SPE/IADC 92513

Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling Update on a Successful Campaign

Randal Pruitt and Charlie Leslie, SPE, BP; Bruce Smith, SPE, WUU; Olivier Desplain and Tom Kavanagh, Schlumberger;
Tony Woolham, Halliburton Energy Services; Allistar Law Baker, Hughes Inteq; Nick Christou, Weatherford GSI; and
Daniel Borling, SPE, BP

Copyright 2005, SPE/IADC Drilling Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference held in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 23-25 February 2005.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE/IADC Program Committee following
review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the
paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers or the
International Association of Drilling Contractors and are subject to correction by the author(s).
The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the SPE, IADC, their
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers or
the International Association of Drilling Contractors is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in
print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied.
The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper
was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A.,
fax 01-972-952-9435.

Introduction
Located in the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, the
Sajaa onshore gas field is a Thamama Group limestone
reservoir ranging from 11,000 to 13,000 feet true vertical
depth (3350 to 3960 meters). Bottomhole temperature ranges
from 260 to 310 degrees Farenheight (126 to 154 Celcius) and
bottomhole pressure from 1100 to 1900 psi (75 to 129
atmospheres). This paper contains lessons learned from the
project to date by the various authors directly involved with
this unique and highly successfull Underbalanced Coiled
Tubing Drilling project.
Background
In April of 2002 the concept was conceived to utilize UnderBalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling (UBCTD) to unlock
additional rate and reserves by exposing additional net pay
with multilateral wellbores from the existing well stock in the
Sajaa field. A full year of evaluating and planning ensued and
in April of 2003 drilling for first well began. This full year of
Front End Loading (FEL) was key to the success of the project
and was marked by several milestones or stage gates on the
way to start of operations. FEL included multiple tasks along
parallel paths to bring the project from concept through
financial sanction and finally to start-up. Key tasks within the
FEL were:
Concept Identification:
A peer assist was held with internal and external industry
experts to discuss the technical options that might achieve the
multilateral objectives. The two principal outcomes of the peer
assist identified the basic technical concepts along with the

key challenges, levers, and risks to the success of the project.

Later subsurface work supported additional rate and reserves
could be unlocked.
Key operational challenges were:

Personnel (people with the right skills)

Processes (people doing the right things)
Securing staff for critical positions
Procedures and identification of hazards / risks
Assurance tests for special built drilling assemblies
Drilling models for a low reservoir energy
2-phase milling for the window exit point
Equipment availability
Procurement of long lead time materials
Nitrogen (liquid versus membrane)
Ownership of the coiled tubing
Potential loss of the motherbore; and
Natural gas deliverability from the reservoir

Basis of Design:
A concept basis of design paper (SPE IADC 87146 by P. V.
Suryanarayana; et.al.) provided the equipment sizing and
parameters. The design was necessary to prepare tenders and
this effort looked at the following requirements and
sensitivities:

Pumping parameters, formation inflow performance,

and hole cleaning performance necessary to size
surface separation and gas compression equipment
The coiled tubing drill string size and the need for
electric line to provide surface read-out of downhole
conditions
Drilling assembly selection to efficiently operate in a
2-phase and high temperature environment

Tender:
The tender was structured into seven major service envelopes
and one additional envelope for all required minor services.
Tender invitations allowed the option for a service provider to
bid on an individual envelope or to submit a bid for any (or
all) seven envelopes. Tender responses were evaluated on their
technical merit as well as their safety and environmental

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SPE/IADC 92513

management systems. Commercial evaluations were

conducted separate and independent of the technical analysis.
Tenders were awarded to multiple service companies as no
one company could adequately provide the full range of
services required.

Assurance testing was conducted on the drilling assemblies by

pumping a 2-phase fluid (nitrogen and water) and inducing
vibration to simulate downhole conditions. The tests were
performed in an oven at 300 F. Then an actual 2-phase
milling test was completed to establish performance
expectations. Several third party safety and equipment
inspection audits were conducted for the coiled tubing,
separation, and compression packages.

