bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“What We Need Right Now Is to Imagine the Real”: Grace Paley Writing against War
Authors: Hirsch Marianne
Published: October 2009

Hanover, New Hampshire. Another frigid winter day. I am walking to lunch. The dartmouth college green is covered in snow, and temperatures are dropping. It is January 1991, the day after Operation Desert Storm was launched in the Persian Gulf. “stop the war!!” A few people carrying large and small signs stand on the corner closest to Main Street; you can see their breath as they chant. “US out of Kuwait!” The war is so new that no lectures or teach-ins have been scheduled on campus yet, and I see that the protesters are neither students nor faculty members: they are people, many of them older, from surrounding New Hampshire and Vermont towns. Ahead of the academics, once again, I'm thinking. As on other such occasions, Grace Paley is here, wearing her blue parka, purple wool hat, snow boots, and mittens, holding her sign. The protests will continue every Friday at noon, in snow and ice, until the United States starts moving troops out of the Gulf in early March; I join when I can, but I often have conflicts on campus. Paley drives in from her home in nearby Thetford, Vermont, every time, without fail.
Public Domain
Authors: Eltit Diamela
Published: October 2009

Violence as a public and private practice is a constant. Furthermore, it belongs in the political axis since political institutions measure, plan, and distribute it, inscribing and administering it according to their productive and programmatic interests.

Violence is adaptable and acquires different forms and formats, which range from the most concrete corporeal reality to the infliction of punishment on the symbolic and emotional registers of the subject. It is mobile but enduring, adjusting to the emergence of new social subjects. The enduring struggle against violence resituates and changes it, bringing about the penalization of practices considered abusive, such as long workdays, certain school regulations, or the beating of women.
Theater of Atrocities: Toward a Disreality Principle
Authors: Jakovljevic Branislav
Published: October 2009

In October 1992, the united nations security council requested the secretary-general to appoint an impartial commission to examine and record the atrocities committed in the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Two years later, this commission produced its final report. Some of the goriest pages in this catalogue of infamy are dedicated to the explosion on the Markale open-air market in central Sarajevo that took place around noon on Saturday, 5 February 1994. The report describes it as “the worst attack on civilians during the siege” of Sarajevo, citing that it killed at least 66 persons and wounded 197 (781). This explosion can be said to represent the turning point in the Bosnian war, which by that point had lasted some twenty-two months without any reasonable resolution in sight. David Binder, a New York Times reporter and the author of the most detailed account of this atrocity to date, writes that it

provoked the first engagement of NATO in European hostilities since it was founded four decades earlier and the first involvement of U.S. forces in combat in Europe since the beginning of the Cold War. Within days it also drew Russia into the hapless circle of Balkan problem-solvers, along with a unit of Russian peacekeeping troops—the first entry of Russia into the former Yugoslavia since Joseph Stalin's break-up with Josip Broz Tito in 1948. (70)
9/11 as Avant-Garde Art?
Authors: Schechner Richard
Published: October 2009

[The attacks of 9/11 were] the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos. Minds achieving something in an act that we couldn't even dream of in music, people rehearsing like mad for 10 years, preparing fanatically for a concert, and then dying, just imagine what happened there. You have people who are that focused on a performance and then 5,000 [sic] people are dispatched to the afterlife, in a single moment. I couldn't do that. By comparison, we composers are nothing. Artists, too, sometimes try to go beyond the limits of what is feasible and conceivable, so that we wake up, so that we open ourselves to another world. … It's a crime because those involved didn't consent. They didn't come to the “concert.” That's obvious. And no one announced that they risked losing their lives. What happened in spiritual terms, the leap out of security, out of what is usually taken for granted, out of life, that sometimes happens to a small extent in art, too, otherwise art is nothing.

—Karlheinz Stockhausen (“Documentation”)

Stockhausen aside, how can anyone call the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers a work of art? Of what value is such a designation? What does calling the destruction of the Twin Towers a work of art assert about (performance) art, the authenticity of “what really happened,” and social morality during and after the first decade of the twenty-first century? To even begin to address these questions, I need to refer to the history of the avant-garde—because it has been avant-garde artists who for more than a century have called for the violent destruction of existing aesthetic, social, and political systems.
Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars
Authors: Vasunia Phiroze
Published: October 2009

Why do people go to war? Readers of herodotus who seek to uncover the cause of the Greco-Persian wars often find themselves baffled or confused, since he refuses to ascribe responsibility to any one factor or privilege one explanation over another. In this respect, he continues a tradition famously inaugurated by Homer, who takes an oblique stance on the cause of the Trojan War by commencing his Iliad in the tenth year of the conflict with the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon. Writing after Herodotus, Thucydides also makes a particular war his subject but refrains from offering simple or uniform reasons; admittedly, he says that the power of Athens and the fear that it inspired in Sparta are responsible for the Peloponnesian War, but he arrives at this inference by way of an extraordinary introduction that encompasses factors as diverse as migration, piracy, and geology. For his part, Herodotus ostensibly singles out Croesus, the king of Lydia, as the first to undertake “criminal acts of aggression against the Greeks” (5; bk. 1, ch. 5), but the implication of the Histories and its many details is that no one person or thing can be held responsible for war and no one cause leads to it. If the origins of conflict cannot be reduced to a single person or thing or cause, that may be why so many individuals in Herodotus are unable to justify the need for war or account for its regularity.
Rereading The Iliad in a Time of War
Authors: Torgovnick Marianna
Published: October 2009

