SPE-196381-MS

Development Well Drilling with Sacrificial Drill Pipe Completion in Fracture

Basement Reservoir: Case Study from a Field in Corridor Block, South
Sumatra Basin Indonesia

Budi R Permana, Yan Darmadi, Fadia Hamid, Ahmad Faisal, Baskoro Tejo, and Lucien E Tupamahu,
ConocoPhillips Grissik Ltd.

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Bali, Indonesia, 29-31 October 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
X gas field is located in the Corridor block of Onshore South Sumatra, Indonesia and operated by
ConocoPhillips Grissik Ltd. (CPGL). The field was first discovered in 1994 and started production in 2001.
In terms of reserves, X field is the second largest in the Corridor. All production comes from fractured
igneous (granite, granodiorite) and metamorphic (meta conglomerate, quartzite, phyllite and marble) rocks
of the pre-Tertiary basement.
To date, eight wells have been drilled during the exploration and development program. The most recent
development well was the X-8, which was drilled in 2017. The X-8 well was designed to enter the top of
the reservoir structure at a location where the seismic amplitude exhibited dimming. Based on analysis of
the seismic and well productivity, dimming amplitudes are indicative of faults and fractures.
Historically, exploration, appraisal and development wells drilled in the field did not experience any
wellbore stability issues. During drilling of the X-8, wellbore stability and collapse caused significant
problems and resulted in the sidetracking of the well three times. Prior to the drilling, it was recognized
that depleted reservoir conditions may result in wellbore stability issues, but the rock strength was
determined to be sufficient to overcome any wellbore collapse. It would only be necessary to overcome the
pressure difference, and this could be done using managed pressure drilling (MPD). Although MPD was
implemented successfully, the wellbore collapsed during drilling and before the completion string could be
run. Ultimately, the well was completed using the drill string since standard completions were impossible
under the time constaints.
An after-action review of X-8 was conducted, and hypotheses were generated to explain the wellbore
stability issue in this well. The review included fault interpretation uncertainty, lithology competency,
reservoir lithology and geomechanics. Based on this work, two explanations were suggested as the main
cause of wellbore collapse. The first explanation is that the top of the basement consists of a weathered zone
resulting from exhumation in the Mesozoic. The weathered zone consists of rock material generated by both
physical and chemical weathering. The second explanation is shear failure due to reservoir depletion. Both
explanations are supported by well data, seismic attributes and current reservoir pressure. In the end, with an
2 SPE-196381-MS

understanding of the potential failure mechanism, the last sidetrack was completed by leaving the drill string
inside the hole to enable the well to produce. The learnings suggest that drilling through fracture basement
reservoir is challenging and with depletion, the reservoirs can be nearly impossible to drill. Casing or liner
drilling may be the only solution to successfully drill these types of wells and produce the hydrocarbons.

Introduction
X Field is located in the Corridor Block of South Sumatra Basin (Figure 1). The first deep exploration well
drilled on the X structure was the X 1-B in 1994. This well was drilled into the pre-Tertiary (PRT) granite
basement and made a gas discovery. This discovery was followed by further appraisal and development
wells. All well penetrations to date in the PRT consist of granite, granodiorite, and metasediment (phyllite,
quartzite, and marble). Figure 2 shows the structural and lithological model of X Field.

Figure 1—Location map of the X Field with respect to other producing fields in the Corridor Block
SPE-196381-MS 3

Figure 2—A) Well locations on top of X fractured basement. X-8 is located at the crest area. B)
Lithological configuration of X Field, the basement reservoir consists of igneous and metamorphic rocks

