RE: Drilling ahead Sanspeine. I don't know who you are asking the question of but I'll poke my nose into it although I haven't been paying attention to this well until the share price was $2 and then the news release showing the differential pressure sticking caught my interest, even though differential sticking wasn't mentioned. Being a share holder doesn't entitle us to see the daily drilling reports and no real information is available to us so my assessment is based on my past experiences and intuition. And I havent gone through past news too much for any history either, and I consider myself a casual observer.
Recently, I think I saw that the well was spudded in February and there were upper hole problems and I have no clue as to what those problems might have been. Perhaps that might be the biggest issue as 5 months for 6000' of hole shows that there were extreme difficulties. What we came to learn next from the news release was that the well drilled into the upper sands with expensive directional drilling tools and became differentially stuck and had to be shot off with the loss of a piece of the well (and directional drilling tools, all or some bottom hole assembly, some drill pipe perhaps and all having to be replaced, rig time, consummables etc.) and the details in that news release irritated me. I charge the drilling supervisor with industrial sabotage on that one and that incident speaks loudly of an inexperienced supervisor. The fact that they had a drilling break from 16 to 54 ft/hr and drilled 54 ft into the sands was blatently wrong with no aparent checks to safeguard against any potential problems associated with the drilling break. The end result was differential sticking. What happened was that they had a mud system (type unknown) that was overbalance but by how much, we don't know and with no indication of otherwise, he drilled ahead at this high penetration rate and the porous sands, being underbalanced, accepted the drilling mud and the solids within the drilling mud that are there to create desirable filtercake, built up across the sands at the hole wall to a very thick gooey paste as the water from the drilling fluid bled into the formation. This from drilling too fast into the porous section and drilling yourself into trouble. As they drilled deeper at high ROP (rate of penetration) the formation build the filtercake behind them (above the bit) and lots of it, because of the porosoity. 54 feet into the porous sand section, the filtercake grabbed the drill collars as there is a close tolerance between the hole wall and outside surface of the drill collars. I'll bet the farm that this took place on a connection where the drill string became static, motionless, and was forced into the filtercake.......forever! This incident was preventable.
To your question, within every well, you need a rig made up of well maintained machinery and crewed by trained people, an engineered well program for depth and pressures expected, for hole and casing sizes, a mud or drilling fluids type and maintained to provide desirable properties such as ph, water loss plastic viscosity/yield point ratios, proper drill bit types, conventional tri-cone or strata PCD type where applicable, professional drilling services with professional reps and experienced, competent company well supervision to unsure good safe drilling practices with professional attitude and some higher level of a sense of accomplishment, and they all have to work in harmony with one another with the common goal of safely drilling the well in a reasonable amount of time. If someones ego or attitude gets in the way then there will surely be problems detrimental to the entire operation. The drilling industry is very unique with it's machinery and with the dynamics of activities all happening at the same time and people have to have a certain ability to see down into the wellbore from above the rotary table and picture what is or could take place with all the forces in play downhole.
I offered my thoughts of the stuck pipe issue but not what the drilling supervisor should have done, so whatever happened uphole now needs to be addressed. In the case of this well, I would evaluate supervision, mud system and it's properties, bit selection, type and bit hydraulics (proper bit jet sizing). From what I know the well design is fine unless high production rates are required then normal changes can easily be made to accomodate that idea in the future.
For the sake of trivia, I started my career at age 17 and worked between drilling and service rigs for a broader range of experience and I was mentored by some fine old experienced people and that later turned out to be beneficial as I became a driller then supervisor and had to drill sections of hole with a service rig and then complete a well with a drilling rig. Ordinarily those things are very alien to crews working with something that is so unknown to them but it worked fine and became a lot of fun because I had a working relationship with them before the alien stuff showed up. I was fortunate enough to break into offshore drilling at age 19 and this was a blessing, steady work and exposure to World class people, more mentors, and they were almost pioneers in the offshore drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana swamp barges. Back in those earlier years, rigs were paid by the foot of hole they drilled so as much as they worked with diesel engines at full speed they learned what worked and what didn't and so they stuck to doing what worked in terms of bits and mud systems that provided the best flow properties and gave good wellbore stability. Since then, geology hasn't changed but the industry has, thanks mainly to smooth talking salesmen selling mostly fads under one heading or another that don't necessarily have any true value when you need it. I learned these things through hands on exposure and I'm now a victim of human nature, resistant to dramatic change and not wanting to fix something that isn't brokem. I learned early on what value good exposure has. In the offshore environment compared to land based rigs, you are generally surrounded by a more technical and professional atmosphere where the majority of my peers on land were surrounded by "rouge"neck drunks, hollering and screaming to mask their deficiencies. If a roughneck wanted to advance his career and become a supervisor, he didn't have much to look up to but still ended up fashioning his behavior from what he had seen and been taught. As a side note and speaking of peers, this was 1967 and the Viet Nam War was fully on and almost every week there were stories from the Americans on board telling personal stories of the war as it related to their sons and nephews, relatives. Those soldiers in Viet Nam were my age!! ......... Moral of the story? You are shaped by what you have been exposed to in the environment that you were developed in. Stop and think about the different environments between me, the land guys and the Viet Nam soldiers, all the same age but yet in different environment and working at their "chosen" careers. It's easy to see how environment can shape your life. If you are able to recognize it, surround yourself with good people and you have a better chance of having things go better for you. Give up the egotistical attitude as it does nothing to serve you. I see drilling guys (probably with land rig rougeneck exposure) telling me they have 30 or 40 years experience. The true interpretation of that is that they have one years experience 30 or 40 times over. A lot of them made a career out of deceipt and not advancing their education in their chosen profession and the sad thing is that it has worked for them. I've seen it on these boards as well, with someone portraying themselves as drilling guys and posting goofy senseless stuff like they were in the right mind, but their description of some drilling related items they describe makes about as much sense as the cartoon character Gerald McBoingBoing reciting poetry. Stick to what you know because everone has their strengths and weaknesses. Funny thing is that some others eat that stuff up.......lol Maybe they are oilfield service salesmen!! Scary, but these types can end up supervising wells. (this not meant to be a wee autobiography, just food for thought)
For Jatayu, yes, it'll be expensive but look at what they appear to have in the upper sands. There are growing pains and we should find comfort in seeing that they are focused on a fix with the annoncement of changes to personnel and well design. I don't think anyone wants to show high well costs. Personnel issues speak for themselves and well planning more for design for optimum production to suit the formations and their ability to flow, perhaps. I think it was also announced that they made a mud system change before drilling ahead after the sidetrack, and I found that very intriguing. So, not to worry, they have the ability to find gas and oil and have proved it. It will be better when they identify and make corrections to the things that have given them grief. The ability to find oil and gas offsets high well costs in the bottom line, in any case. With the well on production, thoughts of high well costs quickly evaporate. It's all about how you look at it. Changes can be good and it's sometimes astounding how the smallest change can make such a significant difference towards the positive side....