New Sampling and Testing-While-Drilling Technology, A Safe, Cost-Effective Alternative

Abstract

Abstract In today's drilling environments and economics oil companies demand focus on all aspects of services delivered by the oil field service companies. Safety and efficiency are paramount with cost considerations following closely behind. Reductions of non-productive time are continuously monitored to evaluate service delivery excellence. All economics are impacted by dead or non productive time associated with failed or damaged equipment, logistical complexities, unplanned events (i.e., weather storms), complex reservoirs and drilling trajectories. A costly yet extremely critical service for the oil companies is the capture of representative fluid samples from the reservoirs they are drilling. This is done today with formation sampling wireline tools (FSWL) lowered into the wellbore days after the drilling of the formation. The timeliness of this information as well as the additional rig costs associated with the capture of this information can be several days or more in additional time for the sampling operation. In many cases, such as in high angled or horizontal wells, the drill pipe is required to convey the wireline to the formations. In these instances the tools cannot be gravity conveyed, which adds cost and additional risk. Because formation sampling while drilling (FSWD) technology has recently been introduced, significant cost savings are possible because the testing and sampling can be performed during the drilling process. It is the objective of this paper to demonstrate an economic model using field examples to evaluate the cost benefit between using FSWL and FSWD fluid sampling operations acquired in deep water fields. Factors considered are the operating costs for FSWL and FSWD, the probability for fishing, reduction in pumping times associated with lower invasion for FSWD and reducing the operational time in high angel wells and the ability to make changes in well construction.