SPE 152893

Narrow Margin Drilling and Operational Geosciences in Egypt and Syria

Bart W. Tichelaar, Hisham F. Salem, Sandy A. Amin and Ramy M. Shafik, Shell Egypt N.V., Cairo, Egypt

Copyright 2012, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Cairo, Egypt, 20–22 February 2012.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
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Abstract
The ability to drill exploration objectives safely and efficiently is controlled by knowledge of the available drilling margin. We
present an application of operational geosciences for two recent exploration wells in Egypt and Syria where pore fluid pressure
and fracture pressure models were built pre-drill to enable well design. While drilling the well, these models were updated in
real-time (24/7) to make the right operational decisions. In addition, before drilling the more challenging well sections,
learnings from shallower sections in the well were used to prepare a look-ahead assessment of the available drilling margin to
select a strategy to drill the next section.
The two wells have in common that the presence of a narrow drilling margin was recognized early in the exploration phase
such that proper data analysis could be completed pre-drill for the entire planned well trajectory. Furthermore, options for real-
time data acquisition were investigated early such the right geoscience data could be acquired and interpreted during drilling
for operational support.
Engineering, geosciences and communication form equally important components of narrow margin well execution. Real-
time analysis of logging while drilling data, mud logging data and hydraulics data was used, as well as the intelligent
deployment of managed pressure drilling technology, to make decisions such as adjustment of the drilling mud and selection
of section depth (TD). A Communications Protocol was followed to assure that critical anomalies in the predicted drilling
margin were efficiently communicated to the Drilling Supervisor for immediate operational response.

Introduction
The drilling margin, defined as the pressure range (or pressure interval) from formation pore fluid pressure to fracture
pressure, forms an important input for well engineering, well cost estimation and exploration evaluation. During well
operations, a narrow drilling margin that is not properly assessed can lead to the unexpected influx of reservoir fluids into the
wellbore or to sudden downhole losses of drilling mud. The geosciences offer concepts and technology to assess the drilling
margin in the pre-drill phase before spudding a well (e.g., Athy, 1930, Huffman, 2002, Zhang and Wieseneck, 2012). Since a
few years, the advancement of downhole real-time data acquisition and transmission technology has made it possible to
operationalize many of the existing pre-drill approaches such that real-time updates of the available drilling margin, i.e., pore
pressure and fracture gradient, can be produced to reduce the considerable uncertainty that often exists in pre-drill models.
These real-time updates facilitate operational decisions during well execution and make drilling more efficient.
From a drilling technology perspective, there are several ongoing developments that can be integrated with real-time pore
pressure and fracture gradient (PPFG) prediction. Examples are the ruggedization and application of managed pressure drilling
(MPD) systems (e.g., Nauduri et al., 2009), the emergence of real-time mud hydraulics modeling software (Thorsud et al.,
2000; Zamora and Roy, 2000) and the design of downhole Lithium batteries with high temperature ratings to power logging
while drilling (LWD) tools. There are also continuous developments in the area of LWD data interpretation (e.g., Haugland
and Tichelaar, 2008).
Recently, Shell Egypt’s Geosolutions Team has had the opportunity to work on narrow margin exploration projects in the
Nile Delta and on the South Syrian Platform. The team was in a position to operationalize the latest advancements in well
engineering and geosciences to drill safely and efficiently. Whereas not all data from these projects have been released for
publication, the following sections contain examples of applications of real-time geosciences. The two wells have in common
that they are located in a near-crestal location and that the presence of a narrow drilling margin was recognized early in the
exploration phase such that proper regional data analysis could take place for the entire well in the pre-drill phase, several
months before the well operations started. Furthermore, options for real-time data acquisition were investigated early so that
geoscience data interpretation could form a key operational element during drilling. There are also differences between the two
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wells: the Zerzura well in Egypt targeted clastic rocks of Miocene and Oligocene age down to a depth of nearly 6 km in a High
Pressure and High Temperature (HPHT) regime in shallow water in the Nile Delta, whereas the Wadi Saeed well on the South
Syrian Platform well is less than 2 km deep in Paleozoic rocks of mixed clastic and carbonate origin in a land setting with low
pressure and low temperature. Another difference is that not all required equipment and software was available for the Syrian
Platform well due to export controls.
For these exploration projects, four different real-time geosciences data flows were distinguished to assess the narrow
drilling margin:
1) Logging while drilling data such as LWD resistivity, LWD sonic and LWD gamma ray as well as measurement while
drilling (MWD) data, e.g., annular pressure while drilling (APWD),
2) Mud logging and drilling data such as observations of cuttings, cavings, gas data, observed rate of penetration, etc.,
3) Mud hydraulics data, either measured or modeled, to establish downhole static mud weight (MW) and effective
circulating density (ECD) data,
4) Managed pressure drilling data, such as MPD open-hole dynamic leakoff test data or micro influx data.
These four data flows formed simultaneous input for real-time geoscience analyses that led to operational decisions such as
adjustment of mud weight, adjustments of MPD system parameters, the application of mud engineering methods to strengthen
the wellbore, the calling of section TD, an update of the drilling plan, etc.

