RIG TIME REDUCTION DURING KICK HANDLING OPERATION IN EXPLORATION WELL X BY APPLYING DRILLERS METHOD
Bambang Yudho Suranta(a), Akhmad Sofyan(a), Didin Chaerudin Irwansyah(a)

PEM AKAMIGAS

Abstract

This journal will describe on how the kick handling time is reduced from the actual condition by applying Drillers Method in Well X. This well is an exploration well with the main objective at the 9,000 ft range of depth in Kujung Formation, which has been identified as a gas hydrocarbon reservoir zone. Before reaching the total depth, the drilling operation involves four kick occurrences. This Kick happened for the last time at the depth of 8,525 ft and it needed two times kill mud circulation to handle the kick. Furthermore, the time needed to control the kick was 13.5 hours by applying the Engineers Method. Moreover, even the well control operation was successfully done, Engineers Method may caused some serious problems since this method allows gas migration to the surface without expansion when the kill mud preparation needs longer time. Thus, this method is evaluated with the Drillers Method as the comparison, resulting the recommendation of well control method for Exploration Well X by considering the kick handling time, produced pressure, operational complexity, and hole problem aspect. Then the recommended well control method is simulated with Landmark software to predict the produced pressure during the well control operation in Exploration Well X. Through this recommendation, kick handling time in Exploration Well X is reduced to be 4.3 hours only with 69,493.39 USD of cost saving.

Keywords: Kick, Well Control, Drillers Method, Engineers Method, Blowout

Topic: Engineering