Hole Cleaning Performance of Light-Weight Drilling Fluids During Horizontal Underbalanced Drilling

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.E. Ozbayoglu ◽  
A. Saasen ◽  
M. Sorgun ◽  
K. Svanes
Keyword(s):  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Performance ◽  
Underbalanced Drilling

Full Scale Flow Loop Experiments of Hole Cleaning Performances of Drilling Fluids

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan David Ytrehus ◽  
Ali Taghipour ◽  
Sneha Sayindla ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Benjamin Werner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Test Section ◽  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Flow Loop ◽  
Base Oil ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Performance ◽  
Water Based ◽  
Fluid Properties ◽  
Drilling Cost

One important requirement for a drilling fluid is the ability to transport the cuttings out of the borehole. Improved hole cleaning is a key to solve several challenges in the drilling industry and will allow both longer wells and improved quality of well construction. It has been observed, however, that drilling fluids with similar properties according to the API standard can have significantly different behavior with respect to hole cleaning performance. The reasons for this are not fully understood. This paper presents results from flow loop laboratory tests without and with injected cuttings size particles using a base oil and a commercial oil based drilling fluid. The results demonstrate the importance of the rheological properties of the fluids for the hole cleaning performance. A thorough investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the fluids was performed with a Fann viscometer and a Paar-Physica rheometer, and was used to interpret the results from the flow loop experiments. Improved understanding of the fluid properties relevant to hole cleaning performance will help develop better models of wellbore hydraulics used in planning of well operations. Eventually this may lead to higher ROP with water based drilling fluids as obtained with oil based drilling fluids. This may ease cuttings handling in many operations and thereby significantly reduce the drilling cost using (normally) more environmentally friendly fluids. The experiments have been conducted as part of an industry-sponsored research project where understanding the hole cleaning performance of various oil and water based drilling fluids is the aim. The experiments have been performed under realistic conditions. The flow loop includes a 10 meter long test section with 2″ OD freely rotating drillstring inside a 4″ ID wellbore made of concrete. Sand particles were injected while circulating the drilling fluid through the test section in horizontal position.

scholarly journals Hole-cleaning performance comparison of oil-based and water-based drilling fluids

2017 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sneha Sayindla ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Jan David Ytrehus ◽  
Arild Saasen
Keyword(s):  
Performance Comparison ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Performance ◽  
Water Based

Experimental Study of Cuttings Transport Efficiency of Water Based Drilling Fluids

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan David Ytrehus ◽  
Ali Taghipour ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Benjamin Werner ◽  
Nils Opedal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Test Section ◽  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Flow Loop ◽  
Cuttings Transport ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Performance ◽  
Water Based ◽  
Fluid Properties ◽  
Drilling Cost

One important requirement for a drilling fluid is the ability to transport the cuttings out of the borehole. Improved hole cleaning is a key to solve several challenges in the drilling industry and will allow both longer wells and improved quality of well construction. It has been observed, however, that drilling fluids with similar properties according to the API standard can have significantly different behavior with respect to hole cleaning performance. The reasons for this are not fully understood. This paper presents results from laboratory tests where water based drilling fluids with similar rheological properties according to API measurements have been tested for their hole cleaning capabilities in a full scale flow loop. Thorough investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the fluids were performed with, among other instruments, a Paar-Physica rheometer. Improved understanding of the fluid properties relevant to hole cleaning performance will help develop better models of wellbore hydraulics used in planning of well operations. Eventually this may lead to higher ROP with water based drilling fluids as obtained with oil based drilling fluids. This may ease cuttings handling in many operations and thereby significantly reduce the drilling cost using (normally) more environmentally friendly fluids. The experiments have been conducted as part of an industry-sponsored research project where understanding the hole cleaning performance of various oil and water based drilling fluids is the aim. The experiments have been performed under realistic conditions. The flow loop includes a 12 meter long test section with 2″ OD freely rotating drillstring inside a 4″ ID wellbore made of concrete. Sand particles were injected while circulating the drilling fluid through the test section in horizontal position.