South Syrian Platform

The Wadi Saeed-101 well is located in Syria on the South Syrian Platform close to the international borders with Jordan and
Iraq (Figure 1). In December 2010, Wadi Saeed was drilled to assess the prospectivity of Ordovician sands located updip from
the Roumana exploration well drilled in the same anticlinal structure earlier that year. Nearby hydrocarbon discoveries are
Risha field in Jordan and Akkas field in Iraq. The integration of geological models, regional drilling data, wireline logging and
seismic data, as well as rock property analyses resulted in a pre-drill model for pore pressure and fracture gradient. In
particular, two subsurface scenarios were modeled: the High Case and the Low Case. Figure 2 shows the available drilling
margin for the High Case, where the reservoir is filled with gas and for the Low Case where the reservoir is water filled. These
pre-drill models indicate a main challenge for executing Wadi Saeed-101: There is no single mud weight that can prevent mud
losses in the Afendi reservoir section for the Low Case while eliminating the chance of a gas kick for the High Case.
Furthermore, the prognosed drilling margin is so small that two separate well sections are required in the reservoir section for
the High Case to prevent losses midway through.

Fig. 1. Location of the Wadi Saeed-101 exploration well, South Syrian Platform, in map view (left) and in vertical cross section (right).
The well is located on a near-crestal position in an anticline. Many faults (yellow lines) are seen on the seismic section.

This pre-drill model of the available drilling margin resulted in a decision by the operations team that potential gas kicks
should be avoided while accepting the risk of downhole mud losses. The following integrated geosciences data analysis and
drilling plan was subsequently agreed upon:
1) Before setting the 9-5/8” casing above the Afendi reservoir, confirm the accuracy of the pre-drill pore pressure prognosis
using wireline logging data. Where necessary, recalibrate the pre-drill model and adjust mud weight.
2) Acquire a leakoff test just above the Afendi reservoir to confirm the pre-drill fracture gradient model for shale.
3) Drill into the reservoir with 10 ppg (0.52 psi/ft) mud weight to avoid a potential gas kick for the High Case (which comes at
the cost of accepting an increased chance for losses).
4) After drilling into reservoir for a short distance, acquire a measurement of reservoir pore pressure with wireline tools.
5) If pore pressure measurement successful, then produce a real-time lookahead PPFG prognosis for the remaining reservoir
section, adjust mud weight and drill on.
SPE 152893 3

6) If pore pressure measurement not successful (i.e., tight formation), then drill on with unchanged mud weight of 10 ppg and
monitor for downhole mud losses. When such losses occur, reduce pump rate until losses stop and validate the fracture
gradient model. If it is not possible to continue drilling the well section with reduced mud weight, given the updated fracture
gradient for Sand, then call section TD and run casing.
Note that, in the Roumana downdip exploration well, mud losses in the reservoir section formed the main cause of non
productive time and it was not recognized during Roumana well execution that each subsequent sand layer drilled in the
Afendi formation formed a zone with low fracture gradient and potential mud losses. In addition, it was not considered at
Roumana to significantly lower the mud weight when losses occurred in the Afendi formation. Instead, LCM (lost circulation
material) was spotted in each loss zone only to find that the next sand layer would give more losses, increasing the well cost
above the pre-drill cost estimate of Roumana.

