DEEPWATER TECHNOLOGY

Shell’s deepwater program: A broad-based technology commitment

Focusing on the Gulf of Mexico, R&D efforts are being coordinated to meet deeper-water challenges using lower-cost floating rigs. Other studies aim to optimize development wells and reserve recoveries

Robert E. Snyder, Editor

hell Exploration & Production Co. (SEPCo) is pursuing several technology developments in a coordinated effort to both reduce the extremely high costs of finding and developing oil and gas reserves in deep water, and optimize the development of completed wells and reservoirs in all water depths. Development costs are high in deep water, as judged by reports of wells costing $50 million, or more, to drill. Rewards are also high, as sustained per-well production rates of 20,000 – 30,000 bopd are also reported.

Cutting drilling costs as operators move into ever deeper waters is a major challenge, which is approachable by redesigning well completions so that smaller, semisubmersible rigs can be used at significantly reduced dayrates. This is being done by reducing the size / number of downhole tubulars needed to end up with the same size final string for optimum production. Other innovations such as dual-gradient drilling, pre-installed mooring and surface-located BOPs can make smaller rigs feasible.

But optimum offshore development goes far beyond utilizing lower-cost rigs. Shell’s program is investigating the basic improvement of the completions themselves with techniques that overlap both shallower and deepwater wells. Examples include: 1) high-volume frac-pack jobs; 2) accessing deeper zones by drilling through depleted formations; 3) more efficient extended-reach wells; 4) meeting high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) challenges; and 5) deep gas drilling.

Four Shell engineers discussed the company’s goals and progress in achieving the above objectives during a Media Day presentation in Houston, on November 13. The four presenters were:

	Don Jacobsen, Manager, Drilling & Completions, Shell Exploration & Production Co. (SEPCo), New Orleans;
	Paul Goodfellow, Drilling & Completions Operations Manager, Shell International Exploration E&P Inc., New Orleans;
	Ken Dupal, Sr. Staff Drilling Engineer, SEPCo, New Orleans; and
	Graham Brander, Sr. Drilling Engineer, Shell International E&P Inc., Houston. Overviews of their presentations follow.