Optimizing the Drilling HPHT/Deep Offshore Wells Using Managed Pressure Drilling Techniques

Abstract Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) as a drilling technique is the result of the high costs of nonproductive time (NPT) caused by close proximity between formation pore pressures and fracture pressures which is common to offshore/deep-offshore, HPHT and depleted reservoirs as well as some land drilling operations. The optimization of the Constant Bottom Hole Pressure (CBHP) variation of MPD was studied in this work. The CBHP generally refers to the term used to describe actions taken to correct or reduce the effect of circulating friction loss or equivalent circulating density (ECD) in an effort to stay within the limits imposed by the pore pressure and fracture pressure. In this work, a computer program was designed to efficiently calculate the required back pressure term needed to maintain the BHP constant between the pore pressure and the fracture pressure. The computer software designed was used to determine the back pressure for both offshore and onshore wells at various depths to verify the robustness of the software and its level of accuracy. The economic impact of the work was also analyzed in respect to reduction of the general cost associated with the NPT during drilling operations both onshore and offshore.