Fig. 2. High Case (left) and Low Case (right) pre-spud drilling margin for the South Syrian Platform well Wadi Saeed-101. There is no
single mud weight that can prevent mud losses in the reservoir section for the Low Case while eliminating the chance of a gas kick
for the High Case. Another well in the region, Roumana, experienced total loss of circulation when drilling the reservoir, causing a
casing to be set shallow as well as significant non-productive time.

Three of the four real-time geosciences data flows were available for this well. Due to export control limitations, MPD
equipment was not available. How did operational geosciences contribute to safe and efficient drilling of Wadi Saeed-101?
While drilling the shale above the prospect, there was no indication from the three data flows (incl. LWD gamma ray) that
recalibration of the pre-drill pore pressure model was required. Intermediate wireline resistivity logs also confirmed that the
shale is hydrostatic. At a depth of 1279 m the Afendi reservoir was identified which was shallower than expected. No
downhole mud losses were encountered and the hole was prepared for wireline logging. Data from Schlumberger’s
PressureXpress (XPT) wireline tool were acquired to measure the reservoir pressure. Unfortunately, due to tight formation,
this logging run was not successful. The possibility of not being able to acquire a reliable pore pressure measurement had been
identified pre-spud and, because the High Case could now not be ruled out, the next step in the drilling plan was followed: drill
on with an unchanged mud weight of 10 ppg (0.52 psi/ft) until losses occur. At a depth of 1561 m, downhole mud losses
started. The initial loss rate was 25 bbls in 20 minutes at 480 gpm (gallon per minute) pump rate. The pump rate was reduced
to 300 gpm with 10 bbls/hr mud losses. Mud losses stopped at a pump rate of 250 gpm. The pore pressure and fracture
gradient model was recalibrated. A low fracture gradient prognosis for Afendi reservoir layers ahead of the bit, combined with
the fact that hydraulic calculations showed that a mud circulation rate of 250 gpm would be too low for proper hole cleaning,
resulted in section TD to be called. A liner was run and gas was brought to surface. Because a sufficient section of the
4 SPE 152893

reservoir had been penetrated to evaluate the prospect (> 280 m) no further exploration drilling was required in this well and
well TD was called.
The Wadi Saeed exploration well was drilled, cased and tested in 34 days. This is significantly faster than the downdip
Roumana well that took 80 days mostly spent in the Afendi reservoir section curing mud losses with LCM while continuing to
drill down without sufficiently reducing the mud weight. The main reasons why mud weight was not reduced in Roumana is
that the pre-drill pore pressure prediction was too high and that no steps were taken during drilling to navigate efficiently
through the narrow drilling margin. Geosciences support both before spud and during well operations of the Wadi Saeed well,
fully integrated in the drilling plan, contributed to reaching well TD efficiently and safely.

Nile Delta
The Zerzura well in Egypt’s offshore Nile Delta penetrated turbidite channels of Miocene and Oligocene age as deep as
approximately 6 km. Pore pressure and temperature reached values close to 17000 psi and 170 deg C. Figure 3 shows the well
location as well as the pre-drill and real-time assessment of pore pressure and fracture gradient. The well was drilled with
managed pressure (MPD) technology where surface back pressure was applied to (or released from) the well annulus to
rapidly adjust the effective mud weight in the open hole when necessary. The PPFG lookahead prognosis was used to
determine the optimal parameters of the MPD system (e.g., Spriggs and Frink, 2008) and to select the static mud weight.

Fig. 3. Location of the Zerzura HPHT well in the Nile Delta (left) and a comparison of the pre-drill and real-time pore pressure and
fracture gradient prediction (right).

