Addax Petroleum (fka AXC)

[nordicroots]

I think you're right on target regarding the importance of waiting on cement to "mature" - that is something really important in well control.

And I think the points kownski makes about the placement of plugs as he describes is important as it helps to prevent communication between zones and this is something designed to help maintain well control (i.e. avoid subsurface blow out).

Most on this board may recall the BP Horizon incident that occurred in the US Gulf of Mexico back in 2010. Even though that was offshore and we are talking about an onshore well here, keep in mind the principles of well control are basically the same. There are some good videos developed as part of the BP Horizon investigation to recap some of the issues they encountered. And for those who are new to drilling, I think they provide some useful visual animations to help graphically illustrate all the moving parts and how they work together. If you have a few minutes to invest watching it, here is a link to a BP video put out by BP on that incident

Farrell90, to reinforce the point you made, I'll mention that for those that read the report on the Horizon incident many will recall that one of the issues they had involved waiting on the cement plug. Here is a link to a copy of the BP report (see the part discussing cement job and the effectiveness of the annulus cement barrier beginning on page 54 http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/sustainability/issue-reports/Deepwater_Horizon_Accident_Investigation_Report.pdf

For anyone wishing to take a look at some very basic animations to help envision the drilling process presented in a fairly basic overview manner I suggest this YouTube video (as you watch this keep in mind the point The Doctor made about multiple prospective targets for our block)