WOCD-0307-01

CASING DRILLING
Drilling with Casing Advances to Floating Drilling Unit TECHNICAL
With Surface BOP Employed CONFERENCE
Edi Sutriono – Santos, Ralph Adams – Santos, Greg Galloway – Weatherford, Ken Dalrymple – Weatherford
Copyright 2003 World Oil Casing Drilling Technical Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the World Oil 2003 Casing Drilling Technical Conference, held at the Westchase Hilton, Houston, Texas, March 6 - 7, 2003. The information presented in this
paper does not reflect any position, claim or endorsement made or implied by Gulf Publishing Company, its publications, their officers, editors, or employees. Questions concerning the content of this
paper should be directed to the individuals listed as author/s of this work.

Abstract area. The BOP is connected to the 13 3/8” casing riser

In November 2002, a significant milestone was achieved
in the arena of Drilling with Casing (DwC™) when, for
the first ever a casing string was drilled down from a
floating drilling unit. Significant efforts are underway to
develop this emerging technology of simultaneously
drilling and casing a well to become practical and cost
effective for all types of oilfield applications.
Clearly the proven timesaving achieved when Drilling
with Casing (DwC™) technology is utilized will have the
greatest impact in deepwater applications, where rig
rates are higher. The DwC application in the Madura
Strait offshore East Java , from the Transocean floating
drilling vessel Sedco 601, is yet another step in
advancing this technology into the deepwater arena.
The technology employed in this well resulted in the
elimination of the 30” casing string and replacing the
normal 20” casing string with 13-3/8” casing and was
allowed by the use of a surface BOP. This paper will
discuss the planning and operation of this well.
Introduction
Any well plan for drilling in the Madura Strait, offshore
East Java (Figure 1 Location Map), must take into
consideration the potential for shallow gas and the low
LOT results due to weak formations in the surface hole.
These items are critical for the planning of wells that are
designed to penetrate the deeper, abnormally pressured,
objectives. They were not as critical for these wells,
which required a maximum mud weight of 11.5 ppg.
Well-1 was drilled with a Transocean semi-submersible
rig (Sedco Rig 600) using a standard 18 ¾” subsea BOP
system. Well-2 was drilled with a sister rig, Sedco Rig
601, equipped with a 13 5/8” subsurface BOP rigged up
as a surface BOP.
Two unique emerging technologies; Drilling with Casing
(DwC) and Surface BOP Operations, were utilized to
reduce the total “Dry Hole” well costs by over
$1,000,000. Drilling with casing is the practice of utilizing
the casing as the drillstring to drive a drillable drill bit.
Surface BOP operation is the practice of utilizing a
floating drilling unit fitted with a subsurface BOP that is
suspended by the riser tensioners in the moon pool
with a wellhead, surface or subsurface, with an H-4
connector profile. The 13 3/8” riser, from surface to the
mud line consisted of 6 joints of 72ppf, P-110 casing
with NSCC threads. The balance of the casing was
72ppf, N-80 casing with buttress threads. (Figure 2
Surface BOP schematic)
Shallow gas is a known hazard for drilling in this area.
The selection of the Drilling Unit for this drilling operation
was based on the safety requirement of having the
ability to escape with the drilling unit should shallow gas
be encountered while drilling the pilot hole to the surface
casing setting depth with seawater.
The drilling with casing technique was selected due to
the potential cost savings and the mitigation of the risk of
the well blowing out while tripping or running casing . A
temporary guide base was used to drill the pilot hole and
drill with the 13 3/8” casing to minimize the risk of drilling
a new hole with the casing.
Shallow Hazards
Shallow seismic over the structure indicated 7 anomalies
that had a potential of shallow gas. (Figure 3 Shallow
Seismic) The first 4 markers were deemed to be low risk
as they were either small in nature or were not directly in
the planned well path. The maximum gas units recorded
drilling Well-1 was 42 units in Shallow Marker 6. The
well plan was to set the 13 3/8” casing above Shallow
Marker 5 to eliminate the risk of encountering any gas
while drilling with casing. The large casing volume and
reduced annulus volume was a concern for drilling with
gas cut drilling fluids.
Normal practice calls for drilling a pilot hole with
seawater, near the planned wellbore location to the
surface casing setting depth to determine the potential of
shallow gas. If shallow gas is encountered the drill string
is sheared and the semi submersible is moved from the
location by releasing four anchors and winching the rig a
safe distance from the well location. If the pilot hole is
