Slim Hole Technology

Slim hole drilling (Introduction)

What is slim hole?
• A slim hole is defined as the drilling of a well with a diameter less than
that used on conventional wells.

Why we need slim hole?

• Optimization of slim hole drilling hydraulics
• Use of slim hole techniques to drill horizontal wells
• Economical re-entry of small diameter wells in hard rock
• Typical applications for slim hole equipment include drilling in frontier
areas where logistics can be a problem and re-entry operations in which
the existing well has a small diameter.
Slim hole drilling (Introduction)
What is slim hole technology?
• Typically, slim hole drilling operations use technology borrowed from
the mining industry.
• The rigs are smaller and drill with much higher rotational speeds.
• Definitions of slim holes vary from a well with 90% drilled, with a
diameter of less than 7”. To a well with 70% drilled with less than 5”.
• A goals of slim hole,
• Drilling of a well with a diameter smaller than that used on conventional
wells in the area.
• Another goal of slim hole drilling is the ability to retrieve cores from the
entire well during drilling.
Slim hole drilling (Introduction)
Is it practical?
• The Carter Oil Co. had drilled 108 slim hole wells documenting with an
estimated savings of $ 162,000
• Conoco used slim hole in Indonesia in 1983-86 and concluded with cost
reduction from 65-73%

• What they actually reduced?

Slim hole physical reductions (77/8 in to 4¾ in)

Slim hole drilling (Introduction)

Well planning comparison of convention and the slimhole Slim hole site area and cost reduction
Need and Application
1. ERD well and horizontal wells
2. Re-entry wells
3. Injection wells
4. Exploratory wells
5. High temperature and pressure well
6. Geothermal wells
7. Economical wells
Well drilled database (Oman)
Applications
1. Slim hole technology for exploration in remote area
• Slimhole wells may very beneficial in remote exploratory areas.

• High risks and high potential for rewards

 lack of infrastructure or an established company presence, the road construction and logistics
can be expensive.

 The concept of drilling small diameter wells may become attractive

 The method can be more efficient in such areas by using smaller rigs and equipment

 Easily to transported by a helicopter or along with the existing road with no need of
upgrading.
Applications
2. Slimhole technology for Horizontal Drilling

• A recent trend operators adapted over the past few years is the need to drill what
is called “Slim hole horizontal’’.

• Low cost of drilling for low permeability reservoirs

• Highly fractured, to improve production a slimhole completion can be an efficient

method

• Due to its principal benefit: reduced cost, operators are willing to take the greater
risk and limitation associated with slimhole horizontal well.
Applications
3. Slimhole technology for Re-entry existing wells
The use of slim hole drilling to re-enter wells are into two ways:

• Sidetracking existing wells to horizontal

• Deepening existing wells.

• Sidetracking: a portion of the existing casing is milled out by either applying

section milling or window milling operations, then the hole is sidetracked to
horizontal.
• The sidetracking is achieved while cutting out the window.
• Window-milling operation can reduce the time required for sidetracks.
Applications
3. Slimhole technology for Re-entry existing wells
Examples
• Baker Huges and Husky Oil Operation (Hollies and Szutiak, 1997) reported the successful
application of slim-hole drilling techniques to revive the drilling problem for re-entry well in
the Rainbow Lake Field.
• The horizontal section had drilling problems such as differential sticking, lost circulation,
an overlying gas cap and sour uphole zones in the build section.
• In the slim hole approach, intermediate liner (4 ½ inch) was run into the curve, then the
lateral is drilled with a reliable 3 -7/8 inch slim hole system.
• BP Exploration Inc. Drilled 50 sidetrack wells by drilling new wellbores from low yield or
damaged wells.
• The company reported that sidetracking technique minimized the drilling cost up to 55%
thus from $ 2.2 to $ 1 million for marginal areas of the Prudhoe Bay reservoir.
• In addition, sidetracking also improved the reserve for the Prudhoe Bay reservoirs. For
instance, one horizontal sidetrack that has been drilled into Ivishak field’s zone one is
producing up to BOPD from previously unproductive well.
• Because of the horizontal sidetracking allows to access those thin, segregated layers of oil
that earlier was uneconomic to produce.
Applications
3. Slimhole technology for Re-entry existing wells
Examples
• In 1990, Oryx drilled a number of re-entry horizontal slim hole wells due to the
need to utilize existing wells in marginally productive area of the Pearsall Field.
• It was planned to mill a section in the production casing and kick off out of the section. This
was to achieve 2000-2500 ft. of departure. It was planned to drill a 4-1/2 inch lateral even
though the wells had 5-1/2. All the work was done continuous operation (24hr) workover rig.
Although five wells were re-entered, the result was not convincing in terms of cost.
• Lateral hole costs were higher on a per foot comparison. In this case, the program was
terminated.
• However, in 1991, interests was renewed in looking re-entries for evaluating these marginal
areas.
• There was some improvements by the equipment and techniques used previously.
• Hence, technology to utilize coiled tubing in order to serve as the drilling rig was developed.
• Due to increase of the daily ROP by 55% and lateral displacement by 6%, the results were
economically encouraging. This also reduced the number of day by 31%. In addition, the
increase of ROP and reduced problems resulted 53% well cost reduction.
• A significant cost reduction was achieved in that conventional drilling costs had been reduced
by 21% through improved operations and the conventional hole lateral costs had been
reduced a dramatic 67% from the previous year.
Applications
3. Slimhole technology for Re-entry existing wells

