Slimhole Drilling Design and Operation in Indonesia: What Can We Learn?

Abstract

Starting at Kamojang Field, the application of slimhole well for geothermal exploration drilling in Indonesia was executed in the 1920s. This implementation was only considerably carried out around the 1920s-1990s. For the past 20 years, slimhole drilling has been infrequent to be executed in Indonesia. Lack of uncertainty and risk of exploration drilling concept becomes one of the reasons why it is infrequent. This void makes the drilling practices that have been performed before swallowed and not inherited to other successors. The best practices in slimhole drilling collected during the past period are lost, and it is like repeating everything from the beginning; thus, there will be a new learning curve. Learning and comprehending the slimhole practices from scratch again is also one of the reasons why slimhole has not yet been massively implemented in Indonesia. This paper collects and summarizes past slimhole drilling experiences to identify the trends and lessons learned from each drilling campaign in Indonesia. Also, this paper will provide recommendations of slimhole drilling methods concerning well design and rig type in the interest of future slimhole drilling campaigns.