Start-up:
A Putting it all Together paper (SPE / ICoTA 89644 by R.D.
Pruitt, et.al.) provided detailed information about the UBCTD
kit. The initial rig up was slow; as expected. Time was taken
to establish safety expectations, train the crews and conduct
walk-throughs of the entire site with everyone involved in the
operation. Early in the project there were significant
equipment failures of both the surface and downhole
equipment. These failures led to several important learnings
so the team could systematically eliminate other problems as
operations progressed. The most important learning was that
the operator must walk the talk on safety when an
unscheduled event occurs. It is essential for the operator to
stop all operations and allow service providers the space and
time to resolve technical issues safety. The lesson is to not
rush through problem solving.

Fabrication:

Drilling Program:

Both local and international suppliers completed fabrication

work. A majority of this purpose built kit was fabricated
locally including the following:

The Sharjah UBCTD campaign has evolved as performance

improved and technical capabilities established. The original
concept was for only two laterals of 1000-feet in length each
per well. This soon became obsolete and the campaign
eventually expanded to more four laterals with a total footage
in excess of 10,000 feet per well. Record footage drilled to
date is 13,206 feet in four laterals using only two bottom hole
assemblies. Gas production performance results speak for
themselves.

Assurance:

Substructure designed to provide:

o Secure, multi-level work floors
o Access to the BOP stack
o Easy movement of the injector head
o Pressure deployment of drilling assemblies

Deployment lubricator with integral mounted winch

and pressure control equipment

Tool skid to make up the drilling assemblies on the

ground (not on the rig)

Underbalanced equipment including gas compressors

and pipe work to make the necessary tie-ins to the
production flowline

Mobilization:
Most of the required equipment was sourced locally. Three
exceptions were: Coiled Tubing with internal electric cable;
Bottomhole Drilling Assemblies; and the Surface Separation
package. The separation package was mobilized by sea from
the Far East, drilling assemblies manufactured in Celle
Germany, and the coiled tubing built in Houston, USA.

Themes
The rest of this paper will discuss the many learnings along
the course of the project.
Vision
A safe and long-term drilling campaign for unlocking rate and
reserves was the vision. It was recognized at the onset that a
multiple well program was required for the best chance of
proving the concept. The team just said no to the one-off
program approach. Planning for success included tendering for
a 10 well campaign with triggers for early termination if
needed after the first three wells. Planning for long-term
success also allowed better position to negotiation campaign
extensions. This approach with each service provider was time
consuming, but educational as both parties had learned what
their true costs were in terms of both people resources and
equipment.

People, Procedures & Training:

The core team of four drilling engineers and four well site
leaders assembled 3-months prior to start-up. This allowed
time for training, logistics coordination, and preparation of
detailed procedures for both normal operations and potential
emergency conditions. This core team also prepared detailed
hazard identification and mitigation solutions.

FEL was vital to the program success with respect to planning,

procedure preparation and training. It is essential to take the
time, give the space and provide funding for it. Some major
concerns during the FEL period were two-phase (nitrogen gas
and water) effects on motor life at 300 F. To date, this has not
been an issue. The longest bottomhole assembly run was 178hours (over 7-days) of continuous downhole drilling with a
total of 223-hours (over 9-days) of continuous circulating
through the motor. Another lesson was do not stop drilling if a
downhole assembly was working.

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SPE/IADC 92513

Lessons for training include the guideline of never stop

training. There will always be personnel changes during a
long-term campaign no matter how hard you fight it. To
minimize negative impact on the team it is essential to
continue training and promote from within. This produces a
visible and credible strategy as work teams see co-workers
promoted versus another outside expert come in. Results have
been astounding.

real time has been a clear success. An example screen-shot

showing a gas influx while drilling forward is shown below:

It is important to establish clear program expectations up front

and early with senior management and partner stakeholders.
The general rule for communication about the Sharjah project
expectations is early and often. This project has followed
the classic learning curve. There are several examples of not
getting it right, but when patience is used and space given
much can be accomplished. Single point communication with
senior management and partner stakeholders is important. The
value of having an excellent partner relationship also pays a
high dividend for all.
The technical limit process was used extensively during FEL
through the mobilization phase. Meetings rapidly expanded
from teams deciding how to mill windows, drill formation,
maintenance of underbalanced drilling conditions to moving
more than 60 equipment loads in the desert safely and
efficiently. The prize of reduced hours is shown on the below
graph.
Total Rig Move Hours

