RE: Dr T -28 Nov 2019 13:41
johnniefp
Crikey. I'm really at a loose end, spending so much time banging on this keyboard for this BB instead of doing something useful like going out and washing the ducks. But it's nice having 'time on one's hands' and spending it in futilities, once in a while.
Your question was
"The Halifax drill wasn't successful due to drilling fines clogging up the hole restricting/stopping flow, why did this happen at Halifax but not at Lancaster and is this something they feel they have mitigated for the future?"
I can (partially, but in a large part) give you the answer to that, so nobody need wasting Dr Trice's time this evening by dragging over old coals. It's been written about here before, but ages ago, so here goes again.
Unlike the two Lancaster producing wells, (and also Lincoln Crestal and Warwick West), Halifax was sub-vertical and classified by the regulatory government bodies as 'exploration', rather than 'appraisal' or 'development'. In some ways, these are just paperwork differences, but they have a considerable effect on how the work is carried out in the field. And in respect to Halifax, one major impact is that regarding 'drilling mud density'. The 'pressure overbalance' in an exploration well is required (for the permit to be approved) to be greater than in an appraisal well. The 'mud' has to be 'heavier'.
This was a major contributor to Halifax getting 'clogged up', and in my opinion just as much if not greater than any 'chemical reactions' that the company put out in its literature,
Any future drilling on Halifax will now be 'appraisal', so mud qualities (especially density) can be a lot more finer-tuned, as the formation is now 'known', so that's a problem mitigated at a stroke.
HOWEVER.
Your question remains interesting, but through implication only, because it raises more queries (in my mind at least) about Warwick Deep, which proved 'uncommercial', was evidently 'clogged up' (with what?), and why it was drilled horizontally from the get-go?
And I'm beginning to get some warm feelings, now, thanks to your having brought the subject up.
Because Warwick Deep was 'exploration', as well. With the same constraints on drilling fluids as Halifax, and the others. And Lincoln, come to that, or rather, the first well Hurricane drilled on it, back in 2016. And they didn't even plan a DST on that well.
There's been discussion about WD not flowing because it was 'clogged' due to some geophysical reason. But hang on, what if that weren't the reason, and it was 'exploration' drilling-fluid related, instead? Hmmm. Anticipated? So go horizontal straight away, anticipating potential failure, but a small chance of success just on the offchance? Get the 'exploration' out of the way before doing the 'real stuff'?
Dammit. Wish I were in London tonight. Thanks for your post.
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