PUMP & DUMP
Challenge:
When drilling riserless, drilling fluid is pumped without circulation and is deposited, or dumped, on the sea floor in what is coined “pump and dump” operations. Newpark has proficiency in designing and executing “Pump & Dump” operations, from the simplest to the most complex; designed to combat shallow water or gas flows, or to simply improve wellbore stability and allow a deeper set casing shoe prior to latching up the BOP's. Managing the logistics of building, transferring, storing and “blending on the fly” the extreme volumes of highly weighted kill mud or super-salt saturated brine requires planning, reliable equipment, experience and expertise. Newpark’s real-time riserless estimator guides project engineers through the process of in the early planning stages, long before the 36” jetting assembly clears the moon pool.
Solutions:
Salt-Saturated Pump and Dump in the Santos Basin, Brazil: In the deepwater environment of the Santos Basin, a salt formation lies between the carbonate/anhydrite caprock and the production formation. The salt formation is often drilled riserless using a pump and dump strategy where high mud weight fluid is cut back with seawater. Rather than cut back high-density fluid, the operator chose to cut back a super-saltsaturated brine.
