Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling Replacing Floating Mud Cap to Reduce Drilling Risk and Optimize Mud Consumption

Abstract Unmanageable losses through carbonate formations led to pumping water through the drill pipe and heavy mud cap in the annulus to drill with total losses. Although this technique overcomes the need to fly mix drilling fluid, it adds the complication of pumping heavier mud cap into the annulus. Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling (PMCD) was introduced the first time in the project to eliminate the requirement of mud cap for improve wellbore condition, efficient well control and to optimize the overall cost while drilling with total losses. As mud cap density increases based on reservoir pressure, so does solids concentration in mud cap. Apart from mud cap getting extremely expensive at higher densities, it deteriorates hole condition due to continuous addition of solids especially for horizontal wells where solids keep piling up on the low side of the wellbore. With total losses in the reservoir, drilling is followed by image log, followed by reaming run and finally open hole completion runs to isolate those fractures. On wells where higher density mud cap was used, severe hole problems leading to stuck pipe were faced either during logging or open completion runs. On most of the occasions, solids of mud cap have been proven as the root cause for worsening the situation. PMCD has been introduced as a solution to such high-pressure wells to drill and complete them with total losses more efficiently and cost-effectively. It not only reduces the volume of solids dumped in the wellbore in the form of mud cap thus improving the hole condition but also saves the immense cost of mud cap which is especially massive for long laterals while dealing with long reaming operations. The above motivation of finding a solution for drilling in total loss environment emerged from one of the wells where pipe conveyed logging string (TLC) got differentially stuck while pumping a 90 pcf mud cap. The pipe could not be recovered even after cutting it inside the casing shoe confirming it was packed off with solids laden mud cap. The well was sidetracked and was completed with PMCD successfully without any complications. After that job, PMCD has been implemented in five other land wells successfully and being recognized as standard practice for drilling high-pressure wells with total losses. This paper illustrates the challenges faced by turn key project team due to total losses and drilling with mud cap, and overview of PMCD procedures, comparison of mud cap and the inherent advantages of PMCD over mud cap drilling. It provides details of the well which could only be recovered using PMCD after sidetrack due to stuck pipe.