400

350

Total Hours

211

150

145
111

113
79

50

These single screen data displays are placed at strategic

locations around location along with the over 20 radios (and
radio protocol) to keep the operation online and drilling
ahead. The key learning is that people get engaged at an even
higher level when provided information and the understanding
about how to use that data.
Along with the wellsite information displays, a morning rig
report is distributed to all service company supervisors,
personnel on days off, government partners, and other BP
locations to keep everyone abreast of conditions and progress.
This also helps sharing information, best practices and key
learnings across the team.

250

100

Note the bottomhole pressure in purple rising as a fault is cut,

note the green casing pressure increase.

360

300

200

Figure 1

91

82

77
56

72

64

78

76

75

59

49

0
Sajaa 3 Sajaa Sajaa 7 Sajaa Sajaa 4 Sajaa Sjaa 32 Sajaa
15
16
26
17

Sajaa Sajaa 5 Sajaa 1 Sajaa

42
14

Sajaa
21

Sajaa
15

Sajaa
26

Sajaa
19

Getting Health Safety Environment Right

Sajaa
07

The key learning from the above graph is to have a shared

value in delivering the prize. If solutions benefit all companies
in the project, then creative solutions will be forthcoming by
all stakeholders.
Real time data is extremely important and is used to make online decisions about operation of the underbalanced
equipment, nitrogen pumping equipment, water pumping
equipment, directional drilling, gas export, rate of penetration,
and the list goes on. This project has all data on one single
screen versus multiple screens. A Surface Computerized
Acquisition Network (or SCAN) package along with technical
assistance from all the service companies put all data on a
single screen. Customized graphics help drilling engineers,
drillers, choke operators, directional drillers and the wellsite
leaders. Having data at your finger tips for decision-making

Getting health, safety and environment (HSE) right is a team

effort. In determination of commercial and technical viability
of a newly introduced technology, recognition of the learning
curve period is a must. Focus was placed on developing and
adapting best practice procedures from other projects as well
as lessons learned during this project.
Initially, one of the main quality HSE goals was to build an
interface document that would serve as a reference for any
HSE matter. With over 10 companies and 20 different
nationalities involved, it was obvious at the start of the project
that such a document would evolve based on lessons learned
during the actual project. Each operational step has been fully
described and reviewed by crew leaders and management.
A second goal was to initiate and develop an HSE culture
driven by demonstrated commitment of senior leadership.
Expectations were clearly stated prior to start-up and a system

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SPE/IADC 92513

of recognition and rewards adopted. Visibility of management

from all companies walking the talk helps with success.
Crew incentive schemes and best safety employee contributor
of the month election also helps.

measure of commitment along with extra investment. Success

of flowing-to-sales-while-drilling added an extra measure of
environmental success and efficiency as well as an additional
economic benefit for the project.

An onsite rig safety meeting is held twice per day where a

brief summary of actual operations are discussed and whereby all participants can express their thoughts about safety
issues. Risk Assessment and Tool Box meetings are very
interactive. An average of over 300 HSE STOP cards per
month allow daily focus on HSE concerns. Additionally,
wellsite operations and third-party audits are performed
randomly. This maintains a high level of awareness for
everyone working on the project.

The performance drive to meet these progressive project goals

spurred service providers to find new ways to cooperate. A
key learning for service providers is to assign senior personnel
to the project from the start. This helps with project planning
at the start and problem solving as the project continues.

Teamwork is an essential part of practical safety and is largely

promoted by wellsite leaders. An HSE culture of looking out
for your team mate is recognized and rewarded every day.
Results from an engaged workforce can directly improve
efficiency and reduce total non-productive time. Countless
suggestions have been made using the STOP card process to
help enhance engagement.
After nearly 20-months and 700,000-hours of safe operations,
the team is currently working the problem of complacency at
all levels. To help fight against this false sense of HSE
security, the team is re-working the entire contents of risk
assessments and Tool Box Talk information.