My recent book the war complex required rethinking the legacy of World War II. Called “the good war” in common parlance, World War II remains a potent and emotion-laden memory. But when it was over, fifty to eighty million people (estimates vary widely) had died—soldiers but also, and in greater numbers, civilians. Hitler's forces had murdered many innocents, and Japan had unleashed slaughter in China and Southeast Asia and bombed Pearl Harbor. But the Allies, the good guys in the tale, had killed roughly 600,000 German civilians and 400,000 Japanese (Sebald 3). So if World War II was necessary and justified, it was nonetheless terrible and even rotten.
The Enlightenment at War
Authors: Dobie Madeleine
Published: October 2009

Though few today, even in academic circles, can say with certainty when, where, or over what issues the seven years' war was fought, this mid-eighteenth-century conflict can fairly be characterized as the first global war. It was fought on three continents—Europe, North America, and Asia—and there were significant encounters in West Africa and the Caribbean. It engaged all the European powers, and it is estimated to have cost over a million lives. The historian Linda Colley has characterized the Seven Years' War as “[t]he most dramatically successful war the British ever fought” (101). From the standpoint of empire, this assessment is accurate. The war established the contours of the vast British Empire and brought the rival French presence in North America and India to a sudden end. It also had transformative outcomes for the populations caught in the crossfire. Terms such as global, diaspora, refugee, and cultural minority are more widely applied in discussions of contemporary transnational warfare, but they helpfully illuminate the upheavals associated with this eighteenth-century conflict. The global warfare of the 1750s–60s relegated the indigenous population of North America to the status of an embattled cultural minority, and it turned thousands of francophone Canadians into refugees. Yet despite its scale and the social and political fallout it occasioned, the Seven Years' War has never occupied a central place in the national narratives of its major contestants or in the historiography of the Enlightenment. The main reason for this low profile, I think, is that the war was a many-sided conflict, fought on both metropolitan and colonial fronts. Because of this multilateralism, the war has had a fragmented historical reception, a fracture reflected in the various names by which it has come to be known. The label Seven Years' War is generally used to refer to the fighting that took place in Europe. The war in North America, on the other hand, goes under the name French and Indian War, though in Quebec it is remembered more acrimoniously as the War of Conquest. Histories of India often inventory the warfare of the 1750s–60s under the academic-sounding title Third Carnatic War; a more meaningful characterization would be that it marked the starting point of British rule in India.
Leo Tolstoy on Peace and War
Authors: Emerson Caryl
Published: October 2009

“War always interested me,” wrote the twenty-three-year-old Leo Tolstoy in “the raid” (1853), an early story inspired by his personal experience of a brutal border skirmish in the Caucasus. “Not war in the sense of maneuvers devised by great generals … but the reality of war, the actual killing” (1). The focus of Tolstoy's interest here remained absolute throughout his long and brilliantly inconsistent life. As a second lieutenant during the Crimean War in 1854–55, he wrote three “Sevastopol Stories” about that city under siege, which were so cannily constructed and voiced that the new tsar, Alexander II, deeply touched, decreed that they be translated into French so that Russian courage would reach a European audience—whereas other readers took these tales as critical of the imperial war effort, even as subversive. Tolstoy revealed his own chauvinist side in the mid-1860s while writing the final books of War and Peace. Napoléon was a caricature from the start, of course, but, in a rising arc of patriotic disdain, Tolstoy proceeded to ridicule almost every alien nation's soldiers, generals, and tacticians; only simple Russian peasants, partisans, Field Marshal Kutuzov, and the occasional clear-seeing field commander were exempt from the author's scorn. By the end of his life, Tolstoy professed radical Christian anarchism and pacifism, preaching nonviolent resistance to evil and urging young men to oppose the military draft. But he never lost his fascination with close-up “actual killing.” The greatest literary achievement of Tolstoy's final decade, the Caucasus novel Hadji Murad, ends with such graphic slaughter, so many grotesque hackings and mutilations, and even the beheading of the hero described at such epic leisure that it is difficult to believe Tolstoy ever doubted the veracity of languages of violence.
Frederick Douglass, War, Haiti
Authors: Levine Robert S.
Published: October 2009

