Managing Drilling-Fluid Losses in Multiple Highly Depleted Sands

摘要

Because of the prohivitive cost of a new North Sea well, a stability analysis was performed to determine the feasibility of sidertracking from an existing well and then directionally drilling through two highly depleted sand formations with a single hole section. The full-length paper compares original mechanical stability and hydraulic fracturing estimates with the actual mud weights used ot successfully complete this difficult drilling operation .Methods used for estimating foramtion pore pressure, in-situ stresses, and formation rock properties are described.