SPE/IADC 21968 An Analysis of Gas 9 ) SPE/IADC Kick Removal From the Marine Riser OLA. Santos and H.R. de Paula Lima, Petrobrés, and A.T. Bourgoyne Jr, Louisiana Stat ‘SPE Members: 2 U. “oe paper mas slat for pebrtatn Coyne 191, SPEIADE Dring Caferon. paper was panne fr orvan sb 1961 SPEAADE Ding Catan tin recs 11-16 Mash by an SENADC Pe se communs eng ovow oman cetained an set sie ye met Ct, Peet en uc Se aes a eg en mts ene eae Sera x eens Sra Stason spend Ww wen lS Bot ene “the eat Sele say Ete cen re dhyana poe eres We Rater rng Os: FO BRE SSM 5 eam 9 Tle 73008 EON ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION this paper presents an analysis of he need for new hydrocarbon reserves tne Wise fe? GrcBeures Smposed on the | hae, boon, ocwating the oil industry to the, dynamic Pregiverter tine during the | Grill in very, 20ee oPeioat in such nazingnoval from a riser-diverter systen. | Circwessne)%, Xne use of floating rigs is gas removal from? formacion gas in tne | reguired so Chae, one ‘blowout preventers The occurrence Lo a drilling accident | are located ot the ‘Seabed with a marine risor may, leer blowout" that can cause | riser Linking Then op, the vessel. known 28 poe of the riser pipe in addition | typical equipere ‘configuration of the fo the inherent risk of fire. Gepwater drilling is shown in Figure 1. his analysis makes use of a Tf a gas kick is taken in a deepwatex pomorinit iiSiiiesr, “detailed in this | drilling operstion, oe recommended action munerical Simdels the pressure and flow | is to close the ee Tea immediately. This study, that modele the BretZiserdiverter | procedure is sustained, oy several field reson. tho simlator is based on the | case accidents ‘and by theoretical studies Syste Te ete a system of flow | reported in the, litera oe it of Rumer cet for a tworphese mixture moving | these studies’, + tot shown that if the caeet ME, ‘tho “cisersdriit pipe annulus. | gas is allows to flow in an uncontrolled upward An trounta for the adceleration of | manner through oe | Sivas, Tine, the The model accounts, ‘2 Jing ahead the two- | generated pressures, can toed 20 ‘equipment ERlee mixture and the sonic flow at the | failure fo cM ‘different moments. AS Eiverter Line exit. fiitstrated in Figure 2, in the beginning iP"the riser unloading process, high in this paper, the approach of | pressures (420 pei). axe ‘encountered which Pent aime Gtlniad chicougsyatielilower) | Se Yee cetaaM Co eeong (chai leak at the Sexton ‘of the marine riser to displace | diverter: ott aoa the riser internal Portions up and inside the riser and | pressure drope dramatically to 150 psi. tne ee UP om io extensively | This low | internal, | posse ee cause diverter og. °Y "Through a__ sensitivity | collapse, of the lowest joints of the ampere tae "the effects of pertinent | marine riser farameters ~ especially the circulation Pete. on the pressures generated inside ven following the appropriate Fat on ne Pee avetem during the gas | practice of clostag, ie BoP, some the riser divertor systeNyiscussed. Non | formation gas may cater marine riser. Circulation situations are also studied. This. can happen due to delay in closieg {he BoP after kick detection or due to the gas trapped in the subsea stack and - Sseased to the riser, after a successful Jac kick removal from the wellbore. In ee ere eioaree ee) chetond (ct) revere |e 72m Ctect eet arod rises and, as it Bebands, a large amount of drilling fluid 892 AN ANALYSIS’ [is expelled overboard. this ‘Sequence of events may result in explosion and fire in the drilling platform and/or riser collapse. The main scope of this study is to predict and analyze the pressure behavioe during the gas kick removal from’ the faring riser using a dynamic computer model that reflects more realistically the phenomenon. ASSUMPTIONS AND MODEL EQUATIONS Figure 3 shows the situation that might occur following the subsea stack closure. If the rig is equipped with s ine, the mud can be pumped through it to circulate the gas out of the rises. diverter ‘systen. ‘The prediction of tho Pressures generated inside the ‘systen Guring this circulation is the ‘aarm objective of the computer model. To facilitate the elaboration of this numerical simulator, the calculates Procedure has been broken down into, tee Submodels: a) the riser submodel for the upward vertical flow through the riser: Grill string annulus and b) the divertes submodel for ‘the horizontal flow inside the diverter line. Riser Submodel Initially, the riser submodel deals with a ‘two-phase gas-mud mixture “Chae flows upward displacing the unmixed ned gut of ‘the riser-diverter system. Aftes the gas reaches the diverter, only a twor phase mixture is considered by the’madel” To assist in the development of the riser ‘submodel, the following assumptions and considerations have been made: a) the Grilling fluid is incompressible” snd follows’ the power law rheological models b) the temperature is known and constant over the riser length; c). the gas solubility in the mud is negligible; °4) the vaimitial gas volume and’ gad concentration distribution in the riser ts user specified; e) the two-phase mistuse accounts | for liquid hold-up, gas Goncentration distribution "and two-phase flow friction factor; and f) tne acceleration pressure drop of the unmixed liguid flowing ahead