Sometimes just getting the right equipment on location can be a major challenge.

Drilling engineers would be hard pressed to design a more difficult problem than the northern Caspian Sea. Start with an extremely environmentally fragile offshore area, add some difficult surface challenges (10-ft water depths that fluctuate unpredictably, winter ice jams, temperatures that range from 100°F to -40°F), throw in some subsurface challenges (16,000-ft depth, high temperature, H2S potential, difficult geology), add a dash of the sort of pressure found in any high-cost development project (the need to accelerate production safely), and you have the recipe for a tough drilling task, no matter the location.
Placing the problem thousands of miles from the nearest service company equipment center and setting a tight deadline for delivery of specialized equipment really takes it up another notch. Halliburton Energy Services found this to be the case when faced with the need to provide a state-of-the-art coiled tubing (CT) system in the Kashagan field offshore Khazakhstan.

Kashagan discovery

The Kashagan structure was one of several promising prospects a consortium known as Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Co. (OKIOC) identified by seismic survey in the northern Caspian during 1993-1997. The group negotiated a production-sharing agreement (PSA) with the Kazakh government for exploration and production work in a 2,162-sq-mile (5,600-sq-km), 11-block area containing the Kashagan prospect. Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Co. NV (Agip KCO) has been sole operator of the North Caspian Sea PSA since February 2001. Partners include Eni (14.28%), BG Group, TotalFinaElf, Inpex Masela Ltd., ExxonMobil, Shell and Phillips.

In 2000, a discovery was made at the Kashagan East-1 exploration well in the Kashagan structure, 45 miles (70 km) southeast of Atyrau. A second exploration well, KW-1, drilled 25 miles (40 km) from the first in the west area of Kashagan, and an appraisal well, KE-2, confirmed the discovery. Additional appraisal wells, KE-3 through KE-5, and a 3-D seismic evaluation of the Kashagan structure followed. In June 2002 the consortium declared Kashagan field commercial with an estimated 7 billion to 9 billion bbl of producible oil. Production is expected to range between 5,000 b/d and 20,000 b/d of 43° oil per well. Industry consultants have reported the find may be the largest in 20 years, with some estimates as high as 50 billion bbl and 25 Tcf of producible reserves. First oil from the field is expected by 2005.

In October 2002, Agip KCO announced the successful completion of the first exploration well in the Kalamkas structure, adjacent to the Kashagan field. Drilled to a 7,740-ft (2,360-m) TD, the Kalamkas-1 well tested at 2,300 b/d of oil. The Kalamkas-1 was the first Caspian well to be drilled using a jackup, the Baku-based Qurtulus. Previous Kashagan wells were drilled with the world's only Arctic-class barge rig (Parker Rig 257) specially designed for shallow northeast Caspian waters. Agip KCO plans to continue exploration of other offshore structures within the North Caspian Sea PSA during 2003, including the Kashagan Southwest, Aktote and Kairan structures.

Agip KCO and Halliburton

In 1997, Halliburton joined the consortium to develop a plan to address the possible environmental and technical challenges that could arise during field development in the northern Caspian. In 2001 Agip KCO extended the contract with Halliburton to provide integrated drilling services for Kashagan field development. Under the contract extension, Halliburton will provide a range of services to Agip KCO, including well construction and data acquisition services, real-time data transmission, waste treatment, well-testing and completion services.

In 1991, Halliburton was the first international oil service company to establish itself in the Caspian region. The company employs more than 300 oil service professionals in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with the biggest operation being Kazakhstan. Halliburton serves several international and domestic oil companies with a team that incorporates qualified local resources and international oil service personnel.

The company's supply base in Aktau, Kazakhstan, allows it to offer a range of oil services to clients as far as 1,500 miles (2,414 km) from the base. Aktau was chosen as it is on the Caspian Sea below the freeze line and has good access to rail, sea and land transport for the Caspian region.

Logistical strategy: Sea, rail and air

In August, Halliburton learned that the client would need the services of a CT unit capable of handing the region's extreme conditions (temperature, depth, sour service) before the end of the year. While this would not present a problem in most regions, the logistical challenges in getting this equipment to the Caspian were significant.

"Arctic-conditions, high pressure, sour service, zero discharge operations...these equipment features in combination were not typical and would take some time to pull together," said Hampton Fowler, Halliburton's product manager for CT and nitrogen services. "Also, when we looked at normal routes of transport we found that getting the equipment as far as St. Petersburg, Russia, by sea would take 4 weeks, and it would still be 2,400 miles (3,800 km) from Atyrau. Fortunately, Halliburton has a customer service department which works with each business unit to implement supply chain process changes as needed. There are also four logistics mode managers (air, ocean, ground and direct sales) who work with the product service lines and customer service to develop global logistics strategies."

A plan was developed to move much of the equipment by air from Houston, Texas, to Kazakhstan. However, the tubing, two reels of 20,000 ft (6,100 m) of 13/4-in. heavy-wall CT weighing 40 tons apiece, would have to go by sea and rail. Work began immediately on manufacturing the CT to specifications. When ready, the CT reels - each 15- by 20-ft (5- by 6-m) package was 9 ft (3 m) wide - were shipped to St. Petersburg and loaded on a train for Atyrau. "The first 25 km (16 miles) by rail took 24 hours," said Fowler, "But it only took a total of 2 weeks for the reels to arrive safely in mid-November."

The rest of the equipment, three skids totaling about 85,000 lb, plus a generator and some additional CT, formed a payload of 120,000 lb. The plane used was a Russian Antonov 124, the world's largest production aircraft and a record-holder for commercial air cargo lifts. "The plane's payload maximum is about 90 tons. Halliburton's total was 60 tons, and there were some other items that brought the total up to about 82 tons," Fowler said. The plane took off from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and landed on schedule in Kazakhstan. Halliburton personnel, two crews of five plus some local advisers and two engineers, immediately began assembling and testing the equipment for service. "From the first client discussions to a service-ready system, the delivery took about 4 months," added Fowler.

Although the drilling and well servicing tasks facing the developers of Kashagan remain, this new addition to the service equipment capabilities in the region has enhanced the suite of tools available to them.