successfully drilled the pilot hole is cemented and the rig
positioned over the template.
2 SUTRIONO, E., ADAMS, R., GALLOWAY, G., DALRYMPLE, K.
Pilot Hole
On Well-1, the rig was positioned 30 meters off the
proposed well location and an 8 ½”pilot hole was drilled
to 279 meters. No shallow gas was encountered. 45 bbls
of 15.8 ppg neat cement was pumped while pulling out
of the pilot hole. The rig was positioned over the
proposed location while picking up the BHA. This
operation required 10 hours to complete.
On Well-2, since the first casing string was to be set at
the pilot hole depth, and not in two stages, the 8 ½” pilot
hole was drilled through a temporary guide base to a
depth of 270 meters. No shallow gas was encountered.
The hole was displaced with 9.5 ppg mud while pulling
out of the hole. This operation required 4 hours to
complete.
Eliminating the requirement for drilling and cementing an
offset pilot hole resulted in timesavings of 6 hours.
Wellbore Geometry
String Well-1 Well-2
Mud Line 79m 69.4m
Conductor 30” 159m NA
Surface 20” 268m 13-3/8” 264m
Intermediate 13-3/8” 488m 9-5/8” 499m
Production 9-5/8” 835m 7” liner 684m
With the 13 3/8” surface casing replacing the 18 ¾” riser
and the surface BOP application the structural
requirements of the 30” conductor was eliminated. The
20” surface casing was replaced with the 13-3/8” to
accommodate the surface BOP structural requirements
and increase the water depth capabilities of the surface
BOP system. (Figure 4 Well Schematic)
Well-1 Conductor and Surface Casings
Drilling the 36” hole to 165 meters required 8.5 hours.
Running and cementing the 30” casing required a total of
13.5 hours to complete, or a total of 22 hours to pre-drill
and case the 30” casing string.
A 26” hole was drilled to 274 meters with an IADC 1-1-5
bit in a total of 12.5 hours. Upon reaching TD a hi-vis
sweep was pumped and made a wiper trip to the 30”
shoe, pumping out of the hole. The trip back to bottom
was without incident; no fill was encountered. A hi-vis
sweep was pumped and displaced with seawater and
the hole was displaced to 10 ppg mud. The 26”
assembly was then tripped out of the hole to run the 20”
casing.
The 20” casing was made up and run in the hole. An
obstruction was encountered at the 30” casing shoe the
20” casing would not pass. The 20” casing was pulled
WOCD-0307-01
and laid down and a 26” drilling assembly was made up
to wipe the hole. The hole was reamed from 165 meters
to 274 meters. A wiper trip was made without incident
and the assembly was pulled.
On the second attempt, the 20” casing was run to bottom
without incident. Cementing occurred as normal. The
trouble free time required to run and cement the 20”
casing was 14 hours.
From spud until the casing was set and cemented at 274
meters required a total of 58.5 hours. (Figure 5 Time
Analysis both wells)
Well-2 drilling with surface casing
The 17 ½” DrillShoeII was made up on 13-3/8” 72 # N-
80 casing. Two float collars were pre-installed on the pin
end of the first two joints of casing. (Figure 6 DrillShoe
and float collar) The casing was run to the mud line, the
13 3/8” casing spear with a packoff, suspended from the
top drive, was inserted in the top joint of casing. The 17
½” hole was drilled from 69 meters to 270 meters in a
total of 7 hours. This included time for; releasing the
spear, installing the next joint and inserting the spear; to
ream each joint; and pump sweeps. The ROP was very
conservative as the main objective was to set the casing
deep at the pilot hole depth to ensure the LOT would be
sufficient to drill to the next casing setting depth.
A maximum of 55 RPM was run with the maximum WOB
of 5 klbs. The highest torque noted was 3,000 ft.-lbs.
Field experience has shown optimum performance is
typically delivered with slow rotation speeds and low to
moderate WOB. In most cases, torque is lower than
experienced with conventional drilling assemblies. This
is believed to be due the well bore quality delivered by
the stiff casing assembly and improved cuttings removal.
The circulating fluid was seawater with hi-vis sweeps
pumped prior to connections as required to suspend the
cuttings in the annulus. The pump rate was maintained
at 575 GPM, is significantly lower than normal in a 17 ½”
diameter hole. This proved to be sufficient as no hole
cleaning problems were encountered.
When drilling with casing a mono-diameter annulus
exists. As a result the annular velocity (AV) is uniform
along the entire annulus facilitating cuttings removal.
Flow rate selection should be based on a balance
between optimum well bore cleaning with the fluid
properties within the uniform AV and ECD management
requirements.
The final 6 joints of casing were 72# P110. This casing
was required to meet the design criteria to drill with a
surface BOP in shallow water depths. The casing can be
WOCD 0307-01 DRILLING WITH CASING ADVANCES TO FLOATING DRILLING UNIT WITH SURFACE BOP EMPLOYED 3

