INVESTIGATION OF DRILLING PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN AN OILFIELD DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA

In exploration and production of hydrocarbon, drilling process play an important role
to determine the most optimise economical cost for the whole project. The smoothness
of drilling process should be considered as the main factor for an economic project.
However, drilling of a well that covers 10 000 feet to 15 000 feet into the target is a
challenge that should be countered so that non-productive time could be minimized.
Thus, this project focus on investigation of major drilling problems occurred in oil
field development of Malaysia with the latest data provided (2000 – 2014). The most
common problems in Malaysia is pipe sticking especially in Sabah and Sarawak as
this region was made up of unconsolidated and soft formations. Meanwhile, most of
the deep water region in Malaysia encountered with shallow gas hazards including gas
hydrates especially at the sea floor or in shallow sediments. Both shallow water and
deep water region have different frequent drilling problems as well as different
solutions to solve the problems existed in each of the well. It is hoped that based on
the investigation finding, further research could be done to develop future technologies
to avoid drilling problems and thus an economical target could be achieved for the
betterment of oil and gas industry in the future.