Figure 2.5: Cost Reduction for Different Types of Re-entries

Types of slimhole drilling
• Shallow rotary
• Continuous coring
• Downsized conventional
• Combination
• Small horizontal side tracks
• Coil tubing drilling
Downsized Conventional Drilling
• Downsized conventional drilling is the use of a fit-for-purpose rig to
drill conventionally a well with a reduced casing scheme ending in 4
3/4" or smaller open hole, possibly with a 3 1/2" production liner.
• The potential for downsizing oil wells in some fields, with cost savings
of up to 35% with no loss of production.
• Application:
• High pressure/high temperature wells
• Offshore exploration wells
• New Slim wells
• Sidetracks, workovers, multi-laterals and recompletions
Coil tubing drilling
Current technology in slim hole Drilling
• Slim hole Coil tubing
Slim hole coiled tubing (SHCT) is one of the new drilling technology
over the last 10 years.
It combines slim hole technology with coiled tubing technology which
has a large number of advantages as compared to conventional
drilling technique in a certain applications.
In addition, SHCT has the potential to reduce the drilling cost and risk
and remarkable potential applicability.
Current technology in slim hole Drilling
• Slim hole Coil tubing
• Typical applications for slim hole coil tubing include:
• Exploration wells where 4-D image of recoverable hydrocarbon and
unrecoverable can be acquired and monitored with the ideal depth, without
disturbing development or injection.
• In a shallow well, it has notable benefit, the space and load is only 1/3 of
conventional drilling technology.
• For Oil well re-entry. SHCT provides a means of improving recovery by vertical
injection and porosity of different horizontal level can be obtained by seismic
prospection system.
• Drilling deep wells in existing well with extended slim hole section, reservoir
can be evaluated more economically with slim hole coiled tubing and the pay
zone is more easier to approach.
Current technology in slim hole Drilling
• Slim hole Coil tubing
• Potential benefits of slim hole coiled tubing technology
• SHCT can decrease drilling time, reduce material and equipment resulting
to reduced drilling cost.
• The use of these technology is expected to minimize the cost by 1/5 in
drilling, 1/3 in exploration and ½ in development.
• The method reduced the environmental impact by producing less drilling
waste and lighter equipment take less space.
• Other potential benefit of the method include also:
• less requirement on crew and reduced human hazards by automated equipment,
RIH/POOH is quicker because no connection is needed.
• The ability of the remote control and real time transmission is being improved by
adapting cable on coiled tubing.
Current technology in slim hole Drilling
• Continuous coring Technique
• Slim hole drilling with continuous coring method provides the
potential to obtain large quantities of geological information from
core samples.
• This is usually lead to coring of up to 90 percent of a well
• Oil and gas industry adapted the technique for exploration drilling in
the late 1950s.
• The effort to consider slim coring began in 1980s and 1990s with
companies such as Strato Drill Inc. in Texas USA.
• The technique offers the potential to deliver the core facilitate rate of
penetration (ROP) and maintain minimum pressures on the
formations penetrated.
Features of Slim hole Technology