used as a riser for one well. Subsequent use of the riser
is usually permissible but only as casing below the mud
line.1
The drilling with casing operation for the 13-3/8” casing
from the sea floor (69 meters) to 270 meters required 9.5
hours including rigging up the drilling with casing
equipment and changing to drill pipe and drill sufficient
rathole to accommodate the 13 5/8” wellhead and
landing joint.
Cementing 13-3/8” casing
After drilling to TD, the casing spear assembly was laid
out and the 13 5/8” Uni-Head, landing joint and cement
head were installed. The cementing operation utilized a
standard land rig cement head and standard cement
plugs. The float valves were in place during the drilling
operation, requiring no additional action to be taken to
prevent the cement from u-tubing. The pumping
consisted of 80 bbls seawater, followed by 100 bbls 11.0
lead slurry and 86 bbls of 15.8 ppg tail slurry. The
cement was displaced with seawater. The plug bumped
with 1800 psi. Floats were checked and found to be
holding and the cementing equipment was rigged down.
The cementing operation required a total of 4 hours.
On Well-2, from spud until the casing was drilled down to
a depth of 270 meters and cemented in place required a
total of 17.5 hours. This represents a savings of 41
hours (70%) compared to Well-1.
thorough risk assessment. Drilling with Casing allowed
the 13-3/8” casing to be drilled in and cemented in a
single trip. This reduced the time required and reduced
the risk of swabbing the well in while tripping and
running casing.
Acknowledgements
The authors express appreciation to Santos (Madura
Offshore) PTY LTD., partners in the wells BPMIGAS and
Talisman Madura and Weatherford International for their
permission for this paper to be presented. We also thank
Transocean for permission to use diagrams of the
Surface BOP System.
References
1. Shanks, E. Schroeder, J., Ambrose, B., Steddon, R.,
“Surface BOP for Deepwater Moderate Environment
Drilling Operations From A Floating Drilling Unit”
paper OTC14265 presented at 2002 Offshore
Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, 6-9 May
2002
2. Wardley, M., Priadi, A. Dalrymple, K., “Drilling with
Casing – Practical, Cost Effective & Here to Stay”
paper presented at Indonesian Petroleum
Association Twenty Eighth Annual Convention and
Exhibition October, 2001

