An integrated operations team, to drill the Prelude big bore gas wells in Western Australia. Working together delivers solutions
L. Bacarreza A , C. Singam B C , M. Buchan A , A. May A , A. Leung A , Z. Pallikathekathil B , M. Shehryar B , K. Jansen B , M. Naveed B , O. Bafor B , S. Brigham B and S. Sadawarte BA Shell Development Australia, Shell Australia, 562 Wellington Street, Perth, WA 6000, Australia.
B Schlumberger Australia, Level 5/256 St Georges Terrace, Perth, WA 6000, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: KChandrasekhar@slb.com
The APPEA Journal 57(1) 110-123 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ16110
Accepted: 9 March 2017 Published: 29 May 2017
Abstract
The Prelude gas field – located in the Browse Basin, north-western Australia, 260 nautical miles from the port of Broome, WA – was selected for the implementation of a revolutionary technology for stranded gas reserves.
The wells drilled and completed in this field are intended to feed the floating liquefied natural gas facility (Prelude FLNG) for the next 25 years, so integrity, robustness and equipment reliability were key issues in their construction. The field development plan consisted of seven high-rate, high-angle wells drilled in batch mode using a semi-submersible.
It very quickly became clear that the lessons captured during the vertical exploration and appraisal phases were insufficient for high-angle directional development wells. While the offset information was important, it did not address the intra-reservoir challenges (i.e. fractures, loss zones), wellbore instability, string vibration, stick-slip, high torque and drag, or reduced operational mud weight window.
This paper presents the measures implemented to mitigate those challenges. It also addresses the enablers that allowed the successful delivery of this project.
Prelude was the first project in the Browse Basin to drill horizontal wells.
Keywords: Browse Basin, drilling optimisation, drilling solution, integrated, north-western Australia, Prelude field.
Luis Bacarreza was assigned by Shell as the General Manager – Wells for the delivery of the Prelude wells project. He has more than 30 years of experience in well engineering and has worked in several areas of this discipline. He is currently posted with Shell (Kuwait), working as Principal Drilling Operations Advisor to KOC deep drilling group. |
Chandrasekhar K. Singam is a Senior Drilling Engineer for Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements based in Perth, Australia. Chandra holds a Bachelor of Engineering in geomatics from University Technology of Malaysia. He has more than 18 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in various disciplines of directional drilling, LWD, MWD and wellbore surveying technology. His specialisation is in drilling optimisation and survey management. |
|
Martin Buchan has worked for over 20 years in well engineering design and operations. He has undertaken long-term assignments for Shell in the UK, Netherlands, Brazil and Australia. With respect to the content of this paper, he was the Prelude wells Team Leader from final investment decision to well construction handover. Martin lists Broome as his favourite place in Australia. |
Andy May joined the industry in 1998 working for Mobil North Sea in Aberdeen. In 2002, he joined Shell and worked in the Netherlands and Qatar in a variety of office and rig site roles. After a broadening assignment in corporate strategy he transferred to Perth, where he worked initially as a well engineer designer and subsequently as Rig Superintendent on the Prelude project. Currently, Andy is Well Engineering Manager for Front End and NOV in Australia. Andy holds a Master’s of Engineering in engineering science from the University of Oxford and an MEng in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt University. |
Andrew Leung is a senior well engineer for Shell Australia. He has more than 18 years of experience in both onshore and offshore roles. He was the Operations Engineer for the duration of the Prelude well construction campaign. |
Zachariah John Pallikathekathil is the Geomechanics Team Leader with Schlumberger Australia. He is involved in constructing 1D and 3D geomechanical models for addressing issues on wellbore stability, sanding, compaction-subsidence and for hydraulic fracture planning. He is a member of SPE and was the past president of FESAus (www.fesaus.org). |
Muhammad Shehryar is the Sales and Commercial Manager for Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements based in Perth, Australia. He has more than 11 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in various disciplines of measurements, logging while drilling, operations management and technical sales. |
Kamal Jansen is currently the Sales and Commercial Manager for Schlumberger North Asia region. His role in the Prelude project was the Petro-technical Engineering Center Manager (PTEC) for Australasia. Kamal began his career with Schlumberger in 1992 as Wireline Field Engineer in Papua New Guinea. Afterwards, he assumed various field and management positions in Australia and Indonesia. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Trisakti University in Indonesia and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia. |
Muhammad Naveed is the Drilling Performance Centre and Drilling Engineering Center Team Leader for the Drilling and Measurement Group of Schlumberger Australasia. He has 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, with extensive experience in drilling engineering, directional drilling and MLWD. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Pakistan. |
Oritsegbubemi Bafor is currently the Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements Global HR Manager. His role in the Prelude project was the Drilling and Measurements Operations Manager for Australasia. With 18+ years in the oil and gas industry and experience spanning formation evaluation, drilling and risk management in all environments, he has worked in Europe, Africa, South-East Asia and Australasia. Currently based in Houston, Texas, Bafor holds a Bachelor in Electrical Engineer from the University of Benin, Nigeria. |
Simon Brigham has been the Senior Project Engineer for the M-I SWACO Drilling Solutions segment of Schlumberger Oilfield Services since 2004, initially working on drilling projects onshore and offshore in the Netherlands before transferring to Australia in 2012, where he was assigned to the Shell Prelude Development project as the drilling fluids specialist of the integrated service delivery team and Petro-technical Engineering Center project group. He commenced his oil and gas career in the UK after graduating from Loughborough University of Technology in 1993 (BEng in chemical engineering), working as an offshore drilling fluids engineer in the North Sea region (1994–2001) and then onshore fluids coordinator (2001–04). |
Sagar Sadawarte is the Senior Bits & Drilling Product Engineer for Schlumberger BDT (bits and drilling tools) based in Perth, Australia. He has more than 12 years of international oil and gas industry experience in various disciplines specialising in drill bit design, optimisation and drilling applications engineering. He commenced his career in Aberdeen, UK, after gaining his master’s in petroleum technology from the University of Pune, India, in 2005. As part of his career progression, in 2011 he moved to UAE to work on applications in the Middle East. Presently, he is based in Perth, WA, looking after Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and also supporting South-East Asia BDT drilling applications. |