The basement in the X area has experienced a complex history of intrusions, hydrothermal events and
tectonics. The granite basement intruded unknown host rock 204 MYA (Million Years AGO) or in Triassic
Period and after that the granite was intruded by granodiorite in Jurassic period circa 174 MYA (Chalik
et al., 2004). The hydrothermal events were happening in Oligocene (26 MYA) and the last one in the
Miocene (11 MYA). The basement experienced polyphase tectonics, involving an extensional phase during
Paleogene Period, followed by compressional and transpressional events in Neogene Period that led to an
extensive fault and fracture system oriented in multiple azimuths (Darmadi, et al., 2014). This fracture
network became the reservoir that is being produced today.
Drilling productive wells in fractured basement reservoirs requires good quality 3D seismic to determine
the fracture network and a detailed understanding of the current stress regime (Darmadi, et al., 2017). The
wells need to be drilled across mappable faults and perpendicular or oblique to maximum horizontal stress
to connect to as many open fractures as possible.
Prior to X-6 drilling, all X wells were drilled nearly vertical without targeting any seismically visible
faults. It was concluded that to improve the deliverability, wells needed to target faults which were critically
stressed (e.g., principal stress is oblique to the strike of the fault). Following this study, the Suban 10 was
drilled using these principles and resulted in a rate six times higher than other vertical wells in the field
(Darmadi, et al., 2017). Based on these positive results, all new wells drilled in Suban and X were drilled
following this logic. In the X field, the X-6 and X-7 were successful producers, which were drilled without
incident.
In terms of well location, the target area is the fractured area or less competent rock. The area can be
identified indirectly by a dim seismic amplitude. The dimmed amplitude is interpreted to be associated with
existence of dense fractures in the reservoir. The existence of fractures in the basement rock, especially
when they are filled with gas, caused the density reading of the rock to be lower than the unfractured rock.
This lower density rock creates a small impedance contrast compared to the surrounding rock, hence the
dimming of amplitude (Brown, 2010).
In 2018, the X-8 was drilled and encountered fractured reservoir, but experienced wellbore collapse,
which has never been onserved in any other wells drilled into the fractured basement. The well had to be
4 SPE-196381-MS

sidetracked 3 times, and the drill pipe was used as the production casing to avoid hole collapse before the
well could be successfully produced.

Pre-X-8 Drilling Activities

X-7 Well Planning and Results
The X-7 development well was part of the field expansion program that included the drilling of development
wells and the expansion of gas plant capacity. This development well was drilled in 2012 to support gas
supply deliverability to existing contracts. The well was also expected to increase gas production to fulfill
future plant capacity. The plan was to drill this well as a slant well targeting four mapped faults that were
critically stressed.
During drilling, the well encountered massive drilling fluid losses after penetrating the first mapped fault.
The massive losses along with gas in the well after tripping suggested a well-connected fracture network
filled with gas. The well was TD’ed more than 1000m MD shallower than prognosis due to water availability
to continue with the drilling. Drilling without any fluid in the borehole will result in wellbore collapse.
Current interpretation indicates that the well was drilled parallel to a fault zone (back thrust) for the 8-1/2”
hole section (Figure 3). Most of the portion of the well penetrated the basement, which have damaged zone
around this fault, explaining the high flow rates from this well.

Figure 3—A seismic section in depth domain showing the X-7 well trajectory and its position to
interpreted faults. The well is perpendicular to the thrust fault and parallel to the back-thrust fault.
This well type is the best well configuration to produce gas from fractured basement reservoir.
SPE-196381-MS 5

X-8 Planning and Drilling Activities

X-8 Well Planning
The X-8 well was planned to mimic X-7. This well had a plan to intersect the same fault systems as was
penetrated by X-7.
X-8 was planned to drill through the basement with an inclination of forty degrees and an azimuth oblique
to the maximum horizontal stress. The well was expected to experience total losses in the basement reservoir.
The well also targeted an area of dim seismic amplitude.
In terms of drilling fluid design, X-8 was predicted to have over pressure from the top of the Telisa
until the base of the Talang Akar Formation. Additionally, the pore pressure was expected to be well below
hydrostatic conditions due to depletion by the previously drilled production wells. Therefore, significant
losses were expected when the well entered the fractured basement reservoir (Figure 4). In the upper section,
synthetic oil-based mud (SOBM) was planned to be used as drilling fluid, while in the reservoir section,
plain water was the planned drilling fluid.

Figure 4—Pressure plot and Pore pressure prediction for X-8. A) Pressure vs. time plot for the X field. The blue dots are
static gradient survey points that show a time lapse of reservoir pressure. B) The estimation of pore-pressure for the
X-8 well that shows over pressure in the Telisa, Pendopo, and TAF Fm and depleted pressure in the basement reservoir

