Maersk jack-up rig drills Norway’s deepest ever well

Danish offshore driller Maersk Drilling has made history by drilling the deepest ever well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The company on Thursday said that using the jack-up rig Maersk Gallant had beaten the record by reaching a total depth of 5.491 meters while drilling the ultra high-pressure, high-temperature Solaris well for Total E&P.

“We have broken a number of records during the Solaris operation. But this achievement is second to none. There was a lot of cheering in the driller’s cabin that day,” says Sadi Ozturk, Assistant Rig Manager on Mærsk Gallant.

He continues: “The Solaris exploration well is one of the most challenging wells in the North Sea. All crew members are very excited about this achievement.”

In the Solaris project – together with the client Total E&P Norge – Maersk Drilling has taken a 15,000 psi rig and adapted the equipment and procedures in order to drill a reservoir section where predicted pore pressures are well in excess of 15,000 psi.

The demanding requirements of the customer have led to a wide variety of modifications on the rig, the driller added.

Apart from breaking the depth record, there were other achievements made, so Maersk Drilling has compiled a full list of the records set during the Solaris drilling. Here it is:

1: the largest and most complicated BOP stack rig up.

2: the biggest cement job (600 m3 cement slurry).

3: the heaviest casing run (1,2M lbs).

4: first time a 20K BOP has been nippled up (installed) and used to drill an ultra HPHT well.

At the moment, the crew members on Mærsk Gallant are in the process of plugging and abandoning the well and expect to start the rig move in the beginning of September.