We are making fantastic progress at SAFOD and at a depth of 5200 ft the borehole is heading toward the San Andreas Fault inclined at an angle of 7 degrees from vertical.
Friday the 13th may be unlucky for some but at the SAFOD drill site we continue to make good progress, drilling at an average rate of 10 ft/hr with the directional mud motor.
After reaming the cored part of the well, the crew prepare the rig for directional drilling. From this point drilling will be focused to deviate SAFOD well towards the San Andreas Fault.
With a successful minifrac test today, we completed the logging, sampling and testing experiments for the vertical section of the SAFOD well . Drilling will resume tonight.
Today we continued with the downhole fluid sampling. After removing the Drill Stem Packer, now we are collecting fluid samples closer to openhole section of the hole as overnight fluid sampling shows low permeability in the granitic formation.
After successfully retrieving 26 ft of core from the SAFOD well, the Nabors crew prepare the rig for fluid sampling tests. Scientists started arriving at drillsite for fluid sampling, which is scheduled later tonight.
Today we successfully cored 5 ft of a granite section from the SAFOD well. A team from the Princeton University retrieved a sub-core of 3 inch length and stored it in a vacuum container for the microbiology study and the gas analysis.
Having drilled out a 30 ft rathole in the granite, coring is underway with a 12 foot-long core barrel and we anticipate receiving the first core early tomorrow morning.
Following a bond log to determine the coupling of the casing to the borehole wall with cement and a gyroscopic survey, we are now drilling through the cement in the casing shoe and a further 30 ft into the granite before fluid sampling and coring will begin.
The Blow-Out Preventer has been successfully installed and is currently being pressure tested. We anticipate that drilling will resume late tonight or early tomorrow morning.
After a successful cement job the crews are preparing the rig for coring and installing the Blow-Out Preventer that will be used to seal off the well if high pressure fluids are encountered during drilling.
6276 cubic feet of cement are currently being pumped into the SAFOD borehole to reinforce and secure the casing in place before coring and fluid sampling.
Today we successfully completed the final Schlumberger log for this section of the borehole, and hosted local Parkfield residents for a BBQ and tour of the SAFOD drill site.
Following a successful logging operation by GFZ, logging at SAFOD continues with Schlumberger collecting information on the physical properties of the rocks intersected by the borehole.
After reaching a target depth of 4740 ft for the next casing shoe, we are now conditioning the SAFOD borehole in preparation for logging to begin this evening.
Drilling continued non-stop today. Scores of scientists are arriving in Parkfield to launch into the first major well-logging effort here since the pilot hole two years ago.
The 13.375 inch casing arrived today in anticipation of reaching our next casing set point sometime tomorrow. Drilling continues at a steady rate of 15 feet per hour.
We've successfully directed the SAFOD well to the northeast and have resumed normal drilling. With both the drill pipe and the bit motor turning, we've been cruising along at about 20 feet per hour. Our current depth is 3,980 feet.
Overnight the angle was increased on the drilling motor in order to fight a stubborn well that wants to head south when we'd rather it go north. A new bit was also installed, and today we're making rapid progress.
Drilling of the sidetrack continues at an average rate of 5 to 10 feet per hour. Scientists on site are once again collecting a full suite of data, and we anticipate steady progress over the coming days.
Drilling resumed early this morning as the SAFOD main hole was successfully sidetracked. The trajectory of the well will be carefully monitored as we drill ahead.
Today drillers increased the bend angle on the directional drilling assembly in a continued attempt to initiate the sidetrack. At the end of the day we were drilling at a depth of 3269 ft and seeing increasing percentages of granite in the cuttings, indicating that we are making progress.
We are currently trying to sidetrack the SAFOD main hole a few hundred feet above its intersection with the pilot hole in order to direct it away from the pilot hole. However, convincing the bit to drill through granite instead of cement is not as easy as it sounds!
Drilling resumed today after the cement plug in the main hole had cured. We are currently attempting to sidetrack at the depth of about 3260 ft. The Pason mud loggers are watching the cuttings composition for an increase of granite, which will confirm a successful sidetrack.
Today addtional gyroscopic hole surveys were run in the pilot hole and the main hole. A cement plug was set between the bridge plug (3550 ft) and the kick off point (3175 ft) in preparation for sidetracking the main hole away from the pilot hole.
As it appears that the main hole intersected the pilot hole yesterday, we are backing up about 300 ft to deviate the main hole further away from the pilot hole. Work is continuing to investigate sources of error in the repeated gyroscopic hole surveys that indicated that the two holes were more than 20 ft apart.
After installing a directional mud motor onto the bottom-hole assembly, we've made progress today down to 3715 ft . As we pass through a shear zone, it seems that there is some fluid connection between the main hole and the pilot hole. Experts are trying to investigate the possible reason for this connection.
Following the gyroscopic survey yesterday, a directional mud motor has been deployed at a depth of 3460 ft to precisely control the path of the wellbore.In addtition, EarthScope visitors Greg van der Vink, Mike Jackson, James Fowler and Charna Meth visited the SAFOD site today.
As the crew was replacing the bottom hole assembly this morning a shackle was lost in the hole. A fishing trip was successful and we look forward to resuming normal drilling operations by nightfall.
A loss in circulation pressure has forced the drilling crew to trip out and we are currently waiting for a team to inspect the integrity of the drill collars.
We made slow progress today after spending the morning changing to a harder bit with a more optimal design for drilling through the granite. Current depth at 9pm July 5th is 2735 ft.
There was no rest for the weary on this Independence Day at the SAFOD drill site as drilling continued to nearly 2700 ft. Deviating very slightly to the east, the main hole passed about 1000 ft above the SAFOD Pilot Hole.
After a morning bit change, drilling into the basement granite continues at a steady rate, keeping the drillers and the scientists busy. We're now at a depth of 2,450 feet.
Drilling into the weathered granite continued today at a rate of about 10 ft per hour. At 7:00 pm Pacific Time we're at a depth of 2335 ft. We expect consistent progress through the night and into tomorrow.
Today drilling resumed after assembly of the Blow Out Preventer stack. We are now drilling with a 17.5 inch bit, and the rate of penetration has increased up to 20-25 ft/hr while drilling through weathered granite.