X-8 Drilling Activities

X-8
X-8 was spudded on 6th November 2017. The well was drilled with synthetic oil-based mud (SOBM) until
top PRT due to reactive and high-pressured shales in the Pendopo and Telisa Formations. Before entering
the PRT, a 9 5/8” casing was set and cemented.
Following the setting of the 9 5/8” casing, an 8 ½” hole was drilled in the PRT using plain water and a
managed pressure drilling (MPD) system. Around 2200 mMD, the mud motor stalled and the well packed
off, as evidenced by an increase in pressure. The drill string was pulled out of the hole (POOH) to change
the bottom hole assembly (BHA). While running in the hole with the second BHA, the bit tagged bottom
around 2130 meters indicating the well had packed off. No losses had occurred at this point. Several attempts
were made to clean out the hole using high viscosity mud, but the hole continued to collapse (Figure 5).
Mud returns from the high viscosity sweeps contained rounded gravel which was confirmed as rubble (Ong,
2018). After several unsuccessful attempts to clear the rubble, the decision was made to POOH and perform
a shallow sidetrack (ST) from the 13-3/8”.
6 SPE-196381-MS

Figure 5—Rubble samples from X-8 original borehole around 2130 mMD after pumping
sweep with slick BHA compared to normal drilling cutting. The size and shape of the samples
brought to the surface confirm that they were not generated during the drilling process.

X-8 ST1: Sidetrack 1 (ST1)

A whipstock was set in the 13-3/8” casing at 1048 mMD/936 m TVD and a 12 ¼” hole was drilled to the
section TD around 2,100m MD using a mud weight around 13 ppg. The section was cased and cemented
in the PRT using a 9-5/8” casing without any problems.
The PRT section was then drilled using an 8-1/2” bit without any problems using water-based mud
(WBM). Around 2550 m MD, the well experienced total losses at which time the mud system was changed
to fresh water. Drilling continued with losses through the 1st and 2nd mappable faults while experiencing
several drilling breaks throughout the section. Back reaming was performed, and the motor stalled. Because
of that, it was decided to change the BHA. Losses continued while running in hole (RIH) until the BHA
encountered an obstruction around 2150 mMD at which time the losses stopped. Several attempts were
made to get past the obstruction without success. Ultimately, the decision was made to POOH with the BHA
and initiate a second sidetrack.

X-8 ST2: Sidetrack 2 (ST2)

A whipstock was set in the 9-5/8” liner and ST2 was drilled which is around 30 m into PRT and 10 m
before anticipated total loss zone encountered in ST1. After reaching this TD, the well began losing mud at
a rate around 20 bph rate and increased around 150 bph. At this time the shale of the Pendopo Formation
was still exposed in the open hole. Attempts were made to cure the losses using loss circulation material
(LCM) without success. To cure the losses cement was pumped. After the losses were cured, attempts were
made to continue drilling but the Pendopo Formation had collapsed as evidenced by fine splintery cuttings
returned to the surface during circulation (Figure 6). The decision was made to plug this hole and sidetrack
the well for a third time.
SPE-196381-MS 7

Figure 6—Some splintery cuttings from X-8ST2 indicating wellbore collapse due to underbalanced conditions in the wellbore.

X-8 ST3: Sidetrack 3 (ST3)

The third sidetrack started with setting a whipstock in the 9-5/8” casing and drilling an 8-1/2” hole section.
The new hole section started around 1,800 m MD and finished around 2,150 m MD using SOBM mud
weight around 13 ppg. This section was cased off with 7-5/8” flush joint casing liner with the casing shoe
set around 2150 mMD. The decision was made to drill as far as possible and use the drill pipe as the lower
completion string due to the anticipation of hole collapse.
Following this casing string, a 6-1/2” hole section was drilled using SOBM with mud weight around 13
ppg until it experienced total losses around 2180 mMD within the PRT Formation. Drilling continued and
the drilling fluid was gradually replaced with 3% KCL brine until the drilling mud was fully replaced by
the KCL brine. The final TD of the well was around 2470 m MD which was beyond all the drilling breaks
from the previous attempts and mapped fault #2. All the sidetrack wells can be seen in Figure 7.

Figure 7—A) Map view of all X-8 sidetrack wells (left figure) showing the progression of the
sidetracks moving closer to the X-7 well. Black lines are mappable seismic faults. B) Seismic cross
section of all X-8 sidetracks (right figure) showing the faults that were targeted by these wells.

Given the previous experience with hole collapse, the decision was made to use the 3.5” drill pipes as
the lower completion after reaching TD. The drill pipe was successfully cut, tied into the upper completion
8 SPE-196381-MS

and perforated. Around 40 hours after the drilling had stopped, surface pressure on the annular of the drill
pipe increased indicating that the wellbore had collapsed.

