DRILLING ENGINEERING LEARNING

MUD CAP DRILLING

Losses are common in carbonate reservoir drilling due to highly fractured nature of limestone and the
existence of karst. In our case the amount of losses that occurred in the offset wells was tremendous where
situation of losing our primary barrier - hydrostatic column was highly possible which could have lead to
catastrophic well control incident / loss gain scenario. The offset well encountered total fluid losses equated
to approximately 25,000 bbls. TD was called early and losses were cured only with cement plugs. A total of
17 days were spent to mitigate the losses. The team decided to use Mud Cap Drilling (MCD) - Continuous
Annular Injection method, to drill and develop this marginal carbonate field with efficient and low cost
wells. Compared to the conventional MCD method utilizing oil base Light Annular Mud (LAM), decision of
utilizing seawater as the sacrificial fluid and LAM was made due to sub normal nature of the reservoir.
Seawater was continuously injected down the annulus and the drill pipe at rates allowed by the LOT and
injection test values. One of the wells penetrated carbonate zone with total losses (injecting up to 1200
gpm). No kicks or well control issues were experienced and well barrier policy was accomplished by
maintaining the annulus with overbalanced fluid at all times using this method. Well was drilled to TD
successfully, and all the primary objectives of the well were achieved. Drilling time was reduced significantly
by over 50%, and fluid cost for this operation was reduced to almost zero. This innovative technique was
applied first time in PCSB Malaysia drilling operation and the well was drilled and completed in MCD mode
continuous annular injection successfully.

PMCD uses a static mud cap in the annulus to provide adequate downhole pressure, while a cheap sacrificial
fluid is pumped down the drillstring to remove cuttings and transport it into the formation. A literature
study was done in order to compare PMCD against other existing techniques, specifically conventional
drilling and Constant Bottom Hole Pressure, another MPD variant. Working along side the losses have
enabled PMCD to safely drill to Total Depth in these reservoirs, while reducing most of the Non-Productive
Time and having an overall cheaper operation. Where other techniques are relying on time consuming and
costly Lost Circulation Material, cement or other means of plugging the formation, PMCD works at its
optimal.