Dual Salt Polyamine Water-Based Mud First Application Fostering Indonesia's National Oil and Gas Company Newcomer Offshore Rig in Indonesia

Abstract TA platform, located in Offshore Southeast Sumatera field, is one of hydrocarbon producing areas from the Gita Reservoir situated in this field which is known for its substantial oil and gas reserves. Because of the indication of gas to support oil wells shortage, drives all the development areas and wells producing gas to maintain gas needs as fuel to sustain its oil wells’ production. This operation presents various challenges due to variable pressure regimes of high gas flowrate and the need of an effective wellbore stability to stabilize the reactive shale in Air Benakat and Gumai Formation. The application of innovative drilling fluids, such as dual salt polyamine water-based mud, can be one of the solutions. Other invisible challenge was that this first application will be executed on a newcomer rig with no experience in Indonesian water. Dual salt polyamine water-based mud (WBM) is an advanced drilling fluid formulation to intensify performance in complex yet challenging drilling environments, especially in offshore where logistic is a big matter. This system combines two salts in the formulation, namely potassium chloride and sodium chloride, with polyamines introduced to create an output of the mud offering an excellent rheological property which improves fluid loss control, enhances stability, and making it particularly suitable for formations. An extensive laboratory study prior to application of this dual salt polyamine WBM on this area was done to evaluate the enhancing mud properties with this dual salt polyamine WBM system is either giving some improvement in hole cleaning, reducing fluid loss, and better wellbore stability compared to conventional mud system. As a result, we successfully prove that this dual salt polyamine WBM is a viable alternative that provides significant operational benefits and promoting sustainable practices in drilling operation especially in offshore area in Indonesia.