Analysis and Discussion

Drilling in depleted reservoirs is always challenging (Sinor, et al., 1998; Vogth, et al., 1996; Bonnett, et
al., 1996; Byrne, et al., 2013; Li, et al., 2015) since the magnitude and orientation of the field stresses
can change with depletion (Dusseault, 2005; Zoback, 2007, Ong, 2018;). Pressure depletion leads to an
increase in effective vertical stress Sv and a decrease in effective minimum horizontal stress Shmin (Figure
8). Furthermore, pressure decline leads to an increase in the shear stress causing fractures to open (Figure
9). In X field, the pressure decline was more than 50% from the initial condition by the time the X-8 well
was drilled.

Figure 8—Depletion causing a reduction in pore-pressure and decreasing SH min

(Dusseault, 2005). The increase in differential stress between the effective overburden
and SHmin enlarges the Mohr circle leading to shear failure in the reservoir.

Figure 9—Illustration of how a depleted reservoir results in shear failure (Dusseault, 2005). The
figure illustrates that the rock will fail by shear failure when the pressure declines resulting
in an increase in the differential effective stress between the vertical stress and SHmin.
SPE-196381-MS 9

Two hypotheses were investigated in this paper to explain the borehole collapse in the X 8 well. The first
hypothesis is the existence of an exhumed zone and the second hypothesis is reservoir shear failure due to
depletion. One methodology to help define which of these hypotheses is the likely explanation is seismic
attributes. The attribute used in this case is the fault detection attribute (Figure 10) which indicates areas of
competent and incompetent rock (Figure 11). Unfortunately, this attribute cannot determine which one of
those hypotheses is the cause of wellbore failure.

Figure 10—Seismic attribute at basement horizon showing seismic scale fractures and competency
of the rock. Dim seismic attribute can be related to exhumation zone or dense fracture rock
10 SPE-196381-MS

Figure 11—The area of X-8 location. Based on the seismic attribute, the well is located in dim
seismic amplitude that may imply less competent rock due to exhumation or dense fracture

Exhumation Zone Hypothesis. Weathered material is different from cuttings from drilling or splintery
cuttings from well bore collapse due to differential pressure in the well bore. Weathered material is rounded
gravel-like material. In the X-8 motherbore, the rubble did not come out instantaneously, but instead came
out hours later. The exact same thing happened in the X-8 ST1. In X-8, the rubble occurred without any
fluid loss during drilling. In addition, the X-8 ST3 wellbore collapse suggested that it occurred near the top
of the basement. These observations suggest that there is a weathered layer on top of the basement due to
exhumation. Chemical weathering was happening through existing joints. This weathering process results
in the generation of pebbles, cobbles and fine grain or soil material. Soil material could act as impermeable
material that isolates the weathering zone from the fracture reservoir. This model is based largely on the
original X-8 well, which had weathered material in the wellbore but did not have any losses. Figure 12
explains the exhumation hypothesis.
SPE-196381-MS 11

Figure 12—Exhumation hypothesis A) Cartoon illustrating weathering condition of basement

surface exposure. B) Spheroidal weathering at the outcrop analog. C) Rubble from X-8ST1 taken
after wellbore collapse. D) The process of spheroidal weathering on the top of basement rock

Shear Failure Hypothesis. The other possibility is reservoir shear failure. The initial reservoir pressure in
1998 was around 3700 psia. Pressure decreased during production and in 2018 when X-8 was drilled, it is
around 1800 psia. The reduction of reservoir pressure resulted in an increased vertical stress of around 1900
psia and a decreased minimum horizontal stress of around 1267 psia. Figure 13 shows the pore-pressure
and stress changes in X-8 area because of depletion. A Mohr diagram analysis was conducted to see if the
change of stresses could result in rock failure (Zoback, 2007). μ was set to 0.6 for this analysis. The Mohr
diagram around X-8 (Figure 14) shows that the Mohr circle is already touching the failure line. Therefore,
reservoir shear failure around X-8 seems a very likely explanation of the rock behavior while drilling.
12 SPE-196381-MS

Figure 13—The evolution of pore-pressure change and its implication on SHmin and Sv. Left
figure shows the early condition of pore pressure, vertical stress, and SH min before production.
Right figure shows the changing of pore pressure and stresses. The reduction of reservoir
pressure results in an increase in effective vertical stress and a decrease of effective SHmin
SPE-196381-MS 13

Figure 14—Mohr diagram showing initial and after production conditions. The diagram shows the current stress condition
where the Mohrs circle is touching the shear failure line assuming a μ of 0.6. The effective normal stress circle is
coming from the increasing of effective vertical stress and the deacreasing of effective SHmin explained in Figure-13.

