A drilling technique whereby gases (typically compressed air or nitrogen) are used to cool the drill bit and

lift cuttings out of the wellbore, instead of the more conventional use of liquids. The advantages of air drilling are that it is usually much faster than drilling with liquids and it may eliminate lost circulation problems. The disadvantages are the inability to control the influx of formation fluid into the wellbore and the destabilization of the borehole wall in the absence of the wellbore pressure typically provided by liquids.

Air drilling:

Mist drilling:

A variation of air drilling in which a small amount of water trickles (tynn liten strm) into the wellbore from exposed formations and is carried out of the wellbore by the compressed air used for air drilling. The onset of mist drilling often signals the impending end of practical air drilling, at which point the water inflow becomes too great for the compressed air to remove from the wellbore, or the produced water (usually salty) becomes a disposal problem.

Foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by
forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media. In general, gas is present in large amount so it will be divided in polydisperse gas bubbles separated by liquid regions which may form films, thinner and thinner when the liquid phase is drained out of the system films.[1]