Anchor Project: Development Planning Approach for Drilling, Completion, and Intervention on 20K Wells

The Anchor development plan consists of seven wells tied back to the floating production unit (FPU) from two drill centers. The Wilcox reservoir is at depths of 30,000 - 34,000 ft. true vertical depth (TVD) with initial bottom hole pressure from 23,000 - 27,000 psi. This paper will outline how the Anchor project prepared for a development well campaign using both a 15,000 (15k) psi drillship and new build 20,000 (20k) psi drillship and the approach to develop and lock down the well design early to enable development drilling. During early project planning, the wells team prepared detailed statement of requirements (SORs) to enable contractors to provide engineered equipment solutions to enable drilling of these deep high-pressure wells at the edge of the subsea extended reach envelope. This early phase work provided the lead time for contractors to qualify and develop new equipment that could be manufactured in time to enable a pre-drill campaign with a 15k drillship as well as prepare for the 20K subsea completion execution. An early focus on drilling equipment selection and qualification per the Bureau of Safety and Environmental (BSEE) high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) requirements allowed for the equipment to be manufactured and delivered in time to intersect a pre-drill opportunity on an existing 15k drillship in the fleet. This enabled the first two Anchor development wells to be drilled with the 15k psi drillship ahead of the delivery of the 20k psi drillship and FPU. With the arrival of the 20k psi Deepwater Titan drillship, the Anchor Completion and Subsea Well Intervention team enabled the execution of Chevron’s first 20K completion. Numerous serial number one components were installed in the drilling of the first Anchor development well, and even more will be installed in its completion. The development and qualification of this new 20K wells technology has pushed both Chevron and the industry to new frontiers that were once unreachable and will enable additional 20K projects in the future. For clarity, the following terms are used throughout this paper. High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) refers to equipment rated to pressures greater than 15,000 psi and/or temperatures equal to or greater than 350°F. Anchor is a high pressure project under the HPHT category. 20K refers to the Anchor project’s technology development and qualification program.