Plan-Do-Learn-Evaluate-Share
The hallmark of this project has been the extraordinary degree
of collaboration among the four major service companies.
Each understands that the success of the project depends upon
coordinating their efforts and sharing information regarding
each of their state-of-the-art (and sometimes proprietary)
technology products. They understand that no single service
company can supply all the technology and expertise needed
for the Sharjah project. Hence, success of the project required
a shared success among all the service companies. On a larger
scale, underbalanced CTD worldwide would be directly
affected by success or failure of this project.
BP shared this global perspective and a desire that this project
be an incubator for the development of UBCTD technology.
BP has opened the Sharjah drilling site to visitors from other
oil companies and the project has become a showcase for the
industry. It is also a showcase for future customers of the
technology. In this respect, BP has provided an example of
openness and cooperation. Service providers are expected to
follow this example.
Initially, safety and environmental protection were the top
concerns. The section on the previous page addressed safety.
Minimizing natural gas flaring to the environment was also a
goal. Extraordinary measures were put in place to capture
produced gas and condensate while drilling forward. All
hydrocarbon products are sold to the market on the same day,
which is an amazing accomplishment. This required an extra

All safety and environmental information was freely shared

with service providers at safety meetings, operational briefings
and toolbox talks. The information is also verbally translated
into other languages (such as Arabic and Hindi) to ensure all
personnel on site are aware of key issues and understand
planned activities for the day. Operational results are shared
and service providers respectful of propriety technologies of
other companies. Each service provider understands sharing
success from this project helps the future of underbalanced
drilling on a larger scale. Reservoir performance enhancement
in a safe way was vastly more important than the success of
one individual service provider.
Finally, the continued success of this project and documenting
lessons learned required extra consideration. Although BP
requests a high level of continuity with regard to key
personnel on site they have recognized the importance of
allowing movement and transfer of personnel to help avoid
complacency before it becomes an issue. Any long-term
project has this risk. To this end, service providers have been
rotating some of their key people out of the project. This is
accomplished in a very systematic way by moving junior
personnel up the chain of command. New personnel back fill
accordingly. This is helps people grow their overall level of
experience and capability. At the same time they help
maintain enthusiasm and optimism. This is another example of
the way the participants are taking a long-term view and
focusing on the future of underbalanced drilling.
Leadership
The style of leadership on any project is important; especially
so when a multinational and multicultural group has to work
together. Effective leadership is achieved by several means.
For the Sharjah project, there is clear commitment from the
top down as shown by high visibility. Senior leaders
frequently visit the work location, attend crew safety meetings
and set a good example by conducting advanced safety audits
with the crews. Every effort is made to be diverse and
inclusive of all at the wellsite. This behaviour has created a
close knit working team that has a pride and passion for the
job.
Front line leaders establish clear expectations with regard to
safety and performance efficiency. All targets are reasonable
(challenging, but achievable) and have an appropriate level of
encouragement, recognition and reward. With regard to safety,
an incentive program has been in operation since the start of
the project. This safety incentive is made available to all

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SPE/IADC 92513

wellsite personnel provided all HSE performance targets are

met. A few of these targets include a specific number of HSE
inputs each month including tool box talks, advanced safety
audits and STOP cards. It is recognized that the frequency
of safety inputs drive frequency of safety outputs such as no
days away from work. After nearly 20 months of operation,
the campaign remains free of any days away from work cases.
This record helps generate a strong team spirit and fosters
excellent working relationships between the various service
providers.
Personnel holding key wellsite leadership positions are
continuously evaluated. Those who do not demonstrate
effective leadership skills are replaced using the promotion
from within process. Any personnel change is performed using
a specific management of change process to ensure any
change to key personnel is implemented with minimum
disruption to site operations.
External visitors from other oil and gas operators as well as
other service providers have been to the wellsite. Feedback
about the people, equipment and operation is consistently
good. The project is relatively high profile for the coiled
tubing drilling sector. This is recognized by the work crews
and they understand what they are doing is important and
widely recognized by many. This is a hidden motivator.
People
One analogy for selecting the right personnel for a successful
project can be likened to building a championship sports team.
A highly successful team does not have all the most skillful
players available. A certain level of skill is required, but each
player has a unique and varied characteristic that is part of the
bigger picture. The coach uses these individual skill sets and
qualities as the gel to form a potentially winning combination.
In building the team for Sharjah project team, the foundation
was to bring the right knowledge, skills, experience and
characters from many areas for a winning blend. This has been
accomplished as evidenced by safety, efficiency, teamwork,
and production performance results.
The team is constantly using the plan-do-measure-learn
cycle to enhance performance. Providing additional training
for all personnel is a regular occurrence. The wellsite has an
environment where knowledge and experience sharing is very
open and honest. These type of discussions help establish a
firm foundation for teamwork and resultant success. The team
desires success and works to ensure development opportunity
is available to each team member.
Throughout the project, each member of the team is encouraged
to share ideas, concerns or thoughts about how to improve the
operation. New ideas are received on a daily basis and include
enhancements for efficiency, non-productive time, safety
systems, meeting structure, pre and post rig move suggestions
and the list goes on. No one is left out; from cleaning and
catering personnel to the top wellsite supervision. Everyone is
important, everyone has a voice and everyone is respected.