At the outset of his public career, when he was aligned with William Lloyd Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, Frederick Douglass followed Garrison's lead in preaching the efficacy of moral suasion in the fight against slavery. Douglass elaborated his Garrisonian position in “My Opposition to War,” an address delivered to the London Peace Society in May 1846, one year after Garrison published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. A self-proclaimed “advocate of peace,” Douglass declares unequivocally that “such is my deep, firm, conviction that nothing can be attained for liberty universally by war, that were I to be asked the question as to whether I would have my emancipation by the shedding of one single drop of blood, my answer would be in the negative” (Frederick Douglass Papers [FDP] 1: 262). Offering an example of what he terms “the demoniacal spirit of war,” Douglass reports on how a New York iron worker and several women and children were killed by a bomb recently discovered from the British bombardment during the Revolutionary War. Then and now, he says, the loss of innocent life was a daily occurrence of “the demon, war” (263).
Letter from Guatemala: Indigenous Women on Civil War
Authors: Arias Arturo
Published: October 2009

Nothing had been published on women indigenous combatants until Ligia Peláez editedmemorias rebeldes contra el olvido: Paasantzila txumb'al ti' sortzeb'al k'u‘l, a collection of essays portraying the voices of Ixil and K'iche’ women. During the Guatemalan Civil War they fought with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. When the war ended in 1996, they returned to their hometowns. About six hundred of them founded the Kumool Association in 1999. Peláez, an academic working for the Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences, met them in Uspantán in May 2006. She returned in June with her team, and by the second meeting, in July, the Kumool women chose to collaborate in the writing of a book about their experience.
Hiroshima, Ground Zero
Authors: Treat John Whittier
Published: October 2009

Hiroshima, October 2008. When I last came here, it was the summer of 1995, fifty years after the end of a war our memory factories had worked so hard to keep alive but were now being told to let go of. It was ten years after Ronald Reagan had declared at Bitburg that we had all been victims in that war. It was five years before a millennium punctuation mark would in fact make the twentieth century and its awful histories a base-10 past. And it was exactly that summer when the Smithsonian would put, with great controversy, the restored B-29 bomber Enola Gay on display in Washington for all to marvel at. In 1995 I had made my way in the intense heat of a Hiroshima summer (which made me imagine the heat of that day, as the Japanese say) to Peace Memorial Park, the beautifully groomed center of the city that all of us, worldwide, thought of as Ground Zero.
Re-design of Casing Program Due to Enhanced Shale and Salt Stability
Authors: Moroni Luigi , Denax Alain
Published: October 2009

The Sirte basin is one of the main producing basins in Eastern Libya. The lower cretaceous reservoirs are typically sealed with evaporite sequences; salt and anhydrite. Wellbore instability in the 8½" section can be due to the Sirte & Rachmat shales, coupled with the requirement for high mud weights to stabilize the evaporite sequences. This has led to the typical well being drilled with an 8½" hole down to the top of the reservoir and the reservoir then being drilled with a 6" hole.

The use of a High Performance Water-Based Mud (HPWBM) has allowed a change in the typical drilling practice. These two sections can now be drilled as a single 8½" section. The superior wellbore stability provided by the HPWBM has allowed the mud weight required to stabilize the shales and the evaporites to be reduced significantly. This has had two benefits-the well can be drilled as a single 8½" hole, allowing larger completions to be used, and the option to drill a sidetrack is available if the reservoir quality is poor.

This paper presents field data to demonstrate the ability of the HPWBM to change the typical drilling practice. Case histories are provided which show the evolution of the drilling practice with the introduction of the HPWBM. The performance of the mud system in these harsh environments is also demonstrated with reference to wells drilled in other parts of Libya where extremes of temperature and density are prevalent.
From Fast Track to Fast Success—J4 Small Field Development Accelerates Performance Improvement Process, Northwest Bintulu, Malaysia
Authors: Spalding Trevor , Shafei M. Syazwan B Ahmad
Published: October 2009

J4 project was initially an 8 well small field development. Initial well designs were of 2 dimensional trajectories, a total depth of 7000 feet and a tangent angle not exceeding 60 degrees. Average well P50 drilling authorization for expenditure was calculated at 25 days. By definition of small field, the economics of the project was under management scrutiny with positive performance expected. After drilling the first J4 well and exceeding the AFE by 25% and the eventual loss of the platform slot while drilling the second well, it was apparent that a complete step change during planning and execution was required for the success of the project.

For effective step change, the recently enhanced Performance Improvement Process (PIP) was used. PIP encompasses other performance enhancement methods providing the necessary tools to undertake problem solving in a methodical manner. Additionally, for PIP to be effective it was crucial to harness the experience, knowledge and uninterrupted contribution of the well-construction team. PIP was designed to complement the Core Workflow Process, a systematic method for well planning, well design, and well execution. Besides PIP measurement, the team would investigate the rate of return on investment made in the performance improvement process The J4 team was keen to highlight what level of investment in performance improvement was justified in the tight budgets of a small field development.

