Successful Drilling of India’s Deepest Deepwater Exploratory Well using Advanced While-Driling Measurements

J. Singh¹, A. Ojha¹, N. Kumar¹, S.N. Palange², J.N. Indhankar², and L.B. Rana²

Abstract

Deepwater drilling has always been full of challenges. One of these challenges is selecting proper mud weight inside narrow mud weight window. Mud weight window, which represents the region between prognoses pore pressures and fracture gradient, tends to become thin with increased water depth. The other challenge associated with deeper wells is to achieve maximum depth with each of the casing section. Proper mud weight selection ensures drilling of deeper wells and prevents early termination of casing sections, often done because of well problems. Too less mud weight will lead to influx of formation fluid and well kicks while too large mud weight can cause reduced drilling efficiency.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90188 ©GEO-2014, 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 March 2014, Manama, Bahrain