First Week of March

[petrengr1]

Sageo: The last casing that IOC has reported was the 9 5/8” which was set at 5,321.8 feet (1,622 meters).

[sageo]

Pet--Thank you for your informative response. After thinking about your words for a while now....( I went off on a tangent in my concerns)...I believe the bottom line of my thoughts is that our company imho should work on getting each of our wells to be less costly and less time-consuming. Saving time and money right now would be very crutial to our future.(Your coment about the 3 week period was very thought-provoking) Hope I'm not trying to out-think myself !!  (Ha-ha....maybe I am)  GLTY,sir.

[bertl05]

Sageo: The last casing that IOC has reported was the 9 5/8” which was set at 5,321.8 feet (1,622 meters).

They have drilled below the gas/water contact at -7,310 feet (-2,228 meters) below sea level. They have not reported setting the 7” casing. They have said they will do another DST. I do not know how they plan to leave the well when they suspend it for re-completion as a producer. They  will at least have to plug off the water zone in the bottom of the hole before they do the next DST. It is possible that they will set the 7” liner before running the next DST but I do not think that is the plan.

It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd.  On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”.  Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what.

I think the plan is to run a DST of the entire open hole interval from the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing at 5,321 feet to the top of the cement plug that they will have set to plug off the water. They will run a production log while testing to see if they can determine where the gas is coming from.

After completing the DST I think they will set a plug in the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing for safety purposes before suspending the well and moving the rig.

Just my opinion.

Pet you stated:

"It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd. On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”. Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what."

What would be your best guess as to the reason?

Thanks in advance

[petrengr1]

Sageo: The last casing that IOC has reported was the 9 5/8” which was set at 5,321.8 feet (1,622 meters).

They have drilled below the gas/water contact at -7,310 feet (-2,228 meters) below sea level. They have not reported setting the 7” casing. They have said they will do another DST. I do not know how they plan to leave the well when they suspend it for re-completion as a producer. They  will at least have to plug off the water zone in the bottom of the hole before they do the next DST. It is possible that they will set the 7” liner before running the next DST but I do not think that is the plan.

It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd.  On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”.  Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what.

I think the plan is to run a DST of the entire open hole interval from the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing at 5,321 feet to the top of the cement plug that they will have set to plug off the water. They will run a production log while testing to see if they can determine where the gas is coming from.

After completing the DST I think they will set a plug in the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing for safety purposes before suspending the well and moving the rig.

Just my opinion.

Pet you stated:

"It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd. On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”. Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what."

What would be your best guess as to the reason?

Thanks in advance

Bert- There is really no way for me to know what is going on since I have not talked to any of the people involved. There is a very long list of things that they could have been doing and your guess is probably as good as mine. I believe the last time we had an unusually long delay (T-2) the Government’s Petroleum Department had told them they had to run 7” casing and test the lower zones inside of casing. So, the Government apparently decides when the rig can be released and moved to the next location. If they are not satisfied with your formation evaluation and/or testing they may direct you to do more. Other places where I have worked these decisions were left to the operator and the Government was not involved.

Other possibilities:

1. As you know we have had a lot of problems getting successful open hole DST’s because of leaking packers due to oval shaped holes, hole rugosity, washouts, fractures etc. Such conditions prevent the packer from sealing so that a test can be achieved. So, they could have tried several DST’s before reporting to us that they plan to run one DST with the packer set in the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing and use the production logging tools.

2. They could have experienced some type of lost or stuck pipe or equipment in the hole which had to be fished out. If such was the case there might have been waiting time to obtain the right equipment and/or personnel.

3. As you know they are doing all of this under pressure so they could have had problems with their pressure control equipment. This could include the BOP (Blow Out Preventer) or the Down Hole Deployment valves. The equipment that is on the surface might have required some repair and/or maintenance.

4. I assume recently they have been preparing and/or running the DST with the packer set inside of the casing.

There are many other possibilities .....

Hopefully we will hear the results of the test soon along with the fact that the rig has been released and where it is being moved to.

[Stavros]

I'm a Chemical Engineer rather than a Petroleum Engineer, so my view may not be correct!

