A Case Study of Real Time Follow-up of Pore Pressure and Fracturing Pressure, in Wildcat Exploration Well, Leading to Architecture Lightening

In new exploration area, it is often difficult to use relevant or reliable offset well dataset for pore pressure and fracture pressure model calibration. For an ultra-deep water well drilled recently by Total E&P, initial pressure models, in preparation of drilling operations, have been built using regional and worldwide databases together with, for the pore pressure, a pseudo-sonic derived from processed seismic velocity. To anticipate well events such as fluid gain or losses, a close pore pressure and fracture pressure follow-up has been set up at the wellsite and in the affiliate, together with a live support from headquarter specialists through the real-time support centre.