As time was limited and the third well pending an assessment and rethink of the remaining wells by way of a structured fast track approach was essential. This would be the first time PIP would be applied to accelerate change to a project in Petronas Carigali SDN.BHD (PCSB). PIP provided the structure and format to enable the team to embark on a comprehensive examination of the geological data, update the geological model, and re-design the projects remaining wells and trajectories through to their successful execution.

This paper will discuss the PIP tools, methods and practices utilized by the well construction team to successfully fast track and improve drilling performance while returning a positive return on investment for the changes made.
The Use of High-Performance Spacers for Zonal Isolation in High-Temperature High-Pressure Wells
Authors: Sarap G. D. , Sivanandan M. , Patil S. , Deshpande A. P.
Published: October 2009

The primary cement job is critical for a successful well completion. To achieve a successful well completion, effective and complete mud removal from the well is recommended (Ravi et al. 1992; Crook et al. 1980). Spacers and flushes are used to remove the mud from the well where cement is to be placed. As hydrocarbon resources become less accessible, operators are required to explore and produce from increasingly more difficult environments. Today, with the increasing number of HTHP wells being drilled, the design of robust yet stable spacers is becoming more critical. Various spacer fluids are available in the oil and gas industry to target effective mud removal. However, these spacers may not be suitable for HPHT wells. The performance of a spacer mainly depends on the rheology of spacer at the desired elevated temperature. In addition, a spacer should be compatible with the highly fit-for-purpose mud being used in the well. This paper compares the performance of Spacer A (advanced performance for weighted spacer) with Spacer B (previous technology weighted spacer) and Spacer C (low-cost, weighted spacer) in detail at various temperatures (80°F, 150°F, 250°F and 350°F) and their compatibility with various water-based muds (brine, clay type, and clay-free).

The new spacer is unique in that the rheology (specifically, the yield point (YP)) remains constant over a wide range of temperatures (80°F up to 350°F). Typically, the spacer YP will fluctuate as a function of temperature. The YP of the fluid plays a critical role in the displacement of mobile mud and erosion of dehydrated mud. In addition, the new spacer is designed to provide accurate and reproducible results from the laboratory to the field, which minimizes testing within the laboratory and on the rig. Lastly, the spacer can be mixed in any equipment found in the oil-field, even mix-on-the-fly applications.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned From 15 Years of Experience of Cementing HPHT Wells in Italy
Authors: Frittella F. , Babbo M. , Muffo A. I.
Published: October 2009

For 15 years, HPHT wells have been cemented in northern Italy, under challenging and often extreme conditions. The need to maintain zonal isolation and casing support, whilst at the same time being able to tolerate massive changes in both temperature and pressure, has led to the development of some highly innovative cement slurry systems.

Chief among the innovations introduced has been the use of manganese tetraoxide as a weighting agent, instead of the traditional hematite. Pre-blended into the mix water, rather than dry blended into the cement powder, this additive has had a massive impact on slurry quality and is now employed as "best practice" throughout the region.

Cement and silica flour remain the most important materials for insuring good and consistent properties in the slurry. Consistent quality of these materials is vital – something that has not always been maintained in the past, resulting in random slurry properties and highly intensive testing. Improved management of the source of these additives has improved the consistency of the test results and reliability of the slurries.

Slurry testing conditions should be customised to be as close as possible to the actual well conditions. In particular, selection of the appropriate consistometer test temperature ramp has proved to be particularly critical.

This paper will highlight the difficulties encountered when designing, testing and executing HPHT cementing jobs. Several cases will be examined in order to illustrate the problems encountered and their solutions.
A Practical Approach to Evaluating Directional Drilling Performance
Authors: Nkwocha Chimerebere O.
Published: October 2009

Earlier attempts to establish DD performance using the directional drilling difficulty Index (DDI) proposed by Oag & Williams1 is flawed and difficult to interprete. The philosophy behind the DDI relationship is based on the perception of a sample space. Thereafter a mathematical relationship between the "perceived" variables identified within the sample space was proposed. DDI can only be applied for performance benchmarking if the planned DDI can be related to the actual DDI. DDI can only be used to compare the difficulty of drilling wells from the same terrain and to similar vertical depths. Since DDI does not consider adherence to the plan to account for differences between plan and actual drilled paths it therefore does not provide much information in the way of performance monitoring or benchmarking.