My WAG, based on all I've seen on IOC's other monster wells, is that they had difficulty getting side wall cores and had to ream the hole repeatedly to get 'er done. When the formation rock is "soft" with high permeability/ porosity, the cores tend to disintegrate easily. That's the price you pay when you have a great resource!

Is this semi-layman's explanation plausible?

I hope they're done and can announce the results soon ... perhaps Friday morning?

[Justin94360]

Hearing logging now complete and data aquired.
May do a further DST before plug and suspend the well.

[Gator]

Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.
J. Paul Getty

[ArtM72]

Delays in drilling operations might also be due to the excessive rainfall seen in PNG. This article talks about the disaster in the Highlands in western PNG

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=73572

This link talks about the disaster in Oro Province in eastern PNG

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=73383

Here's a link to average rainfall stats:

http://www.new-guinea-tribal-art.com/wp/...infall.jpg.

It doesn't appear from this map the Gulf Province would typically be spared the weather hitting other parts of the island.

As a slightly off topic aside, there've been two Cat 4 tropical cyclones in that part of the Pacific so far this year. I heard a climate researcher yesterday tie those into the extraordinary weather we've seen this past week in the US through a phenomena called "rapid stratospheric warming" which disrupts normal polar atmospheric flow patterns. This in turn puts a big kink in the jetstream.

[sageo]

Guys-- Thanks to you....."one and all". Great thoughts and explanations !  I guess it's like in football......" when you throw a pass,three things can happen; and two of them aren't good "! Oh well, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and it isn't an approaching train !!! Have a marvelous day.

[bertl05]

Sageo: The last casing that IOC has reported was the 9 5/8” which was set at 5,321.8 feet (1,622 meters).

They have drilled below the gas/water contact at -7,310 feet (-2,228 meters) below sea level. They have not reported setting the 7” casing. They have said they will do another DST. I do not know how they plan to leave the well when they suspend it for re-completion as a producer. They  will at least have to plug off the water zone in the bottom of the hole before they do the next DST. It is possible that they will set the 7” liner before running the next DST but I do not think that is the plan.

It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd.  On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”.  Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what.

I think the plan is to run a DST of the entire open hole interval from the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing at 5,321 feet to the top of the cement plug that they will have set to plug off the water. They will run a production log while testing to see if they can determine where the gas is coming from.

After completing the DST I think they will set a plug in the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing for safety purposes before suspending the well and moving the rig.

Just my opinion.

Pet you stated:

"It is beyond me what they have been doing since they reached TD on December 25, 2012. It should not take more than a week to log (actually much less than that). They had a log as reported on January 2nd. On January 24th , three weeks later, they reported that they have “completed logging”. Something else besides logging has been going on in the last month since reaching TD but I do not know what."

What would be your best guess as to the reason?

Thanks in advance

Bert- There is really no way for me to know what is going on since I have not talked to any of the people involved. There is a very long list of things that they could have been doing and your guess is probably as good as mine. I believe the last time we had an unusually long delay (T-2) the Government’s Petroleum Department had told them they had to run 7” casing and test the lower zones inside of casing. So, the Government apparently decides when the rig can be released and moved to the next location. If they are not satisfied with your formation evaluation and/or testing they may direct you to do more. Other places where I have worked these decisions were left to the operator and the Government was not involved.

Other possibilities:

1. As you know we have had a lot of problems getting successful open hole DST’s because of leaking packers due to oval shaped holes, hole rugosity, washouts, fractures etc. Such conditions prevent the packer from sealing so that a test can be achieved. So, they could have tried several DST’s before reporting to us that they plan to run one DST with the packer set in the bottom of the 9 5/8” casing and use the production logging tools.

2. They could have experienced some type of lost or stuck pipe or equipment in the hole which had to be fished out. If such was the case there might have been waiting time to obtain the right equipment and/or personnel.

3. As you know they are doing all of this under pressure so they could have had problems with their pressure control equipment. This could include the BOP (Blow Out Preventer) or the Down Hole Deployment valves. The equipment that is on the surface might have required some repair and/or maintenance.

4. I assume recently they have been preparing and/or running the DST with the packer set inside of the casing.

There are many other possibilities .....

Hopefully we will hear the results of the test soon along with the fact that the rig has been released and where it is being moved to.

Thanks Pet, good info.