Member Info for CoMan

Starchild - on completion of wireline operations at the end of the well, which according to an earlier RNS will only be done in the success case, it should take +/- 5 days to plug the well, recover the BOPs and the rig be ready to sail away

Wotitsworth - I think the seabed is +/- 550m from the rig floor so if they jet to 600m that only means 50m of jetting - which is extremely short. In all my deepwater experience we've normally jetted around 94m, sometimes only 84m but the shortest I've every heard of is 72m so I'm guessing them must be jetting a bit deeper than 600m. They'll have done a conductor analysis that tells them the minimum amount they need to jet to allow the conductor to support all the axial loads that will be placed on it for the rest of the well

Alexios, spudding in this case is when they start jetting, ie when the bit that is protruding a few inches below the conductor starts penetrating the seabed.

I notice bynari's own view and description of operations is almost word for word identical to my view that I posted a few days ago. If the rig arrives on location tomorrow morning then they should be able to spud sometime on Sunday or early Monday.

thanks for the updates bynari, think there has been some speculation about the Icemax going direct to the location but I don't see why they would change the plan to go to Freeport. They would never go onto a dock in Freeport but it makes sense to anchor up a few miles offshore which allows them to efficiently load the rig by working the supply boats on both sides of the rig. There will be a lot of people joining the rig in freeport and probably a few leaving so they can easily achieve that with a crew change vessel .

I think the 22nd to 24th is realistic for spud. It makes no sense to leave Freeport until all the equipment they need for the top 2 sections of the well are on the rig - ie jetting 36" conductor, and then drilling 26" hole and running and cementing 20" casing. That way they can carry on with spud preparations while sailing to the location, they can't offload boats while they are positioning the rig on the well location so best to get kit on in Freeport.

Most likely the 15th will be an inefficient day as all the contractor personnel they need for drilling (Halliburton, Baker etc) will be joining the rig and going through their safety inductions so they'll probably need another 3 days in Freeport to get everything offloaded and all the bulk materials on that they need. They don't gain anything by leaving early anyway as they have to rig up the mud logging unit and MWD/LWD unit, it's probably a day and half sail to location and a further day and half to deploy transponders and position the rig. They can be running conductor with the jetting assembly while they position the rig so as soon as the rig is positioned they should be pretty much ready to spud by jetting in the conductor. Think that would be around the 22nd or 23rd if everything goes ok.

wrong Irene....you are describing a simple formation test/sample procedure that has got fxck all to do with a more sophisticated Mini DST where straddle packers are set, fluid pumped out through the tools into the wellborn for several hours cleaning up the near wellbore and creating the drawdown, pumps shut down to enable recording the pressure build up. Samples taken at an appropriate time......by filling the chamber but that is not what provides the data required to characterise the reservoir.

I've got a degree in Petroleum Engineering if you want to debate any of the finer details of well test analysis and have years of practical experience through supervising numerous well tests offshore but it's brutally obvious you actually know fxck all about it so i suspect you won't want to debate it.

The time taken to fill the chamber has got absolutely fxck all relevance to the mini DST v DST discussion.

A little knowledge is dangerous

I was on a rig during a mini DST not long ago, the flow period (drawdown as you call it) lated 3 hrs and the PBU was 6 hrs. I've been on rigs for numerous full well tests and never known one to have as little as a 12 hr pressure build up. Assume you mean by drawdown the flow period? Full well tests are not vital, I worked for one major oil company that did not do them and on one of my recent projects the small independent oil company went from Exploration, through appraisal and is now planning to start development drilling without any well test - several mini DSTs though. When does the time taken to fill the chamber have anything to do with it? Th

Not sure Irene knows as much as shed like to think she does.

Irene - you are right when you say 'the pressure drawdowns and buildups during the well test reveal , among other things, the "extent" of the reservoir, possible faults etc, and allow the reservoir model to be built'

but BPC will most likely have the schlumberger tools available to perform a mini DST on wireline which gives a lot of the same information. A mini DST also does a pressure drawdown followed by a pressure build up. Very few companies now do a DST on an exploration well due to the costs associated with having the equipment available and then not doing the test if the well is a duster. Having the tools available for a mini DST won't cost much more than having the normal wireline tool package available and a mini DST can be done in a couple of days as opposed to potentially a couple of weeks or more for a full DST. In a well like this a mini DST also has the advantage of being run over several of the different zones