Hole Cleaning Performance of Gasified Drilling Fluids in Horizontal Well Sections

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Evren Ozbayoglu ◽  
Reza Ettehadi Osgouei ◽  
Murat Ahmet Ozbayoglu ◽  
Ertan Yuksel
Keyword(s):  
Horizontal Well ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Cleaning Performance

A Novel Approach for Underbalanced Well Completions in Depleted and Highly Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Khalid ◽  
Qasim Ashraf ◽  
Khurram Luqman ◽  
Ayoub Hadj-Moussa ◽  
Nasir Hamim
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Control Device ◽  
No Production ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Underbalanced Drilling ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Fractured Carbonate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Multiphase Fluid

Abstract A prime objective of oil and gas operators is to maximize reservoir productivity and increase the ultimate recovery from all depleting fields. Underbalanced drilling is one such enabling technology that has been adopted world wide to achieve a number of objectives in maximizing the reservoir potential. Chief among these objectives are to reduce formation invasion damage, identify sweet spots in the reservoir, and reduce well costs. Underblanaced operations however introduces more complexity into the successful drilling and completion of a candidate well. An improperly executed underbalanced operation can result in having less productivity in contrast to a conventionally drilled and completed well. Pakistan a country currently highly dependent on foreign hydrocarbon fuels, once had total independence in at least natural gas. The southern part of Pakistan is known for its rich hydrocarbon potential, but most fields were discovered decades ago and have depleted at a rapid pace. Numerous fields in the vicinity have depleted to an extent that the reservoir pressure has reduced to a mere 3.9 PPG in EMW. In the most recently drilled well the pressure depletion caused massive circulation losses while drilling the reservoir formation and the operator had resorted to pumping of heavy LCM pills and blind drilling to complete the section. After completing the well conventionally the operator made multiple attempts to kick off the well but observed no production. Subsequently multiple acid stimulation jobs were performed to reduce the formation damage, but all efforts were in vain. It was evaluated that the heavy LCM and drilled cuttings had bridged off and choked the reservoir skin completely from which there was no return. Ultimately the well had to be plugged and abandoned. In relatively higher pressured and non-fractured formations the option exists to drill a well in underbalanced mode and trip the running string by balancing the well with a light weight fluid. For the subject case however, this option was impossible due to the highly fractured nature of the formation. A plan was devised to include a downhole casing isolation valve in the last casing string and drill the well with an extremely light weight multiphase fluid. A rotating control device would be used to strip the running string in and out of the well. The completion packer was also to be stripped into a live well and set in place without the need of ever killing or balancing the well. By executing the mentioned methodology, the operator was able to drill and complete a well all the while keeping the reservoir formation in a virgin state. The paper discusses the planning, design, execution, and lessons learnt in underbalanced drilling and completion operations in the subject field.

Development of Digital Twins for Drilling Fluids: Local Velocities for Hole Cleaning and Rheology Monitoring

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Gharib Shirangi ◽  
Roger Aragall ◽  
Reza Ettehadi ◽  
Roland May ◽  
Edward Furlong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Rheological Properties ◽  
Drilling Fluid ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Drilling Fluids ◽  
Hole Cleaning ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Drilling Operations ◽  
Cuttings Bed

Abstract In this work, we present our advances to develop and apply digital twins for drilling fluids and associated wellbore phenomena during drilling operations. A drilling fluid digital twin is a series of interconnected models that incorporate the learning from the past historical data in a wide range of operational settings to determine the fluids properties in realtime operations. From several drilling fluid functionalities and operational parameters, we describe advancements to improve hole cleaning predictions and high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) rheological properties monitoring. In the hole cleaning application, we consider the Clark and Bickham (1994) approach which requires the prediction of the local fluid velocity above the cuttings bed as a function of operating conditions. We develop accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to capture the effects of rotation, eccentricity and bed height on local fluid velocities above cuttings bed. We then run 55,000 CFD simulations for a wide range of operational settings to generate training data for machine learning. For rheology monitoring, thousands of lab experiment records are collected as training data for machine learning. In this case, the HPHT rheological properties are determined based on rheological measurement in the American Petroleum Institute (API) condition together with the fluid type and composition data. We compare the results of application of several machine learning algorithms to represent CFD simulations (for hole cleaning application) and lab experiments (for monitoring HPHT rheological properties). Rotating cross-validation method is applied to ensure accurate and robust results. In both cases, models from the Gradient Boosting and the Artificial Neural Network algorithms provided the highest accuracy (about 0.95 in terms of R-squared) for test datasets. With developments presented in this paper, the hole cleaning calculations can be performed more accurately in real-time, and the HPHT rheological properties of drilling fluids can be estimated at the rigsite before performing the lab experiments. These contributions advance digital transformation of drilling operations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document