Conclusions
X field is a depleted fractured basement reservoir. X-8 well was planned to mimic the success of X-7 five
years later. The well is located at the crest of the reservoir in an area with a dim seismic attribute that suggests
it has more fractures or less competent rock. During X-8 drilling, three sidetracks were executed due to
wellbore collapse, and in the end, the drill string had to be left in the hole in order to have a successful
gas production well.
X-8 well experienced wellbore collapse and produced rubble cutting instead of splintery cuttings. Based
on the material that came out from X-8 well, it has been interpreted that the wellbore collapse was
happening the rock condition instead of a drilling induced or underbalance condition To explain these results,
two hypotheses have been explored - exhumation and reservoir shear failure. These interpretations were
supported by existing data from drilling such as rounded pebbles and cobbles, time dependency wellbore
collapse and the current stress condition. An exhumation zone was interpreted when wellbore collapse and
rubble material came out during mud circulation but there were no losses. Reservoir shear failure is also
possible since the current depleted reservoir pressure can change the stress magnitudes bringing them to
the shear failure line.
X-8 gives important information to develop a fractured basement reservoir. In the well placement, the
challenge is to identify and penetrate the fault/fractured zones in combination with stress direction. In terms
of the location, a fracture area or less dense rock area is a sweet spot for well placement. The case of X-8, dim
seismic attribute is the target area. The infill drilling will be more challenging when the reservoir is depleted.
Penetrating exhumation zone or shear failure zone will be a challenge to the conventional drilling practice.
Based on the X-8 well learnings, these reservoir conditions require casing/liner while drilling to ensure
successful drill, complete and produce In the case of X-8, the drill string was left in the borehole to be used
as a production tubing by perforating the string.
14 SPE-196381-MS

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank ConocoPhillips Grissik Ltd., PSC partners (Talisman [Corridor] Ltd., PT
Pertamina Hulu Energi Corridor, PT Pertamina EP) and MIGAS for their permission to publish this paper.
We also would like to thank all ConocoPhillips reviewers and colleagues, whose names cannot be mentioned
one by one, for their supports to the authors through many discussions that make this paper complete.

References
Brown, A.R., 2010, Dim Spots in Seismic Images as Hydrocarbon Indicators, AAPG Search and Discovery Article #40514.
Byrne, M., Oyovwevoto, J., Relatic, I., 2013, Drilling Depleted Reservoirs- Is Formation Damage Sometimes a Good
Thing? SPE 165114.
Chalik, M., Pgjasmadi, B., Fauzi, M., Bazed, M., 2004, XField, South Sumatra- case Historyof The Delineationand
Production of A fractured Basement Reservoir, Indonesian Petroleum Association, Proceedings, Deepwater and
Frontier Exploration in Asia & Australasia Symosium.
Darmadi, Y., Permana, B.R., Nurida, S., 2017, Improvements of Seismic and Well Design for Better Well deliverability,
Case Study of Fractured Basement fields in Corridor Block, South Sumatra, Indonesian Petroleum Association
Proceedings, 41st Annual Convention & Exhibition.
Dusseault, M.B., 2005, Petroleum Geomechanics Course Materials.
Gould, J.W., 1961, Americans in Sumatra, The Hague Martinus Nijhoff.
Li, X., and Gray, K.E., 2015, Wellbore Stability of Deviated Wells in Depleted Reservoir, SPE-174860-MS.
Ong, S.H., 2018, Drilling Geomechanics, Baker Huges and Indonesian Petroleum Association, course material.
Sinor, L.A., Tybero, P., Eide, 0., Wenade, B.C., 1998, Rotary Liner Drilling for Depleted reservoir, IADC/SPE Drilling
conference, Dallas
Vogt, C., Makohi, F., Suwarno, Quitzau, B., 1996, Drilling Liner Technology for Depleted Reservoir, SPE 36827.
Zoback, M.D., 2007, Reservoir Geomechanic, Cambridge University Press.