A total loss of circulation had occurred while drilling the shallow section of the Zerzura well (Figure 4, Label 1) where
pore pressure was near hydrostatic. For reasons of safety and drilling efficiency, mud losses were unacceptable in deeper
sections and the shallow mud loss event was used as calibration data to develop a fracture gradient model for sandstone
reservoirs (in addition to the existing fracture gradient model for shale). This model was subsequently applied to all deeper
sandstone reservoirs that were penetrated by the drill bit, e.g., Label 2 in Figure 4, and the maximum allowable mud weight
was adjusted to prevent further downhole mud losses. When sandstone reservoir layers were found just below the 14” casing
shoe at the base of the main pressure ramp where pore pressure had increased from 11 ppg (0.57 psi/ft) to more than 16 ppg
(0.83 psi/ft), the model indicated that the fracture gradient was too low to prevent losses when deepening this open hole
section (Figure 4, Label 3). This particular hole section required further deepening because setting a 11-3/4” liner immediately
below the sandstone layers would compromise reaching the primary exploration objective of the well. As a result, it was
decided to strengthen the wellbore for these sandstone layers (Van Oort et al., 2009, Song and Rojas, 2006, Aston et al., 2004)
using stress cage mud additives while drilling on. The results of wellbore strengthening were efficiently assessed with open-
hole dynamic leakoff tests using the MPD system (Figure 5) and an enhancement of 0.3 ppg (0.016 psi/ft) for the fracture
SPE 152893 5

gradient was achieved. Wellbore strengthening enabled this hole section to extend significantly below the weak sandstone
layers (Figure 4, Label 4). The operational approach to assess the need for and to apply wellbore strengthening was an
integrated effort of the operational geoscientist, well engineer and mud engineer.

Fig. 4. Example of drilling challenge for the Zerzura well: the presence of weak sandstone layers (yellow squares) below the 14”
casing shoe reduces the fracture gradient. Wellbore strengthening technology was used to enhance the drilling margin with about 0.3
ppg. See main text for further explanation.

Time

Fig. 5. To assess the lowest fracture gradient in the open hole beneath the 14” casing shoe and to quantify the results of
strengthening the sandstone layers at the wellbore, the MPD system was regularly used for open-hole dynamic formation integrity
tests. The use of integrated technology to artificially enhance and assess the available drilling margin enabled the 11-3/4” casing
shoe to be set deep in a safe and efficient manner. (ESD stands for effective static density.)

Before entering the deep prospective section in the Oligocene, a look-ahead operational assessment was carried out that
took into account all geosciences learnings from the sections of Zerzura that had already been drilled. Two pre-drill scenarios
were built for the expected drilling margin below the 9-3/8” liner shoe (Figure 6): a Low Case where prospective reservoir
units are filled with water (brine) in pressure equilibrium with the shale formation that caps the reservoir and a High Case
6 SPE 152893

where the reservoir units are filled with hydrocarbons and aquifer pressure is significantly higher than the pore pressure in the
shale formation due to lateral transfer of pore pressure caused by laterally dipping reservoir units. For the Low Case, the
drilling margin is 0.5 ppg (0.03 psi/ft) due to the low expected fracture gradient of the sandstone reservoir layers and for the
High Case the margin is even smaller, especially for the upper reservoir unit (Top Sand). The operations team decided that
subsurface mud losses should be avoided when drilling out of the 9-3/8” shoe whereas, due to the use of the MPD system, the
risk of a small influx of reservoir fluids was accepted. Note that such small influx would be immediately spotted due to the use
of a Coriolis flow meter in the MPD system and, in response, surface back pressure could be applied rapidly to the annulus
with that same MPD system to stop the influx. Consequently, the deep well section was spudded with an effective mud weight
just below the Low Case fracture gradient. When drilling into the deep reservoir unit a small influx (kick) occurred (Figure 6,
right), surface back pressure was swiftly increased with 0.3 ppg (0.016 psi/ft) to instantaneously stop the influx and drilling
resumed. Non-productive time due to this kick was equal to the time it took to circulate out the influx (a few hours). As per
pre-drill plan, subsurface mud losses had been prevented. To determine the optimum MPD system parameters for continued
drilling, the system was subsequently used to collect pore pressure data through carefully stepping down the back pressure
until a micro influx was induced. Integration of the MPD system with downhole annular pressure data from the APWD tool
resulted in an accurate real-time pore pressure measurement that was only 20 PSI different from the actual value established
later with a wire logging tool (MDT) at approximately 16500 psi.
For the Zerzura well (1) assessing and operationally reacting to the presence of sandstone layers in a narrow margin section
just below the 14” casing shoe and (2) selecting mud weight and MPD system parameters when drilling out of the 9-3/8” liner
shoe are examples of operational geosciences support, fully integrated with the drilling plan, to execute this well safely and
efficiently. The presence of the MPD system for Zerzura drilling, unlike the Syria well, enabled an operational plan that
prevented losses while safely detecting and stopping possible influxes of reservoir fluids into the wellbore.