Subsea Wellheads and Surface BOP

An 18 ¾” subsea wellhead and riser system was used
on Well-1. A 13 5/8” subsea BOP used as a surface
BOP with a 13 3/8” slip joint was used for Well-2. (Figure
5 BOP Stack) The time required to run and test the
subsea BOP assembly and riser was 23.5 hours. The
time required to latch the surface BOP on the wellhead,
nipple up the slip joint and pressure test the H-4
connector was 4 hours. (Figure 7 BOP Stack in position)
This represents additional timesaving of 19.5 hours

Conclusion
Two high impact technologies were used in combination
to save a total of 60.5 hours in the surface hole interval
of the Well-2 well in the Madura strait off the coast of
Indonesia. This represents a 79% timesavings compared
to the direct offset (Well-1) well drilled 5 months earlier.
Both technologies had a significant impact on the
timesavings and they complemented each other
remarkably.

The use of surface BOP equipment reduced the

requirements for structural casing and the need to run
the subsea wellhead and BOP system; use of this
technology should only be considered on the basis of a
4 SUTRIONO, E., ADAMS, R., GALLOWAY, G., DALRYMPLE, K. WOCD-0307-01

Figure 1 Location Map

Figure 2 Surface BOP Schematic Courtesy of Transocean Inc.

WOCD 0307-01 DRILLING WITH CASING ADVANCES TO FLOATING DRILLING UNIT WITH SURFACE BOP EMPLOYED 5

Figure 3 Shallow Seismic

Well-1 Well-2
Well Schematic Well Schematic

0 RKB 0 RKB
MSL MSL

ML = 79 m ML = 69.4 m

30" @ 159 m

200 200

255 m Marker 5
20" @ 268 m 13-3/8" @ 264 m
279 m Marker 5
311 m Marker 6
336 m Marker 6
369 m Marker 7

400 400

13-3/8" @ 488 m
9-5/8" @ 499 m 490 m Paciran Marl Fm
519 m Paciran Marl Fm

555 m Top Mundu Fm 560 m Top Mundu Fm

600 600

7" Liner at @ 684 m

800 800

9-5/8 Casing at @ 835 m

Figure 4 Wellbore Schematics

6 SUTRIONO, E., ADAMS, R., GALLOWAY, G., DALRYMPLE, K. WOCD-0307-01

Time Breakdown Well-1 & Well-2

90.0

80.0

70.0

60.0

50.0
Hours

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0
Well-1 Well-2

Wellheads, Riser, BOP 23.5 4.0

Run/Cement Surface 14.0 4.0

Drill Surface Hole 12.5 9.5

Run/Cement Conductor 13.5

Drill Conductor Hole 8.5

Drill 8-1/2" Pilot 10.0 4.0

Figure 5 Time Breakdown Well-1 & Well-2 Pilot hole to Surface Casing Set
WOCD 0307-01 DRILLING WITH CASING ADVANCES TO FLOATING DRILLING UNIT WITH SURFACE BOP EMPLOYED 7

Well-1 Well-2
0 0

Drill 36" hole Drill 8 1/2"

100 100 Pilot Hole

Set 30" Casing at 159 m

Drill 26"" hole

200 200
Set 20" Casing at 268.7 m Drill 17 1/2" with 13 3/8" casing
Cement squeeze
Cement 13 3/8" casing at 265 m

300 300
Drill 8 1/2"
Pilot Hole Loss circulation
Drill 12 1/4"" hole
Me Open hole to 17 1/2"
as 400 400
Drill 12 1/4" hole
ur Logs
ed Logs Set 9 5/8" casing at 499 m
De Set 13 3/8" Csg at 488 m
pt 500 500
h
(m Drill 8 1/2" hole to 620 m
) Cut Cores
600 600
Drill 12 1/4" hole

700 700
Logs
Set 7" liner at 684 m
DST
800 800

900 900

1000 1000
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Days from Spud Days from Spud

Figure 6a Day vs. Depth Curves

Figure 6 DrillShoe and lower float collar Figure 7 BOP Stack suspended in Moon Pool