2012
Field Trip
January Issue 61
15
Alam El -Shawish Concession
Drilling the high potentials of the desert
W
hen it comes to drilling, the company has had an outstanding record of drilling achievements over a short period of time. “We succeeded to drill a total of 25 wells, mostly are oil producing ones,” said Al-Kahlawy. The company’s drilling fleet consists of two rigs; the ST-11 and the NS-3. “The ST-11 is a land rig that is currently drilling the NHG-2/1 well, while the Nile Star rig (NS-3) is a work-over rig that is performing operations at the HG-34/5 well.”
Asked about the average cost of drilling one well, the Field Manager stated that the average cost revolves around $4 million per well. “The rig is classified as super land rig, 2000 HP, which has a drilling capacity of up to 22,000 feet-depth,” said Eng. Ibrahim Attia, Rig Supervisor. “The rig has already been used to drill a 17,000 feet-deep well.” Eng. Ahmed El-Hadary clarified that the rig was first rented three years ago and the rig contract was recently extended to a further six months. The
daily renting rate of the Sino Tharwa-11 rig counts for 21,800 Egyptian Pounds. “Since the rental of this land rig, a total of 17 exploratory wells were drilled by the ST-11,” he added. “All these wells are oil producing, with the exception of three wells that were dry hole.” The drilling engineer further highlighted that drilling operations are held under the concept of “Wild Cat”. “You do not know what exactly you will be encountering or the challenges you will be facing while drilling, that
is the reason why high precautions
have always been taken to prevent any kind of problems.”
The key factors of drilling are how
to handle a problem, ensure safety of the staff, save time and money.
Sharing the same comments as of
the production team, the drilling engineers emphasized lack of communications and prepared roads as the problems they suffer from the most.