Deep Water Drilling- Identifying the Technical Challenges
Authors: Sparkman Gene W. , Smith Terri 
Published: October 2008

Deep water tracts dominated the August, 1997 western Gulf of Mexico lease sale with 75% of the tracts receiving bids being in water depths described as "deep." Deep water is defined as being between 2,000' and 8,000'. Many of the tracts were at the 8,000' water depth. The responsibility now goes to the drilling engineers to get to the resources that are under these tracts. They are faced with challenges such as inadequate riser materials and too narrow pore pressure / frac gradient margins. The Drilling Engineering Association (DEA) held an industry meeting in September 1997 to identify the technical challenges being faced in drilling in these water depths. Representatives from operating and service companies described and prioritized problems in five categories:Well Control,Rig Issues,Well Design,Development and Production Problems, andDeep Water Testing.

Feasibility studies to solve top issues in each of the categories were then described. The development of these feasibility studies through joint industry projects will link existing projects with needed technology development. This will allow the service providers to develop technology to reach this new frontier. This paper will detail the top issues that were developed in the conference.

Introduction

The August 1997 Western Gulf of Mexico sale was dominated by "deep" water tracts in what was described as the strongest western gulf sale since 1984. Deep water tracts defined as having water depths greater than 800 meters received high bids of $464 million compared with $616 million for the sale overall. The deepwater tracts accounted for 603 of the 804 tracts receiving bids. (Ref I) Most of the major oil companies making bids for these tracts are represented in the Drilling Engineering Association (DEA) and its members are struggling with the technology necessary to drill to these depths. While the Gulf of Mexico now leads all other drilling theaters in production and activity in water depths greater than 1,000 feet (The number of active rigs has quadrupled since 1991). There is worldwide interest where other areas are showing rapid increases in drilling activity.There were twelve rigs operating in Brazil in 1996. Brazil is opening to international participation, which further increases activity.Though deep water acreage has only been available offshore West Africa since 1990, the acreage licensed is more than double that in the Gulf of Mexico. Nine rigs were active in 1996.A push into the upper region of the North Sea and to the west of the Shetland Islands (nearing the coast of Iceland) also entails deep water drilling. There were five rigs active there in 1996.The Asia Pacific area contains 53 percent of the deep water acreage licensed worldwide. However, the pace of activity remains relatively slow at present.

Deep water oil production is increasing rapidly and if it continues at the projected rate, total worldwide production will be more than 3 million barrels per day by the year 2000, with very significant increases expected from the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, and offshore Brazil. The current level of production is approximately 0.75 million barrels per day.