 1. A9.0 ppg Xanthan Gum milling fluid, with minimum 45, 6 RPM Rheometer reading, circulated at 450 to 550 GPM proved adequate to lif and remove swarf from the wellbore whilst milling 7", 26 ppf casing at an average rate of 25 fph, 2. Use of salt to achieve required density proved advantageous over Barite due to its reduced mixing time and low solids content which facilitated efficient removal ‘of metal cutings. 3. Maintaining the 6 rpm viscometer reading between 45 and 55 is central to the success of the milling operation. 4, Side-tracking existing wells with an 8 %” horizontal section proved to be an economical and efficient choice for QGPC when compared to drilling new horizontal wels 5. Although milling rates which averaged 56 fph were achievable, a targeted rate of 25 fph facilitates a smoother operations and lessens the occurrence of pack-offs 163 [Property | __ tangs] Acknowledgment ‘The authors would like to thank the management of QGPC for permission to publish this paper. References 1. K, Milazzo, Pittman, J. and Digby, K .: “Fluid Design Key ‘To Completing World Record Milling Job”. Petroleum Engineer International, December 1994. 2, Neff, M. “Milling technique a critical first decision in Re~ Entry drilling” Offshore Magazine, January 1, 1997. 3. Coney, M. and Fisher, K.: "Horizontal drilling makes Re-Entry attractive in US Gulf”, Offshore Magazine, February 1, 1995. Table 1 Operating parameters with Barracuda mill on 7” casing. Loa | wr | "cen (RPM) (GPM) (is 00 350-725 Table2 Material concentration of milling fluid. [Material ___ [Concentration FB Soda Ash 03-05 Caustic Soda 05-10, XCD Polymer 40-50 Sodium Chloride 0 - 100-as required for density Table 3 Properties of milling fluid. Density (PPG) 87-100, rpm reading 45-55 PY, ‘as low as possible Hardness mg/iter <500 pH 35-100eevee 3aS!90¥1 soyquiasse Suu Jo soueuuoysod {VLD BYOHS4O NI ONITIN dod BaNNT rage Hid PaUESUT sue see gst grdey | giz 9 9 puonzog | 1 stu L v8t-WW epnseaieg 3 6st 1 Radel 4 “ £ sun I 6ES L aLc-WW sat st wong | 8 suu_|_ 96 Vit eproenreg, te ot wy sodey st 11 L L805 ViTWN proeaeg +09, £9 grdey | Let : Lore L rest VIC ‘epaoenteg ap 16z £6 @ sede of g a monsag | 1 865. L Wst-Ha — ‘wproeivg | sun £0t gL 3 sede, % ol on prompeg | oe L Vor-Ha rc nr HO Tino D Sum By | Sone Say | Bon Som 4y | Sew Boy | Sunn | ae uyse) 2o8uny 2901 Fad\Aoc/sPe 36263 MA. SIMPSON AND S. LATIF SIDE-TRACK PLANS 3 BH-298 MU-224 Mid-274 3] UWAINAT 5, TRACK HOR, pRonucER -0 ST L R ARAB STRACK HORI PRODUCLE 3 Lf | ms 3 mes rweme Bye an we 3 fomon a te oc 7 9 5/8", 4856 Troe : S700" ote vm aa seo us musi 1534 031 (207) TBO” | kate ae KAY 7 25, 0-75 7 wu OL 12 1/4" HO y 2] rere-ss00(a8) cxto OFF @ 3600" 2 5/6, 54 | 81/2 wou een oF at ar 3 — Z| ‘BH-25A | UWANAT S, TRACK HOR, PRODUCER pl meen a ay 3g ae us a seats) =| Ze yr, wr naa Beer ee | em. 94, 0-7 3 ober Fig. 1- MM and BH Field Side-Track PlansLINER TOP MILLING IN OFSHORE QATAR \ADCISPE 29269, Figure:2 A 7-7/8” Barracuda mill before RIH and after milling 485° of 7” liner 166\apcisPe 20269, zips [as Bas £ 5 5 Hy ht 4 gee Ee Ry Reay = 2358 2! fgegac eB gee ee Sk Ee Rea qe Guuscugneizel RE ee ee a silere sacezaze Syst latls Sasbezantlal 5 if? a —DRzRiCCCCY 4% 18 ag HS # ea B32 98 I) athe : S| Ss]2 os anda a8 ay a i zig3| « a 8825 39 ge iP rr SIG Es Bele 8 g8ig 88 38 Figure: 3. Abandonment of existing perf’. and side-track plan for MM-38 167e LINER TOP MILLING IN OFSHORE QATAR ADCISPE 39263 WELL WN=al—{ WN=RT=5 | BH ARAB CSU A & i (nino? ay STRACK DUAL. HORIZONVAL Punic eh Figure: 4 Proposed completion plans for wells 168 sidetracked