only6greens, I know that dock in Las Palmas, it's a project site that is full of kit for rigs but not drilling equipment for a well. Everything they need for the well will be in supply vessels that meet the rig in Freeport, you're right in that there is no real reason for these vessels to meet the rig in freeport so there are obviously other reasons to go there. There will be a lot of people joining the rig in the Bahamas, most likely only the Stena crew and a few others are on the rig now but most of the BPC personnel and their 3rd party personnel (Mud engineers, mud loggers, directional drillers, wellhead engineers etc etc) will still have to join the rig - they are a significant percentage of the crew so guessing they may be going to freeport to make it easier to get them all on plus there will most likely be some the Stena crew due to crewchange. Think they work 6 on 6 off but you don't change the whole crew on the same day so I'm sure there will be a number of them ready to be changed out. There will also be custom people to go on the rig to clear it in so going to freeport could have been the easiest option from that point of view

the rig doesn't have any equipment onboard to spud with. They need to load up cement, barite, associated chemicals, conductor, casing, drilling tools, wellheads, running tools etc etc. They also need to rig up mud logging and MWD cabins. So bottom line is it would make little if any difference at all to spud day if they go direct to location or go to Freeport. It would still take the same amount of time to offload all that equipment and prepare to spud. It was never realistic to expect to spud 3-4 days after arriving on location as originally claimed, the last RNS said they would be in freeport 4-5 days before departing for location. It should take approximately a day and half to get to the location and a further day and half to deploy and calibrate transponders to position the rig. They should be able to run the conductor and jetting assembly while positioning the rig so that would mean spudding around 7 to 8 days after arriving in the Bahamas which seems much more realistic.

DMStewart - thought so, we were there together - will send you a note on LinkedIn

The Icemax had been on a fuelling terminal so was never going to stay there any longer than necessary especially as the 'T' on that terminal is shorter than the length of the rig. I believe the plan always was to go back to anchor prior to leaving early Thursday.

DMStewart - does the Deepwater Exploration Project in Indonesia with the GSF Explorer mean anything to you?

happy to offer any operational insight where I can Starchild - although from what i can see i think there are quite a lot of oil field hands on this board now

This is a very good video, I've been lucky enough to work on both the Maersk Viking and the Icemax, the Viking is a 7th generation drillship so slightly more advanced than the 6the Generation Icemax but to all intents and purposes they can both do the same job.

Tiburn's definition is correct and it's pretty much standard for all exploration drilling. Its not a drilling technique but is also a term used to describe problems experienced while drilling specifically when problems are experienced trying to get the drill string, casing or any other tools in our out of the well - hopefully that does't happen here.

last time Greenpeace messed with a rig in Spanish waters....

https://youtu.be/XHwSQ_6T_64

2020,
I had a look at the outline well plan in the EIA. They plan to TD the well in 12.1/4" but have 9.5/8" casing and a 7" liner as contingency - hopefully they don't need to drill 6" hole. The plan in the EIA has conductor set at 600m, 20" set at 1000m, 13-3/8" set at 2240m and then drilling 12-1/4" to TD at 4822m (assuming they don't need the contingency casing and liner) There was previously a well plan shown in a Simon Potter presentation which didn't have any 20" casing in it - the one in the EIA seems more realistic.

Page 11 of one of the corporate presentations shows the various targets, the top one being the Albian and looks to be at +/- 1750m. The rest of the targets look to be from +/- 2500m and below. That means they must be drilling the 16-1/2" hole through the top Albian target and setting the 13-3/8" casing between the 1st and 2nd target. Thereafter looks like they plan to drill 12-1/4" through the rest of the targets - if they can.

Some of the timings in the EIA don't seem realistic - eg 1 day to run BOPs, part of that is done off critical path due to the dual derrick set up on the Icemax but I still don't think 1 day is possible especially with the MPD kit to hook up. However based on the well plan in the EIA if they don't encounter any problems I'd say they should easily be in the 1st reservoir within 10-15 days

I've been involved in exploration drilling for over 30 years, 10% COS is about right in my experience which is what makes BPCs quoted +/- 35% COS very attractive

think it's more likely to be the around the 24th or 25th before the rig leaves Las Palmas but that still gives the rig time to arrive in the Bahamas for the December 15th arrival date so the RNS should be early this week. The rig has DP trials to complete before sailing so will probably leave the port a few days before sailing to the Las Palmas