Fig. 6. Left: Look-ahead (pre-drill) operational assessment for the Zerzura well below the 9-3/8” liner shoe indicates a narrow drilling
margin for both the Low Case and High Case. As a consequence, it was decided to use the MPD system to carry out a real-time
drilling margin analysis. Parameters for the MPD equipment were set such that ECD was below the low case fracture gradient
whereas the downhole mud pressure could be rapidly increased (with surface back pressure) to kill any kick in case of encountering
the high case pore pressure. Right: A micro influx was artificially induced (blue diamond) for the purpose of calibrating the pore
pressure model in real-time.

Communication
Besides engineering, geosciences and technology, a key element of narrow margin drilling is the existence of a set of rules for
communication between the operational geoscientist and the drilling supervisor. During well execution, when an anomaly in
the available drilling margin was detected in real-time, an assessment of its potential impact on the safety and efficiency of the
well operation was made. Anomalies were categorized as a Green, Yellow or Red Flag. A Communications Protocol (Figure
7) was followed to assure that critical anomalies in the available drilling margin were communicated to the Drilling Supervisor
so that the supervisor could take immediate action. In case of a Red Flag, drilling was temporarily halted to provide a time
SPE 152893 7

window to decide on the best way forward. For the Zerzura well a total of 6 red and 11 yellow flags were raised by the
operational geoscientist during 7 months of drilling and for the Wadi Saeed well 2 red flags were issued in 1 month of drilling.

Fig. 7. Communications Protocol used for the Zezura. An operational Shell Team in Office and Schlumberger Team on Rig jointly
worked the real-time pore pressure and fracture gradient 24/7. Two separate (proprietary) models produced a single prognosis in the
daily pore pressure report.

Conclusion
Drilling plans for the Zerzura, Egypt, and Wadi Saeed, Syria, narrow margin exploration wells were built on the results of an
integrated subsurface and well engineering analysis to optimize operational performance while maximizing the chance of
reaching all exploration targets. Based on operational geosciences, various types of real-time data acquisition technology were
utilized to support critical drilling decisions. The engineering and science of narrow margin drilling forms an intrinsic element
of delivering exploration programs throughout the world. When designing and executing a narrow margin well, technological
advancements such as managed pressure drilling, the development of HPHT logging-while-drilling tools and real-time mud
hydraulics modeling software allow data to be acquired and interpreted in real-time to make prospects drillable that would
have been classified as un-drillable 5 years ago. The dedicated effort of integrating and analyzing real-time operational data,
24/7, contributes to the safe and efficient execution of narrow margin wells.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank the following colleagues for contributions to this work: S. Aboel-Abbas, A. Bouma, W. Geldof, J. Gillis,
D. Hanna, M. Helal, P. Houweling, M. Nassar, A. Salleh and S. Styles of Shell Egypt, S. Chowdhury, J. Corcutt, A. El-Leithy,
F. Kabbesh, J.M. Larroque, S. Miller, P. Schoepfer and P. Tricker on behalf of Syria Shell, R. Chunduru, A. Ghosh,
K. Hansen, M. Kumar and A. Saha of Shell Projects & Technology, P. Brand, E. Dietrich, L. Hollman and S. McCallum of
Blade Energy Partners, M. Hamed of Mi Swaco and S. Ansari, D. Kumar, M. Povstyanova, L. Reynolds, S. Wang and
J. YiMing of Schlumberger DCS. In particular we thank M. Haugland of Shell Projects & Technology for providing us in
Cairo with software-that-matters when it matters.

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