Mud management, special slurries improve deepwater cementing operations
- Halliburton Energy Services Inc., Duncan, OK (United States)
- Halliburton Energy Services Inc., New Orleans, LA (United States)
Successful deepwater cementing requires improved mud-management techniques to reduce fluid loss, shorten slurry transition times, and make mud and cement slurry weights compatible with formation pore pressure and fracture gradients. If any one of these conditions is not met, the cementing job is less likely to be successful. Previous attempts to drill in deep water have had a low success rate, and failures have cost operators an average $2 million/well. By using new mud-management techniques and specially designed cement mixtures, operators in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) are effectively setting conductor casing in deepwater conditions and are greatly improving the success rate in cementing deepwater wells. Recent case histories in the GOM describe these new techniques and the advantages of using a specially formulated, lightweight, foamed cement slurry to avoid cement-sheath damage caused by shallow-water flow.
- OSTI ID:
- 538276
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal, Vol. 95, Issue 42; Other Information: PBD: 20 Oct 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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