Motivated people make the difference. Recognition methods

include simple thank yous for a job well done to the various
incentive rewards. These go hand-in-hand with a desire to
deliver enhanced results where the well currently being drilled
is better than the last one.
Once a winning team has been built, it is important to manage
personnel changes to ensure continuity. In many instances
promoting from within has allowed key personnel to move on
to other projects and still allow a fluid transition on the current
project. Quite a unique team atmosphere has evolved during
the course of the project even with multiple service providers
and multiple nationalities. Each individual has a personal
commitment to the success of the operation and is proud to be
part of it.
Equipment
Other papers have addressed equipment, work during front
end loading and putting it all together. During the early phases
of the project, the importance of having back-up for major
equipment components was not recognized. During the course
of the campaign, the team has added a significant amount of
back-up equipment including: an injector head, power pack,
BOP stack, nitrogen pumping unit and the list goes on. As
with back-up equipment, the importance of preventative
maintenance should never be underestimated. The original
program began with 10 wells in mind and the team is now
about to complete the 20th well. Preventative maintenance has
evolved and now very efficient.
Vibration effect on downhole drilling tool electronics was
underestimated early in the campaign. Since then, significant
trouble-shooting and problem solving has been completed.
Interventions include a change in the way some components
are secured inside state-of-the-art drilling assemblies,
changing the type of drilling bit, installation of downhole
stabilizing equipment such as heavy subs to name a few.
Results have been impressive resulting in substantially
improved bottom hole assembly reliability.
Another key learning is to thoroughly surface test downhole
equipment before it leaves the shop goes into a well. This may
be an obvious step, but when the rig is calling for tools
equipment has the potential to leave the shop before it is
completely checked-out or modified with new components.
Stopping this trend has gone extremely well and is clearly
reducing overall non-productive time for the rig. A local highlevel support and maintenance facility also allows for rapid
problem solving and repair response time; a best practice that
should be implemented for any high-end technology project.
On the underestimated side, early in the project a pessimistic
view was taken about the effects of nitrogen on rubber for
downhole tools. After nearly 20 wells, the negative effects
were overstated and equipment is handling this potentially
corrosive environment much better than originally predicted.
Third party external equipment audits added some value prior
to start-up. However, after several train wrecks with

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SPE/IADC 92513

equipment there are new checks and balances in place and

better definition about what needs to be checked. A few high
profile examples include power pack hydraulics that controls
the injector head and metallurgy assurance for downhole
equipment. Now that the campaign is moving through the
normal stages of project maturity, third party audits are more
efficient.

A good example of how the MOC process worked is on the

live well pressure deployment and undeployment procedure
for downhole tools. This procedure was extensively modified
after the first well. Results show a substantial improvement for
this phase of the operation.

Average BHA Handling Time by Well

Procedures

7
6
5
Hours

Procedures used for the Sharjah project have evolved

considerably since the first well. In fact, nearly all the
procedures in use now are different than the ones from the
original pre-spud version used on the first well. Some of the
procedures are substantially different; almost like night and
day. Does this imply that time was wasted writing and
reviewing the procedures for the first well? Not at all. An
important lesson is that the more time spent on procedures
before project start-up will ultimately pay huge dividends;
even when the procedures change later in the life of a project.

