Openhole completions with prepacked screens are increasingly the completion of choice for horizontal wells requiring sand control. For maximum productivity from these wells, preventing mud damage to the formation and the screens or removing it before bringing the well onto production is vital. A common industry approach to this problem is to displace the drilling mud to an aqueous clear fluid before production, typically followed by a breaker fluid. This paper details an alternative approach : bringing the well on without cleanup. The paper outlines the decision-making process, shows how the drill-in-fluid and cleanup operations are designed, explains how laboratory testing can be used to support the design philosophy, and highlights that quality control of the mud system while drilling is critical to the success of such a well. Case histories in two very different reservoirs are presented that illustrate the success of this approach.