CHAPTER-6

FISHING OPERATIONS

The term fishing applies to all operations concerned with the

retrieving of equipment or other objects from the hole. Portions of the

drill string, bit, drill string accessories, and inadvertently dropped hand

tools are typical items which may require fishing. The most common

fishing job is that recovering of a portion of the drill string left in the

hole due to either its failing or becoming stuck.

The best fishing technique is elimination of the cause. Periodic

equipment inspections minimize drill string failures by detecting faulty

joints before they fail. The alertness of the drilling crews in detecting

crooked joints, in cleaning and lubricating tool joint threads properly, and

in exercising good house keeping and safety precautions, fishing jobs do

occur frequently. Most of them are relatively simple, and the only lost is

the time required to run the fishing tool and retrieve the fish. A few

such jobs however, become extremely costly and time consuming and even

result in the loss of the hole.

Stuck Pipe

Many fishing jobs start with the drill pipe becoming stuck during a

trip. Some of the causes of stuck pipe are:

-Foreign objects or junk in the hole

-Key-seating

-Sloughing formations

-Bit and drill collar balling

-Pressure differential sticking

-Cuttings settling above the bit or drill collars

Experimental work verified by field observations has shown that

the pressure differential between the mud column and a permeable

formation exerts a considerable force against a drill pipe and literally it

glues it to the wall. The force necessary to free the pipe varies directly

with the pressure differential and also increases with time because of

mud cake build-up.

If the driller is unable to free the stuck pipe, other remedial

measures must be applied. These are facilitated by knowledge of the

depth at which the pipe is stuck. This depth is also referred to as the

free point. It may be calculated from relatively simple measurements

taken on the rig floor. The following procedure is carried out:

-An upward force F1 is applied to the pipe. This must be greater than the

total pipe weight, to insure that the entire string is in tension.

-A reference point is marked on the pipe at the surface- normally this is

done at the top of the rotary table.

-A larger upward force F2 is applied causing the free portion of the drill

string to stretch by an amount e. The stretch is measured as the

movement of the reference point in (2) F2 is of course limited by the

yield strength (elastic limit) of the pipe.

A very precise definition of the free point may be obtained with

electromagnetic devices that are available from various service

companies. These consist, essentially, of two electromagnets connected

with a telescopic joint. These are run into the hole on an electric cable

and lowered to some starting depth. The electric current is then turned

on, causing the two magnets to attach themselves to the inside wall of

the pipe. A pull is exerted at the surface, causing the pipe above the

stuck point to stretch. If the magnets are above the stuck point, the

distance between them is elongated. This elongation is measured by a

sensitive electronic strain gauge between the magnets and transmitted to

the surface for measurement. If the magnets are below the stuck point,

no stretch occurs between them. A few rapid settings quickly and

accurately define the free point.

 A knowledge of the free point is useful in problems other than

those arising from stuck drill pipe. The recovery of casing from dry and

abandoned wells is another common application. The use of measuring

instrument is recommended whenever accurate free point definition is

necessary.

Once the point at which the drill pipe is frozen is known, various

procedures are followed. A few barrels of oil circulated to a point

opposite the stuck point will often lubricate the area sufficiently to work

the pipe free. The technique of placing a quantity of fluid at some desired

position in the hole is called spotting. The success of this approach

depends largely on the cause of the trouble.

Filling that section of the hole with oil prevents the hydration of

heaving shales. It has also been shown that the preferential wetting of

the pipe by oil is a great aid in minimizing pressure differential sticking.

Proper wetting agents added to the oil improve its steel wetting ability

and further aid in reducing pressure differential sticking. In addition, the

spot of general value in reducing friction over the entire section covers

the lubricating action of the oil.

If attempts to free the pipe fail, the string is unscrewed as the

near the stuck point as possible, so that fishing operations can begin. This

is generally accomplished by bump-shooting the pipe at the first tool joint

above the free point. Left-hand torque is applied to the string at the

surface, and a small powder charge is electrically exploded in the desired

tool joint. Some types of charges do not require the application of torque.

The explosion produces much the same effect as a hammer blow and

causes the joint to unscrew at the proper point. The freed portion is then

removed and the fishing begins in earnest.

Fishing tools

A broad classification of fishing tools divides them into two

groups: (1) those used to recover tubular products and (2) those used to

recover miscellaneous equipment. There are three basic types of fishing

tools used in recovering tubular products: inside fishing tools, outside

fishing tools, and hydraulic and impact tools.

Inside Fishing Tools:

Most fishing tools designed to catch the tubular fish from the

inside are variations of the spear and tap. The basic elements of the

spear type of fishing tool consist of a tapered interior along which one or

more slips are free to move. A slip is one of the most common devices

found in oilfield equipment. It is comprised essentially of two parts: (a)

slip segment proper, which is a tapered section with serrated edges for

engaging purposes ,and (b) a tapered seat on which part (a) is free to

move. The serrated edges of slip segment should be as hard as or harder

than the equipment engaged. Equipment is free to move in one direction

through the slips, but when movement is in the direction of increasing

thickness of part (b) , the slip segment will move downward until the

serrated edges grip the equipment, preventing fruther movement.