Is there a need for directional drilling performance monitoring? Is it possible to isolate other methods of measuring performance such as finance or time based relationships? Are we able to demonstrate directional drilling performance in such a way it becomes possible to eliminate the impact of differences and variations in service prices, service tiers, competency of rig crew and rig capability, terrain, etc? This makes the cost based approach quite restrictive in its application in establishing a key performance indicator for directional drilling activities. Traditional methods2 for measuring performance use metrics such as cost/foot, cost/10000 metres or feet, NPT distribution, ratio of NPT-to-Exposure time for specific services, $/BOe and days on well to name but a few. Generally, the metrics are designed either as time or cost based relationships. The implication thereof is that directional drilling competency or performance is somewhat lost within the generalized approach this method requires where information is normalized into time or cost based variations. Therefore, directional drilling impact on the drilling cycle becomes a measure of how quickly the well is drilled with little or no consideration on how to get there and the impact of the tortuous part drilled on the outcome and performance of the well. This paper does not suggest the elimination of traditional methods but looks at ways of establishing a performance metric between the values 0 and1 that can be used to compare directional drilling performance whilst still capturing the essence of time and cost based relationships. Furthermore, this method becomes extremely easy to use and can be easily computed at the well site using a simple spread sheet solution as the inputs for each well can be obtained from the standard directional survey file and the daily drilling reports. The application of the results include benchmarking performance from well-to-well, across projects, contractors and fields and to understand the influence of directional driller competency and geology on the final performance indicator.
Deep Drilling Challenges in OIL's Assam Field—A Case Study
Authors: Borah K. K. , Mishra S. K.
Published: October 2009

Since discovery of oil in deep Eocene formation of Oil India Limited's (OIL) Assam field in 1998, OIL identified the deep Eocene target as strategically important for the future. Kopili shales are potentially serious problem in Eocene wells. These are non reactive, pressured shales. While drilling these shale sections OIL faced lot of problems such as excessive cavings leading to well washouts, frequent held up and reaming during drilling and round trips, stuck pipes, high torque, drag and hole fill up in almost all round trips. These problems led to poor hole condition, logging problem, bad cementation job, time overrun and more importantly formation damage arising out of long exposure time. OIL adopted many measures in steps and lessons learned from previous wells are implemented on the next well to overcome and improve upon the previous problems. OIL so far has introduced change in casing policy, mud system and mud weight to overcome few of its drilling problem.
Saudi Aramco RTOC, Collaborative, Safe and Effective Delivery of Wells from Start to Finish
Authors: Khudiri M. M. , Naser N. A. , AlShehry M. A. , Nassir A. A. , Mokhtar H. K.
Published: October 2009

The objective of this paper is to discuss Saudi Aramco's Drilling RTOC (Real-Time Operating Center) experience in developing personnel, establishing process workflow and acquiring technologies to deliver wells safely and effectively. The paper starts by describing the IT infrastructure that facilitates rapid information flow from drilling sites to the RTOC. Then it discusses the process workflow, which includes pre-drill collaborative planning, real time predictive modeling, and 24/7 monitoring services to provide accurate response to real time trends for successful management of drilling risks, and therefore reduction of nonproductive time (NPT). Finally, overall achievements of 2008-2009 and a case study of one monitored and optimized well is presented.
Meeting the Challenges of Waste Disposal in the Mainland of Russia – Successful Design and Implementation of the First Full-Scale Drilling Waste Injection Project in Western Siberia
Authors: Fetsenets Roman M. , Ovalle Adriana , Still Vic , Blyus Dmitry , Shokanov Talgat , Anokhin Viatcheslav
Published: October 2009

The South part of the Priobskoe field, located in Western Siberia on a flood land of the Irtysh River, is an environmentally sensitive area. Zero discharge regulations prohibit cuttings discharge and spills of liquid wastes on the surface.

Until now, the exploration and full development of such oil and gas fields was a major challenge for operating companies working in Russia as all drilling wastes including cuttings, used muds ready for be disposal, and waste waters which cannot be disposed in this sensitive area. Drilling wastes had to be transported away from the region to areas where waste disposal pits were allowed to be constructed and wastes to be stored.

The major hurdle for the drilling campaign is the cost of transportation of the vast amount of drilling waste generated from multiple rigs. Moreover, during spring or fall, such transportation is virtually impossible because of the absence of winter roads and rivers are impassable due to flooding or ice movement.

A joint effort between a major oil company in Russia and a waste management service company selected Waste Injection (WI) technology as the most efficient, economical and environmentally friendly way to handle the drilling waste in the field. Waste Injection is a relatively new waste disposal methodology used in Russia, although the first injection job on a worldwide basis was in 1991. The first Russian WI operation was successfully implemented in 2004 on offshore projects near Sakhalin Island. Since that time and until October 2008, WI had only been used on several offshore platforms. The need of a robust technology for waste management on the South Priobskoe field was the departure point for implementing WI in mainland Russia.

The following paper describes the steps taken to implement WI on land projects in Russia as the technology that allows for zero discharge, ensuring a safe and permanent drilling waste disposal performed under strict regulations and minimizing associated transportation and cost risks.
Targeting Zonal Isolation Challenges on the Strategic Szoreg UGS Project, Hungary
Authors: Urraca Martin , Balázs István
Published: October 2009

Based on European Union (EU) Directive 2003/55/EC and Hungarian energy regulator "Magyar Energia Hivatal" requirements, Hungary must have sufficient gas reserves to satisfy a full month's household demand. Although five commercial underground gas storage (UGS) fields were operating in Hungary by 2007, a higher rate of gas production was needed. For this reason, the Hungarian government decided to develop a new UGS field rather than to increase the capacity of the existing ones.

