Underbalanced coiled tubing sidetrack successful

The technique of drilling through a completion string, underbalanced, with coiled tubing eliminated some of the problems encountered with overbalanced drilling in a group of offset wells. This project confirmed that performing drilling operations in live wells can be carried out safely and effectively. Dalen is a sour gas field in the eastern part of The Netherlands and produces from vertical fractures in the Zechstein carbonate reservoir. The proposal for Dalen 2 was to abandon the lower section of the original hole and subsequently sidetrack conventionally to the top of the reservoir, run and cement a 5-in. liner, complete the well with a 5-in. monobore completion, and install the christmas tree. This part of the operation would be performed with a workover hoist. Thereafter, a 3 3/4-in. hole would be drilled through the completion and into the reservoir, underbalanced with coiled tubing. The drilling proposal had to address a number of key issues: creating underbalanced conditions; handling sour gas production at surface; handling and treating drilling fluids at surface; removing drilled solids from the returned fluid system; and deploying a long coiled tubing drilling bottom hole assembly (BHA) into a live well. The paper discusses planning, legislative issues, well preparation,more » the drilling program, and lessons learned.« less