This edition highlights three offshore technology papers that address a common industry theme: how targeted engineering solutions can reduce uncertainty, shorten operations, and make technically constrained offshore well activities more executable.
The papers cover three distinct offshore well challenges—re-entry and reabandonment, deepwater completion efficiency, and shallow-water drilling execution—yet each shows how careful integration of equipment design, planning, and operational risk management can unlock value in technically constrained environments.
Paper SPE 225865 presents a novel offshore vertical re-entry system for permanently abandoned subsea wells where no visible casing or conductor stump remains above the seabed. This situation is increasingly relevant as operators revisit legacy wells for verification, remediation, or reabandonment, particularly when historic abandonment records or seabed conditions create uncertainty. By combining advanced well-location methods with a recoverable abandonment frame, the system enables controlled vertical access to the original wellbore and supports a more-repeatable approach to subsea re-entry. Although the paper is especially relevant to carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, where legacy well integrity can be critical to storage assurance, the technology is not limited to CCS. It is equally applicable to conventional offshore wells that require reabandonment.
Paper OTC 36363 describes the successful deployment of a metal expandable packer as an openhole toe-isolation barrier in a deepwater high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) Gulf of Mexico well drilled to approximately 30,000 ft true vertical depth. Toe isolation is a critical enabler for efficient lower-completion installation and subsequent well-construction activities, but conventional balanced cement plugs can consume significant rig time and introduce execution uncertainty in deepwater HP/HT conditions. The expandable metal packer provided a practical alternative, reducing toe-isolation time from approximately 80 to 52.5 hours and saving more than $1 million. The field trial demonstrated that expandable metal-sealing technology can deliver reliable isolation, improve operational flexibility, and reduce rig exposure without relying solely on cement placement in a demanding openhole environment.
Paper SPE 231686 presents the successful drilling of a challenging pre-salt exploration well in 285 m of water using a dynamically positioned (DP) rig. While DP rigs are less common in shallow water than moored units, this approach was required because environmental restrictions prevented mooring, alternative well locations were technically unsuitable, and no high-specification moored rig was available. The case illustrates that shallow water does not necessarily mean low complexity. DP operations in this setting required close management of riser, wellhead, emergency-disconnect, and environmental-limit risks. The project used real-time riser analysis, predictive metocean-based nonproductive-time modeling, enhanced wellhead design, and optimized emergency-disconnect procedures to safely manage a narrow operating envelope.
Summarized Papers in This October 2026 Issue
SPE 225865 Approach Enables Vertical Well Re-Entry for Safe and Efficient Legacy-Well Reabandonment by Benjamin Cannell, SPE, Aquaterra Energy
OTC 36363 Openhole Toe Isolation in HP/HT Well With Expandable Packer Saves Days of Rig Time by Yosafat Esquitin, SPE, and Nolan Sperle, SPE, Welltec, and Kai Sun, Chevron, et al.
SPE 231686 Dynamically Positioned Rig Used for Shallow-Water Drilling Operations by Artur Schlinker, SPE, Acácio S. do Amaral, and Magno A. Silva, Petrobras, et al.
Recommended Additional Reading
OTC 37006 Tubing-Hanger Orientation Spool—An Innovative Method for Aligning the Tubing Hanger in Subsea Wellhead by G. Jose, OneSubsea, et al.
SPE 233325 Well-Control-Driven Completion Installation in Deepwater Multizone Intelligent Gas Wells: Case of the Sakarya Gas Field by B. Coskun, Turkish Petroleum, et al.
SPE 226699 Choose a Different Path: The Application of Multiple Activation Circulation Subs in Split Flow Mode To Assist With Hole Cleaning by Increasing Total Flow Rate in the Mariner Field, North Sea, United Kingdom by J.J. Steele, DSI, et al.