Abstract

While a workover job was being carried out on PT-29 well of Pertamina UEP-I in Paluh Tabuhan North Sumatra, it blew out on September 1, 1981 and caught fire one day later. To kill the well, a relief well 365 m away from PT-29 was drilled. A second rig was located 350 m from PT-29, made ready and stood by to drill the econd relief well if the situation dictated so.

Average deviation of PT-29 was 1 degrees but the direction had never been surveyed. A CMD log was the only data available to interpretate the direction, although it was not very accurate.

Ultra Long Spacing Electric Log Survey (ULSEL) was used in drilling the relief well to detect the casing of PT-29, but the result was doubtful.

Dynamic killing could not be applied to kill PT-29. A controlled fracturing of the formation had to be induced to enable killing the well with 40 BPM injection rate. The desired kill rate of 40 BPM was achieved, the fire went out, but the well was still flowing gas and water. Finally, on December 29, PT-29 was successfully killed by capping.