Drilling practices of deepwater salt rock stratum in Gulf of Mexico

There are abundant oil and gas resources underwater in the deepwater areas outside the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. During the drilling and exploration, the technical obstacles encountered were completely different from those previously met. These production layers are covered by the widely distributed and tremendously thick salt beds, posing a great challenge to the common drilling and completion technologies. How to make use of advanced drilling tools, processes and drilling fluid management methods to settle the drilling difficulties due to the tremendously thick salt beds has been expounded, and how to meet the special economic and technical requirements of deepwater development while realizing the abovementioned goals has been discussed. The perspective exploration below the under-salt has been finished in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, it has entered the development and production stages.