Vitol CDO contracted px Group’s NRG to provide a full well management service to support a deepwater exploration drilling campaign. The project was completed in 35 days – 11 days ahead of schedule – without injury to personnel or accidents.
At a Glance
Vitol CDI Ltd contracted NRG to provide a full well management service to support a 1 well deepwater exploration drilling campaign in Block CI-508, offshore western Cote d’Ivoire.
The NRG services encompassed the delivery of:
- Conceptual and detailed engineering well design.
- The contracting of the rig and various related 3rd party services.
- The procurement of well tangibles, legislative and regulatory compliance.
- The operations phases of setting up the remote base, the drilling operations and closing the remote base.
Objective & Services
AN INTEGRATED PROJECT TEAM
PROJECTS, ENGINEERING & CONSULTANCY
The Vitol 508 project team was fully integrated with clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the various parties involved. During the early well design and planning phases of the project NRG provided all of the engineering, well designs and risk assessments for up to five prospects that the Subsurface group had identified, and continued providing detailed engineering supporting to Vitol and their partners in defining and determining the final well location of Aigle 1x.
In a collaborative manner with Vitol and running in parallel with well design, NRG also provided assistance where required for regulatory and environmental compliance, emergency response planning, and significant support in contracting the rig and various 3rd party services and the procurement of oilfield tangibles for the well.
Given the remote location of Block CI-508 in the west of the country, Vitol and NRG also assessed the logistics and infrastructure aspects of using San Pedro Port, which was significantly closer, (25 nautical miles) to the well location rather than the more familiar oilfield port areas of Abidjan, (168 nautical miles away) which typically serve the oilfield developments located on the east side of the country. San Pedro was a port more familiar with cocoa and general container cargo handling rather than handling loose, heavy and valuable oilfield goods. The carefully assembled and detailed assessment, and the decision to use the San Pedro Port was borne out in the Operations phase, where very high HSE ethics prevailed, (zero incidents or accidents), along with a very professional, commercially efficient service.
During the base set-up, the operations phase and the base close out, NRG had up to ten very experienced project team members at any given time in San Pedro, covering both the offshore and onshore positions. Engineering and technical support was also available from London and Aberdeen on a 24/7 basis.
Project Outcome & Results
MEETING THE OVERALL VITOL CI-508 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
- The well was drilled safely without injury to personnel or accidents, with minimal environmental impacts and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
- The well was drilled in 35 days, 11 days ahead of schedule, for US$29.4m, well within the approved work program and budget.
- The well was drilled to TD at 4,020m MD, approximately 200m short of the planned TD at 4,226m MD.
- The well was fully evaluated using LWD, mud logging, biostratigraphy, wireline and post well studies of the primary and secondary target intervals at the Turonian and Albian levels respectively.
- High quality drilling information was captured for any future drilling campaigns in the area.
- 11% NPT was recorded during the operations phase; the majority of which was attributed to unplanned directional work in the 26” and 17-1/2” hole sections and a cement squeeze to strengthen the 13-3/8” casing shoe.
- The well was suspended in a condition that satisfied current regulatory and corporate requirements for permanent abandonment.