Production rate vs. tubing size well productivity vs. diameter

Advantage of slim hole drilling
1. A 3 ½” monobore can produce 4000 bopd or 50 million metric standard cubic feet per day
2. Downsizing the completion from 7” to 3 ½” can reduce the well cost by 15- 40 %.
3. Hole diameters can be reduced by 50 %
4. Mud consumption and cuttings can be reduced by 75%
5. Site area can be reduced by 75 %
6. Lower day rate and material cost
7. Lower mobilization and demobilization cost
8. Less waste disposal
9. Lower locations preparations cost
10. Smaller crew required for operation and maintenance
11. Reduced tonnage, location, construction work
12. Reduced driving hazards
13. Anti-vibrational technology
14. Easier well kick detection
15. Good quality logs.
Disadvantage of slim hole drilling
• The reduction in slimhole drill pipe makes the drill string mechanically weaker then conventional
drill string.
• By decreasing size of bit, we have to increase bit speed which might create reliability problems.
• Small and thin tubulars are present there, tool joint are characteristically weaker and have a
chances to bell and twist off, mainly in deeper wells.
• Kick detection is difficult in slimhole as compared to conventional hole due to small annular
space.
• In case of roller cone bits, penetration rate decreases remarkably.
• High equivalent circulating densities can limit mud weight because of less mud volume.
• Depth is also a crucial limiting element, when considering slimhole well design, particularly in
exploration.
• We get limited petrophysical properties of pay zone.
• Slimhole limit our production rate.
• Future sidetrack options are also limited by slimhole.
• Bore hole stability and integrity also compromised in slimhole.
Slim hole rigs
1. Portable rigs
2. Low cost and limited environmental impact
3. Use of diamond bit coring
• Because of their portability, low cost, and limited environmental
impact, it is desirable to use diamond-bit coring (or small hybrid) rigs
for drilling boreholes.
• If a slim hole, drilled by a minerals style diamond-bit coring or a small
hybrid rig, could be used instead, substantial savings in drilling costs
and hence a lower electricity price would be realized.
• With proper casing design, the discharge capacity of slim holes can be
increased by as much as 200%.
Slim-Hole Logging Tools:
• Logging tools with diameters in the 3.62- to 5-in range are considered slim hole, while smaller
tools are considered ultra slim hole.
• Inspection tools (gamma ray, porosity logs, caliper, etc.)
• Baker Atlas offers special slim-hole tools, including acoustic borehole imaging logs, reservoir
performance monitor (RPM), and measurement while drilling (MWD) and logging while drilling
(LWD) tools.
• Slim-hole LWD tools include multiple propagation resistivity, density/neutron, and Navi185
directional/gamma ray.
• Slim-hole multiple propagation resistivity tools, which measure eight resistivities with separate
depths of investigation, are quite useful for geosteering, as they can provide real-time data
enabling horizontal wells to stay "in zone."
Slim-Hole Logging Tools:
• The conventional technology limits oil recovery to 40 % of the total oil originally in place for
existing reservoirs on a world wide basis.
• Next 20 % will be bypassed and further 20 % will be residual oil saturation.
• But with the application of slim hole technology recovery of half of the remaining 20% oil can
increase recoverable reserves by 50%.
Problems encountered in slim hole technology
1. Problems during cementing- Due to the small space between the drill
string and the well bore cementing problems are very common.
2. Smaller clearances and hole problems- Shear thinning fluids (formats)
and use of thruster in place of drill collar are advisable.
3. Drill string failures- The vibrations have a more detrimental effect on the
smaller sized tubulars used thus resulting in drillstrings failures. This
problem can be minimized by the use of vibration mitigation, high torque
drill string and use of thruster.
4. Reduced bit life and poor penetration rate can be taken care of by using
PDC bits and anti-whirl bits
5. Other problems related to fishing, well control, and well evaluation may
also be encountered which can be solved by using proper fishing tools,
accurate flow in and flow out measurements and slim hole logging and
testing tools respectively.
Field experience retrofits slim hole drilling
• Slim hole technology has been found effective and reliable. More and more
operators and service companies are embracing this new technology due
to its added advantages.
• Slim hole technology is supported by its application in new areas like coiled
tubing drilling and dedicated slim hole rigs.
• In coiled tubing drilling this new technology is finding applications in “ ultra
short radius jetting “, “under balanced drilling “, and “coiled tubing
completions”. The idea can be started with a retrofit system before
committing to a dedicated rig.
• In nutshell it can be said that “slim hole” is an emerging technology in
petroleum sector. Application of this technology with good planning and
integration of slim hole campaign can lead the petroleum sector to a bright
future.
• The results can always be found to be better information for less cost,
reduced findings, increased reserves, better safety and safe drilling.
Case study (case 1)
• Highlights:
• This project was undertaken by BP during
its exploratory work in West Africa.
• Initially the exploratory wells were drilled
using the conventional technique.
• Introduction of the new technology in this
field gave better results.
• The overall operating cost was reduced
considerably.
• Moreover less of waste material was
generated during drilling, smaller number
of crew members was required and there
was very less environmental impacts.
Case study
Negative Learning:
• Poor hydraulics
• Unable to get desired mud weight
• Hole erosion due to higher annular velocity
• Limited choice of bits
• Requirement of non-standard tools
• The 3 ½” logging tool was unsuitable for 4 ¼” hole
Case study (case 2)
Highlights:
There was a significant decline in the cost of the
wells drilled by the application of the slim hole
drilling technique as is depicted by the adjacent
figure.
Apart from the usual benefits observed, this
particular project also showed that if proper
precautions are taken then excellent well logs and
early kick detection and control can be obtained
even while using slim hole technology. However
some of the drawbacks that came into picture
were too high bit TFA and poor bit selection,
requirement of assorted rig packages and special
mud pumps for cementing.
Case study (case 3)
Highlights: In this project at Germany, a comparison was studied between three wells of different well
bore sizes. It was found that for same target depth of 5000 m , well cost decreased from 100% to 60%
and cuttings volume decreased from 100% to 30% when the completion was reduced from 7” to 3 ½”
Slim Hole
Slimhole analysis flow chart