Because of favorable reservoir characteristics, Szoreg field was selected, and 44 wells were scheduled to be drilled in 1½ years. Tight drilling and completion schedules, the operating company's turnkey contract terms, and a fixed budget made critical the success of primary cementing jobs with fit-to-purpose systems and without the occurrence of any type of remedial work.

The drilling plan included 34 vertical or deviated wells and 10 horizontal wells, each with 3 casing strings and gravel-packed completions, with the cementing objectives to provide a top of cement to surface for every casing string. For the last cemented (reservoir) casing, the presence of two sands with a marked difference in formation pressure and separated by a shale cap of only 4 m to 7 m in length required perfect zonal isolation.

Depleted and unconsolidated formations required the use of lightweight slurries to reduce hydrostatic pressure on the formation. For further losses prevention and minimization of formation damage deep in the reservoir, engineered fiber material (EFM) was programmed in the cement slurry based on drilling events.

Furthermore, an analytical model showed that the cement sheath located between the casing and the reservoir would be exposed to injection and production cycles with high pressure and temperature differentials which demanded a cement system with sufficient flexibility to withstand the mechanical stresses and to optimize expansion to prevent microannulus creation.

Despite the technical and budgetary challenges, methodical planning, the use of new technologies, and engineered optimization resulted in a successful cementing campaign with the required zonal isolation achieved within the project budget limits.
New Generation PDC Bits Successfully Replace Impregnated Bits Resulting in Significant Performance Improvements and Savings for the Operator
Authors: Nabhani Yaqdhan , Obame-Ondo Henry , Kindi Mahmoud , Saidi Ahmed , Al-Sheriyani Moosa , Reek Edwin , Vempati Chaitanya , Cruz Marco
Published: October 2009

A rigorous engineering and research effort combined with targeted field testing has delivered a new generation of PDC technology. This technology is intended to be used for the most technically challenging drilling applications across the globe.

During the development of this technology, several new design features were successfully tested in Sultanate of Oman in traditional PDC applications. Once the new technologies were fully developed, an effort was made to test these PDC bits in historically non-PDC drillable applications.

One of the first applications identified for the new technology was in Field-A, Sultanate of Oman. The 8 3/8-in. section at Field-A consists of abrasive sands and hard shales of the Haushi and Haima formation groups and is typically drilled using turbines and impregnated bits.

Successful application of PDC bits in Field-A prompted a second application: Field-B. This application is drilled with the turbine/impregnated bit combination through the same formation groups. Penetration rates in Field-B are typically higher and run lengths longer.

In both applications, testing started with the first bit out-of-the-shoe using a rotary assembly. The objective was to understand the capabilities of the new technology, then apply key learnings to the next design iterations.

The authors will describe the technologies developed for the new PDC bits. These new technologies have been able to extend the typical PDC application range into harder abrasive rocks. Improvements in penetration rate of 25% to over 200% have been realized with run lengths competitive to impregnated bits resulting in substantial reduction in drilling cost. Additional cost reduction is achieved by replacing turbine with rotary. Thus far, savings of up to almost 200% have been realized in a single section compared with offsets and 11-day time savings compared to plan.
Advancement in Drilling Increases Penetration Rates in Deep, Hard, and Abrasive Formation
Authors: Gala Deepak M. , Nehus Paul , Vieira Paco
Published: October 2009

This paper details the modifications performed and knowledge gained in late 2007 and early 2008 while drilling three underbalanced (UB) vertical gas wells in the Travis Peak formation of the western east Texas deep Bossier play in the Amoroso field, using jointed pipe. The deep Bossier represents one of the most active onshore plays in the United States. The Travis Peak is also known as ‘tragic peak’ during conventional drilling operations because the sandstone formation is hard and abrasive in nature, leading to an extreme low rate of penetration (ROP). Performance UB drilling (UBD) technology was used to increase the ROP through the formation at depths of 9,800 ft (2,987 m) and greater. The surface and the intermediate casing intervals were drilled conventionally. The next section (8 1/2-in. hole size, using hammer and tricone bits) was drilled using UBD techniques that used straight air or membrane nitrogen (N2).

The injection rates for compressed air or membrane generated N2 ranged from 2,800 to 3,400 scfm, and the liquid rates during mist-foam drilling were 14 to 16 gpm (53 to 61 lpm). The section in the first well was drilled with three hammer bits and one tricone bit with an average ROP (including connection times) of 42 fph (13 m/h). Instantaneous ROP in the range of 350 fph (107 m/h) was observed with the hammer bits. A total of 2,378 ft (725 m) in 55.5 hr was drilled UB. During the entire UB phase, penetration rates were significantly greater than the offset records. The operator carried forward the lessons learned from the first well into the second well. A total of 2,750 ft (838 m) in 58.75 hr (using three hammer bits and one tricone bit) was achieved. Based on the second well's success, planning was initiated for the third well with additional improvements in bit design proposed. Enhanced hammer bit design, however, did not yield promising results; the decision was made to drill the section with tricone bits. A total of 3,010 ft (917 m) in 61.7 hr was drilled UB using four hammer bits and three tricone bits. Improved ROP and overall cost savings were the primary objectives for the client and were achieved.

