drilled to 2850 only- industry answer , page-5

Hi there and good evening!

Thank you very much sofiya for the input!

Do I get this right - and could you ask back maybe - that this explaination assumes that they did not set any casing string till 2850m, instead they are "just" drilling a whole in the dirt down till TD?

So far I always thought they drill a couple of hundred metres than case, than drill, than case etc., as was done while drilling Mbawa-I (it was in the announcements).

That way losing anything into the structure in the upper parts should be no problem as soon as they have set the casing.

On the other side: Is casing no longer possible as soon as there is pressure in the wellbore so that they have to work with an increasing mud column above the drill head (which than can be lost into the structure)? But in this case they would probably have still pressure from the upper parts of the structure so there should be "something" to "close" the connection into the porosity of the reef and I can not imagine that they drilled from the top of the reef at 1500m till 2850m without stabilizing the walls of the wellbore - just thinking...

Would be nice if somebody could bring some light into this.

Cheers and have a good evening,
Neo