4
3
2
1
0
0

We ll No.

Another lesson learned about procedures is that once the

operations starts there must be an established process in place
for procedural change and modification. The Management of
Change (MOC) process used in the Sharjah project fulfills
several important criteria:
1.
2.
3.

It is streamlined; all procedural changes are reviewed

and approved at the well site.
It is rigorous from an HSE standpoint; as the risk
assessments are done as part of the MOC process.
It is signed off and documented with all changes
going into a master procedure listing.

The last item above is particularly important because the

operation is run 24-hours per day and 7-days per week. Two
12-hour shifts work each day and crews normally work 28-day
hitches. The MOC process is a great way to ensure all changes
have been communicated across all shifts and hitches. It is
also helpful for new personnel starting the project because the
MOC process answers the inevitable question: Why are we
doing it this way?

There have been many other procedural improvements that

allowed this reduction in deployment time. A few key
procedures included using wellbore gas to leak test the
deployment lubricator instead of hydro-testing; using predrilled mouseholes to reduce drilling assembly make-up and
handling time; and, using flowback lines to bleed off stored
pressure instead of a half-inch high pressure hose. Each of
these small changes used the MOC process resulting in a safer
more efficient pressure deployment process.
The single key lesson concerning procedures is that more is
better; more detail, more people reviewing the procedures, and
just having more procedures to start with. Getting all
procedures right the first time is not the goal. The goal is to
identify as many hazards as possible from the procedures. The
result of hazard mitigation is that everyone goes home the way
they arrived onto the location safely with all fingers and toes
in tact. The end results also include improved efficiency and
reduce non-productive time as shown below:
NPT Hours

800
Workdays per well
700

Saja a

7 00 .9

3 = 49 da y s

Saja a 15 = 38 da y s
Saja a 7 = 3 8 d ay s

600

Saja a 16 = 23 da y s
Saja a 4 = 2 7 d ay s

500
Total Hours

One benefit of spending pre-spud time for writing and

intensively reviewing procedures is that this process uncovers
many of the associated risks and hazards. It also serves as a
starting point for mitigating hazards. For this reason, the more
detailed the procedures the more risks and hazards that are
discovered. A best practice is to review procedures by as many
people as practical. This provides a certain level of external
assurance.

Saja a 32 = 22 da y s
Saja a 17 - 3 0 da y s

400

Saja a 42 = 20 da y s

300

3 09 .3

2 94 .4

200

2 16 .3

1 92 .9

1 66 .0

1 70 .9
1 54 .8

1 49 .0

1 36 .4

1 16 .3

100

7 8.8

8 7.7

7 3.0

5 1.8

3 7.6

0
Sajaa 3 Sajaa 15 Sajaa 7 Sajaa 16 Sajaa 4 Sajaa 32 Sajaa 17 Sajaa 42 Sajaa 5

NPT Hours

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Sajaa 1 Sajaa 14 Sajaa 21 Sajaa 15 Sajaa 26 Sajaa 19 Sajaa 07