the two-phase mixtore is considered, For the two-phase region, the Bressures are found by solving a systemcr five nonlinear equations that represonte the unsteady state flow of a tworphase mixture. The simulator makes use of che Eulerian approach for solving the ‘systes of equations. That approach consist, Gn dividing the marine riser into gells of equal lengths and in calculatieg the dependent flow variables (gas and Liguid velocities, gas density, ‘pressace and the liquid “hoid-up) at cere GAS KICK REMOVAL FROM THE MART, RISER SPE/TADC 21968 boundaries. The independent variables are the displacenent time and position along the flow path. “the lve governsng equations areas follows: 1) Liquid Material Balance Equation Bee ee (He vL Pius PAL AE eee 2) Gas Material Balance Equation Myo 7 Mop * [ (CR) «vg. Dglge - Cy gales J eal ae ey 3) Momentum Balance Equation Puc = Pac - (Ghyd * Seri de Ax (3) 4) Equation of state for the gas 0.361 . sc. op, Pgue we) 2 Pog 3), Equation that relates gas to liquid velocities Yguc “ + Ymde + vg +5) In ‘the above equations, the frictional Esgagre, mgdient | (Sees) ts calculaceg using the’ Beggs and “Bki11 correlatice: that includes a two-phase flow friction factor. The hydrostatic pressure gradient (Ghyd) is calculated by: Shya = 0-052 . (DH + Dg . (1 - Hy} (6) Ym = LHF vgs (yo... (7) The gas slip velocity is a function of the iworphase flow regime. For bubbie flaw {if > 9-85), the Harmarthy's equations” {f applied:oe * gq spe/TADC 21968 0. bg SANTOS, H.R. PAULA LIMA and A.‘ BOURCONNE Je- (Dy-Dg) +85] 0-25 piverter Submodel vey = 0.4778 « |e=2 A wOS (ay Di? wnile the interface mixture-unnixed md if in the riser, only liguid flows mud ugh the diverter Line. This situation vor slug flow (0.75 > H % 0-45), the | is modelled by Equation 01 WSS ‘the FOF efithand Wallis" equation? is used: ifaroatatic term (Ghya). In this case, Ax nyse *hiverter Link’ Yength. Atmospheric plosaure exists at diverter exit. (Dy-Pg)_ = DF}°-> vey * 1-637. K- z ceeee lB) After the gas reaches the surface, Dy only “the tworphase mixture flows inside where K is a coefficient that depends on Ther Sconduit geometry. In an annulus, it eee Spe. approximated by the following expression: K = 0,354 - 0.037.R + 0.235. R2 - 0,234. BP +++(20) where R ia the ratio of the inner to outer dianeters. yor annular flow (H < 0.10), the gas slip ‘velocity 8 zero. Transition zones SLi on these flow regimes were introduced betwornid ‘numerical discontinuity in the to tion. ‘the slip velocities in these sorts are calculeted through linear [nterpolation. the system of equations is solved at every cell’ boundary, from the bottom of She eiser up to the interface between the the Iie and’ the unmixed mid, to determine mixture oy; “Variables, especially the pressure. tho unmixed mud flowing ahead the two-phase “region “is modelled by te expression: Puc = Pde ~ (Shyd*eri*Gaccle A* (4) where the frictional pressure gradient mere, Sh’ caleulatgd using the power law (Strpgicai model. "The acceleration Shessure gradient (Gace) is given by? ay at = 0.0016 . Dy Gace 2) where v, (the mud velocity) is given by CRe"Sumiation of the velocities due to the Sas expansion in the two-phase region and 928 GPGieplacing liguid in the riser~ Seu pipe annulus. In Equation 12, Av) GShresents the difference between the mu represties in the current and the previous time steps. CheY alverter line and two conditions are possible at the diverter exit: a) during a peste period, critical or sonic flow ghowition may take place at that location. Spug'nplies that the pressure at diverter The (MQ greater than the atmospheric SxSscure; b) for the rest of the gas Preduction, subsonic condition prevails Rgain at diverter exit. ‘he calculation procedure for the diverter submodel is based on a steady Sete numerical simulator developed at fSaisiana State ‘University = and Experimentally tested for l-in., 2-in. and etn. diverter line. The model uses. as Ghput paranetere the gas and mud mass flow inges Phat, come from the riser to xeretiate the pressure drop inside the galeeter, “line using the Ducklez CbyeSlation® “for horizontal two-phase oe. The two-phase critical flow is eueSiied by an’ equation presented by Jallis?. additional information about the $30 simulator can be found in References tT, 8 and 9. CALCULATION PROCEDURE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM whe two submodels were coupled to produce a global algorithm for computing Bie flow variables at any point of the Tiser-diverter system. Basically, | £¢ rissbws the stepwise procedure described below: 1) Define the _mud/nixture interface poeition and determine the time step size By dividing the cell length by the gas Py ty wat. mixture leading edge YElcalaved in the previous time step. This Sfproach avoids ‘the use of a front aeerKing technique since the mixture eeding edge always coincides with a cell boundary. 2) Guess a bottom riser pressure and set 2he houndary conditions at the BOP: the Ges velocity is zero, the liguid velocity 93° given by the displacing flow rate and the Liquid hold-up is equal to 1. 3) Use the riser submodel and solve the 2istem of equations at every cell boundary gyeromine bottom of the riser to the frotare leading edge. Calculate the Pressure drops for the md flowing in the Pimainder of the riser and diverter line. 985