For the rig crew, drilling with compressed air or N2 was a new experience. Rig training was conducted before the drilling phase by the service company personnel.
Bearing Wear Model for Roller Cone Bits
Authors: Hareland G. , Wu A. , James J.
Published: October 2009

Bearing failure of roller cone bits may result in a time-consuming fishing job, and lead to significant increase in drilling costs. The bearing failure generally comes from over wear of frictional pairs (surfaces between the journal and bearing of the cone). A bearing wear model has been developed to predict the wear status through multi-variable nonlinear regression analysis based on field data. The wear model considers four variables including weight on bit (WOB), revolution per minute (RPM), diameter of bit and hours drilled as a function of IADC bit bearing wear. Some abnormal bit run field reported bearing failures were removed in order to acquire the best regression of the field data. A bearing failure probability model is then introduced to predict the survival probability of the bit, the parameter of which is obtained through statistics of more than 500 bit runs.

The wear status, including instantaneous and cumulative wear, for different roller cone bits and different wells drilled in Western Canada is simulated respectively with the wear model.

A good correlation coefficient was obtained for different IADC bit types including both milled tooth and insert roller cone bits. The cumulative wear values from the model match close those from the field.

The wear model and the failure probability model can help drilling engineers evaluate bearing wear status during real time drilling operations through simulation, and make a decision on when to pull out the bit in time to avoid bearing failures and the possibly lost cones. Better bearing wear predictability will result in better drilling results and effect the total drilling cost.
Hydraulic Workover Unit is Drilling Shallow Offshore Gas Wells
Authors: Huesecken T. , Al Balushi H. A.
Published: October 2009

In early 2007 the operator was looking at options to drill additional gas wells. A hydraulic workover unit (HWU) had been used to previously sidetrack a number of wells offshore Dubai and a decision was taken to investigate this option further.

The goal was to drill the same well profile as a jack-up did on a previous campaign but at lower costs.

The work scope for the HWU campaign would include the retrieval of the existing completion, setting a whipstock, milling through two casing strings, drilling 8-1/2″ build-up section into the top of the reservoir, lining off with a 7″ liner, horizontally drilling the reservoir section in 6-1/8″ hole and finally completing with a 5-1/2″ completion. Due to time constraints all planning including contracting was performed in a two months window prior spud.

The operator selected three mother wells on a platform connected to the main field facilities, which included accommodation and logistical support.

With the reservoir being at around 3,300 feet TVD, a total of 4,285 feet were drilled in the three sidetrack wells. A regional first achieved is the drilling of 1,500 ft of 8-1/2″ and running of a 7″ liner with a HWU.

This paper will describe the planning, challenges, limitations, learnings from the campaign and the resulting innovations for future HWU projects, which includes the concept of ‘using self-elevating-workover-platform’ or ‘lift boat’ and purpose built, minimized footprint tank farms for standalone production platforms.
Solving Bore Hole Instability Problem of Underbalanced Drilling in Several Wells of an Iranian Oil Field
Authors: Bakhtiarizadeh Samad , Asadi Iman , Sadat Ali Yousefi
Published: October 2009

Under-Balanced Drilling (UBD) practice is an optimized drilling approach, aiding in more reservoir recovery, too. Considering long-period production from some of Iranian oilfields and their correspondent pressure decline, it seems more necessary to replace UBD with the Conventional Overbalanced Drilling (OBD). Utilizing UBD in one of Iranian low-pressure fields named here "S" field however improves Productivity Index (PI) of the wells drilled besides minimizing drilling challenges and increasing Rate-of-Penetration (ROP) but extremely increasing risk of wellbore instability. This paper presents wellbore stability assessment of three layers of Mishrif reservoir using common reservoir data, correlated in-situ stress regimes and rock mechanics parameters based on its lithology & regional data. By employing a computer modeling software, stability limitations of the borehole as optimized Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD) were specified through the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Mohr-Coulomb criteria. By applying the results of this modeling, about 6000 ft of 5 wells in "S" field was drilled with good hole condition and negligible instability problems while mentioned benefits of UBD was preserved.
Case Study Using Hollow Glass Microspheres to Reduce the Density of Drilling Fluids in the Mumbai High, India and Subsequent Field Trial at GTI Catoosa Test Facility
Authors: Thyagaraju B. A. , Pratap K. Krishna , Pangtey K. S. , Trivedi Y. N. , Garg S. , Georges Gilles P. , Goff David A. , Devadass Melvin
Published: October 2009

