The Ripple Effect of Managed Pressure Drilling

Abstract

Once reserved for high-end deepwater wells, managed pressure drilling (MPD) has gained a dedicated following in the US land market. Now the same managed pressure techniques that made difficult wells possible and safer to drill are cascading into other aspects of the well-construction process. Managed pressure operations (MPO) enabled the completion of wells at Beacon Offshore Energy’s Shenandoah project, the first 20K-psi project in the Gulf to be operated by an independent, Joseph Leimkuhler, the company’s vice president for external affairs, said during a session at the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. “The margin between the fracture gradient and the rock and pore pressure was so narrow that you could drill it, but getting a cement job is a challenge. We actually went to managed pressure operations,” he said. Applying MPO was “pretty simple in concept but pretty ingenious,” he added, highlighting how Beacon collaborated with the service company and drilling contractor to make it work. Zac Mahlum, Weatherford’s vice president for MPD, told JPT that MPD has historically been used to mitigate drilling risks, initially in complex wells, such as those with narrow pressure-margin windows, to access challenging reservoirs and improve wellbore stability. “Using managed pressure techniques allows us to get closer to that margin window without impacting the wellbore stability, etc. It allows us to get a much more accurate managed pressure cement job, allows us to do a much closer managed pressure gravel pack job. And using managed pressure techniques, you can avoid a lot of the overpressure so you can avoid those fluid losses,” he said. Since their introduction, managed pressure techniques have shifted from niche application to a critical piece of the overall well-construction life cycle, Mahlum said. “It’s still such a new technology that we’re seeing just wide-scale adoption” in both offshore and onshore environments, he said. “About 65%, 70% of all drillships have a deepwater MPD system installed. And with an incredible demand in this space, we’re expecting this to reach a saturation point of 80%, 85% over the next couple of years.” Operator mandates to use MPD in their drilling operations are the driver, he said. And more than 90% of US land operations are using a rotating control device (RCD), a critical component of MPD equipment. “We all know how ruthlessly efficient US land operations are. If there’s a penny to be cut, somebody finds a way to cut that penny,” Mahlum said. “It’s obviously drastically scaled different than a deepwater complex MPD system to a very simple RCD at the rigsite. But it just shows you the value of this technology, what even just an RCD provides to operations.” In short, he said, controlling pressure is critically important. The jackup market represents another opportunity for the uptake of conventional surface managed pressure techniques comprising an RCD, choke manifold, and pressure-control package, as compared to the more complex deepwater MPD, which incorporates riser-based and automated pressure-management technologies.