SPE/IADC 92513

Extended Teams
One-year prior to start-up it was clear the Sharjah team needed
help. The project required more expertise than what was
available in Sharjah.
The first extended team was the BP coiled tubing drilling
operation in Alaska, USA. That team provided a ready source
of information about how to get started and helped Sharjah
focus on critical issues related to the reservoir, equipment and
personnel. Although the Alaska reservoir and drilling
operation were different than that in Sharjah, the lesson was
not to re-invent the wheel for the basic concept. The Alaska
team was also a key source of expertise for real time trouble
shooting of complex problems rig-site to rig-site; a best
practice especially for external assurance.
A BP subsurface team of engineers was assembled in the UK
to define the prize. The initial impression about this split-site
team set-up was lack of teamwork. Making use of modern
communication technology helps reduce inherent problems
caused by having split-site teams. A weekly video meeting
keeps the entire team on track with specific issues and
concerns such as candidate selection and choke points in the
hopper-of-opportunities. Drilling priorities are also established
during these joint meetings through a healthy challenge
process. Drilling decision trees are formulated for each
candidate and cover a large range of potential subsurface
issues. These trees create a real sense of joint-ownership and
alignment between the two teams. The trees also reduce
decision time delays associated with split work sites. Rate and
reserve development are always discussed.
Service providers are an important part of the extended team
concept and the key lesson is to get key technical staff as close
to the operation as possible. Workshop proximity related to
the rig site is of critical importantence when sophisticated
technologies are brought in from outside the country. Regular
meetings are held with all major service providers. The
location of these meetings is at the rig site. This provides
visibility of contractor management with their respective
staffs.
Subsurface
The single key subsurface lesson derived from this project is
that the technology works. UBCTD has delivered a substantial
rate and reserve volume from this tight (low permeability) and
pressure depleted gas reservoir. To date, the sustained
incremental production exceeds 140 million scf/d from 19
wells. This is a staggering volume of additional incremental
gas volume from what was previously considered a mature
reservoir. Reservoir access was achieved by drilling multiple
sidetrackes into relatively higher pressures away from the
original motherbore. After nearly 20 months of operations,
there is very little interference between individual laterals or
wells. This learning has allowed the campaign to continue into
the year 2005.

As expected, understanding the reservoir is essential. The

Sharjah downhole and surface surveillance data gathering
effort was completely overhauled prior to the campaign.
Reservoir pressure data was the largest gap. A key learning
was redesigned way of collecting pressure build-up data.
Another learning was determining how to land the drilling
assembly into the best quality formation and then keep it there
while drilling forward. As expected, staying in the best
porosity zones while drilling yields the best post well
performance results. Using exisiting stratigrphic biozone data
with real time rig site paleontology coupled with gammar ray
and rate of penetration data allows the team to keep the
drilling assembly in the zones of interest. Seismic information
is not able to predict minor faulting of fracturing. Since the
Sharjah project uses underbalanced drilling, occasional minor
faulting and fraturing are evident. The best indicator is while
drilling in a high porosity zone, a sudden gas rate and pressure
increase is recorded. Paleo samples and gamma-ray data are
eventually collected to confirm the fault or fracture area.
These data are later used for seismic imaging by the UK-based
subsurface team. The 3-D seismic interpretation continues to
be refined as drilling continues.
Underbalanced drilling in Sharjah has several direct and
indirect benefits. A direct benefit is it has prevented the need
for any remedial stimulation treatments usually required after
drilling. Wells are immediately placed on full flow production
to the Sajaa Gas Plant without any time delay for completion
work. This results in a significant cost savings and keeps
deferred production to an absolute minimum. An indirect
benefit of the flowing-to-gas-sales-market-while-drilling is
economic return. To date, 2-billion scf has been sold to the
market instead of flaring. In addition, over 15,000 barrels of
condensate has been recovered instead of flaring. While the
environmental impact with green house gas emissions has
been mitigated, the recovered hydrocarbon during forward
drilling operations has a positive impact on economic
performance.
Rate and reserve performance from this UBCTD campaign
has had a positive impact impact on the local economy of
Sharjah. The Government of Sharjah recently recognized BP
with their highest award for industrial excellence.
Acknowledgements
A special thank you to the Government of Sharjah and
particularly the Sharjah Petroleum Council for having the
patience to pursue this project. BP also appreciates their
permission to present this paper to the wider global audience.
The following teams are recognized:

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Sharjah Petroleum Council

BP in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Schlumberger
Baker Hughes Inteq
Baker Oil Tools
Halliburton Energy Services
Weatherford-GSI

SPE/IADC 92513

Blade Energy Partners

Al Farris Cranes
Emirates Industrial Gases
Maritaine Industrial Services

References
1.

2.

Suryanarayana, P.V. et al.: Basis of Design for

Coiled Tubing Underbalanced Through-Tubing Drilling in
the Sajaa Field, paper SPE/IADC 87146 presented at the
2004 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Dallas, Texas,
U.S.A., 24 March 2004.
Pruitt, R. et al.: Sajaa Underbalance Coiled Tubing
Drilling, Putting It All Together, paper SPE 89644
presented at the 2004 SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing
Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, U.S.A., 2324
March.

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