The practice of using hollow glass microspheres to reduce the density of drilling fluids and cement slurries has become more prevalent in recent years due to increasing demand for "hydrostatic pressure management" with high performance low density cement and fluids. The use of hollow glass microspheres in drilling fluids presents unique benefits and challenges. This paper addresses a case study of a recent offshore managed pressure drilling project which ONGC conducted using glass bubbles in the Mumbai High. The study demonstrated the value of bubbles as a mud density reducer in a challenging drilling environment and also showed the importance of specific operational parameters in the project's success. A subsequent field study was conducted to quantify, under controlled conditions, the impact of these parameters on the bubbles performance while drilling. Mud density and mud solids content were monitored as flow rate (FR), weight on bit (WOB) and drill string rotation speed (RPM) were changed. The tests were conducted at the GTI Catoosa Test Facility rig under the co-direction of 3M and Newpark Drilling Fluids. A new generation of glass bubble, with a density of 0.42 g/cm3, an isostatic compressive strength of 8000 psi, and a smaller particle size was selected for this work. Solids control equipment settings were shown to be one of the key components to success in this experiment. A comprehensive mud sample collection plan enabled the monitoring of mud density, solids content and rheology parameters versus time. This study confirmed that glass bubbles can be used to satisfactorily maintain the mud density within an acceptable range in an economical way. The glass bubbles, specifically the new generation with a higher strength to density ratio, were shown to be an efficient, convenient, and sustainable way to reduce the density of a drilling fluid.
New PDC Technologies Utilized to Improve Performance in Deep Khuff Gas Wells for Offshore Operator in Abu Dhab
Authors: Mohamed Ehab , Alvarez Octavio , Gomaa Gamal Galal
Published: October 2009

The process of drilling the 12 ¼-in. section in the deep Khuff field offshore Abu Dhabi is challenging because of an intricate geological sequence. This sequence consists of carbonates (limestone and dolomite) and anhydrite that are interbedded with shale and sandstone.

In the past, the operator, ADMA, has attempted to efficiently drill the section by using roller cone tungsten carbide (TCI) and polycrystalline compact (PDC) technology. PDC bits yielded a better performance in terms of penetration rate and durability in comparison to the TCI bits. However, because several PDC bits were required to drill the section, the amount of time required for drilling and tripping at a relatively deep interval increased. The increased time exposes the well to many risks that could occur as a result of tripping in a long open hole interval. To reduce the time and risk factors, additional analyses were performed that led to the creation of an optimum PDC design and established new benchmarks in the field at the first trial.

The objective of the study was to minimize the number of bit trips by enhancing the PDC bit performance and bit durability to drill longer intervals with a higher rate of penetration (ROP). Meeting this objective required a new PDC technology in conjunction with optimized motor drive. To address the challenge, ADMA, the bit vendor, and other service companies worked together to seek an optimized solution to drill this section efficiently.

This paper reviews the findings of the detailed study in drilling the 12 ¼-in. section in typical deep Khuff wells. The study shows that PDC damage from encountering harder stringers was the primary impediment to achieving better performance. The challenge was overcome by implementing a new cutter technology and drilling simulation software to optimize the cutting structure design.

The improvement that occurred in Umm Al-Shaif field is demonstrated by comparing the performance of the most recent well, in which the new technologies have been implemented, to the performance of earlier wells to illustrate the significant savings in time and eventual drilling cost.
Case Study of Performance Improvements Offshore Drilling Carbonates Using Specially Designed PDC Bits
Authors: Al Ramahi Basil , Diab Emad
Published: October 2009

In the 12 ¼-in. section of an Abu Dhabi offshore company's wells, complex directional well profiles and varied formation characteristics create a challenging drilling environment. Outcomes of the drilling efforts in this environment include non-productive time (NPT) as a result of tripping, as well as lower rates of penetration (ROP) as a result of vibration. Conventional positive displacement motors (PDM) were typically used in this offshore application. Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits were run with the PDMs because of their longer life and increased ROP through the varied formations; the particular designs used had provided good steerability in previous applications. The conventional PDM-PDC system, however, often creates high vibrations that reduce overall performance. In addition, the section has always required two runs so that the bent housing could be changed in the second run, which resulted in lost time for tripping.

To address these issues, a new system was designed that provides significant advantages over conventional steerable assemblies. This system includes a specially designed long-gauge PDC bit run on a point-the-bit rotary steerable tool, both of which were designed and modeled together. The advantages observed using this system in the field includes improved hole quality and increased ROP, as well as reduced hole spiraling and tortuosity, reduced vibration, better steerability and hole cleaning, increased bit life, and reduced tripping time.

This paper provides three case studies of the use of this system in which one of Abu Dhabi offshore operators achieved the objective of drilling the 12 ¼-in. interval, which averaged more than 2,500 ft, in a single run, and optimized the ROP without compromising hole quality or cleaning efficiency. A summary of results indicates the effectiveness of design improvements, with the new bits achieving the highest single run ROP in history for this particular operator and longest footage achieved in a single run.

These benefits are expected to have considerable implications on future drilling operations.