Upon the performed work with all of Petrogulf Misr, Amapetco, Waha Oil Company and Vegas; a new success was proved within the trial well 113-159 in Sinai that belong to Balayim Petroleum Company “Petrobel”. The evaluation report from Petrobel was indicating a new record in their field regarding drilling days, performance and the total mud cost

Well Information:

Actual Casing Seats & Mud Systems:

The Situation
Belayim Petroleum Company decided to award PICO Petroleum Integrated Services – PICO DFT (Drilling Fluids Technology) a trial well in order to judge the technical capabilities and the execution plan for the new coming company. The assigned well was 113-159 located in 113 Land Block, Sinai, in Egypt. Challenges in the assigned well can be summarized as follows:
1.The surface section will be drilled within the loose and unconsolidated sand section of Post Miocene formation. During this section, the direction plan will be carried out to build an angle of 34o. Accordingly; the tasks that required from the drilling fluid to stabilize the loose section and, at the same time, to help building the required angle.
2.Still at the surface section; the presence of the washable clay within this section will tend to bold the drilling bit which leads to obstruction in building the angle. The drilling fluid should assist in preventing the bit balling in order to facilitate the angle building process.
3. Within the intermediate section, the presences of the salt bodies that tend to mobilize against the well bore compel us to utilize a proper drilling fluid system that overcomes this issue. String Stuck in South Gharib formation while drilling the massive salt bodies could be experienced.
4. During the last reservoir section, down-hole losses are the main issue which leads to NPT (Non Productive Time) together with reservoir damage.
5. Cost impact is still a big issue to prove the commercial impact from our trial.

PICO DFT accepted the challenges and promised to offer solutions for all the key issues. 

The Solution
PICO DFT had carefully studied all the offset wells, defined all the experienced problems, and came up with the proper mitigations. New ideas were provided from our extensive experience within the designated area of the well.

We, PICO DFT, have recognized that the mud systems need some sort of modifications.
1. For the surface hole (16”), we have recommended to switch the Spud Mud system to KCL/Polymer at the end of the interval with some special additives in order to overcome the anticipated issues.
2. For the intermediate section (12 ¼”), we have recommended to drill the system with full salt saturated system utilizing special treatment together with different concept of fluid control in mud parameters.
3. For the reservoir section (8 ½”) we have set a strategy for controlling the OBM (Oil Base Mud) in a different way rather than traditional method that used to be utilized.

The Results
PICO DFT successfully drilled the entire well achieving the following results:
1. Surface hole was drilled without a single problem where 13 3/8” casing was safely set and cemented on bottom.
2. Intermediate section (12 ¼” interval) was smoothly drilled in a faster and safe time.
3. The reservoir section was drilled without any down-hole losses.
4. The entire well was drilled in less 14 days than the planned duration.
5. The total well cost was cheaper than ever wells drilled within the designated block.

By Hussein Khalil PICO DFT Director
This evaluation was based on executing the programmed parameters together with hitting all the set targets.