Publications

The likelihood of very high geothermal gradients and the desire of exploration personnel to avoid oil-based drilling fluids on rank wildcats led PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia to the .use of temperature-stabilized water-based drilling fluids for their PSC Langsa offshore block. The additional constraint of having to drill through highly reactive Baong Formation narrowed the choice to a system that could stabilize non-dispersed brine/polymer fluids at high temperatures. This paper describes the usage of a novel high temperature drilling fluid system by PT CPI on exploratory wells in the Straits of Malacca.PT CPI was the first operating company to apply this technology in Indonesia.