Additional downward pull will only increase the effectiveness of the grip

of the slips. The tool can move frely inside the fish, but when the tool is

removed from the fish, the slips move downward on the tapered interior,

coming into contract with the inner wall of the fish. The thickness of the

tapered part of the tool is such that the slips will not allow the tool to be

removed from the fish with continued upward pull.

One of the first spears to be used in recovering stuck pipe is

non-releasing spear. The use of this equipment is limited because of its

non-releasing feature. Its principal advantage is its low cost, although

this is of very little advantage in most rotary drilling operations, where

the principal requirement is fast and efficient removal of the fish. Later,

the original spear was developed and a new spear is introduced into the

industry. A releasing mechanism is included in this new spear, thus

overcoming one of the basic disadvantages of the original spear.

A tap is essentially a tapered tool with case-hardened threads. It

is used primarily to engage a fish when the uppermost part of the fish

consists of an inside-threaded element. The taper of the tool permits the

easier entry into the fish and also permits a positive engagement with the

threads of the fish. The principal disadvantage of this tool is that it is

non-releasable. In the event the tap becomes attached to the fish and

the fish cannot be recovered, the additional problems of major

importance are created unless methods are available to release the tap

from the pipe being used in the recovery operations. Safety joints are

one means of achieving this objective.

Outside Fishing Tools

Outside fishing tools must pass over the outside of the fish

before attaching themselves. A very simple outside fishing tool is a die

collar, this tool is basically a short length of tubular material on the

inside of which threads have been cut. The die collar is used to recover

tubular material which has male threads on the uppermost portion. Once

the die collar has engaged the fish, it can not be released.

The overshot is another early style of fishing tool. It consists of

a tapered bowl on which slips are free to move up and down, and the

entire assembly is designed to fit over the upper segment of the fish.

The inside tapper of the bowel is designed to permit the overshot to drop

down over the fish, but as the overshot is retracted, the slips move on

the tapered bowl to engage the exterior of ther fish. The design of the

original overshots were such that they were also non-releasable, but a
releasing method has been developed whereby the overshot can be

released by rotation, which causes retraction of the tapered bowl with

subsequent freeing of the slips. An additional feature that increases the

effectiveness of an overshot is provision for circulating. A releasing,

circulating overshot is one of the tools most commonly used in the

recovery of tubular products, especially drill pipe.

Hydraulic and Impact Tools

When additional pull is desired which exceeds the capacity of

the derrick or drilling line, a hydraulic pulling tool can be used. The

hydraulic pulling tool is essentially a hydraulic jack with means for

attaching to the fish and slips to engage tha casing. By using a series of

power pistons, force advantages as large as 100 to 1 are possible. This

force is transmitted to the casing instead of the derrick, and, in general,

much greater forces can be applied to the stuck pipe. The hydraulic

pulling tool has good application in deep drilling, where much of the

surface pull may be dissipated by the drag caused by crooked holes.

A jar is an expansible tool composed of two parts which are free

to move vertically a short distance in relation to each other. This tool is

normally placed immediately above the fishing tool, and in the closed

position the jar allows a short, free pull of the drill pipe; however, when

the jar has been expanded completely, a relatively large impact force, or
jar, is applied to all equipment located below the jar. This impact force,

which momentarily is much greater than could be applied at the surface,

is useful in many operations where equipment has become stuck in the

hole.

A hydraulic jar utilizes a liquid power section to impart the impact

blow. Most hydraulic jars obtain their impact force by resistance of the

power liquid as it is transferred to another chamber through a restricted

opening. The pressure on the liquid is obtained by surface pull or lowering

of weight, depending on whether the jar is used to strike an upward blow

ora downward blow. As the liquid is being transferred under relatively

large pressures, an exhaust port is opened, relieving the pressure

immediately and resulting in a blow being struck by the tool. The tool may

also be operated against a gas compression chamber, and when the

balancing liquid pressure is released, the gas pressure drives a free-

moving hammer which strikes the top of the tool.

Miscellaneous Fishing Equipment

In addition to tubular material, other equipment, such as parts of

drilling bits, pieces of tools, or equipment accidentally dropped in the

hole, may necessiate fishing operations. Special equipment is also needed

to recover these miscellaneous objects. Like the tools used to recover

tubular material, the fishing equipment, used for these misccellaneous

objects is quite varied, and much of it is specially designed for a

particular fishing operation. A few of the more or less standart tools are

described below to illustrate the principles involved in this type of fishing

operation.

The milling tool is one of the common fishing tools. It is used to

grind the fish into small pieces which can be circulated out of the hole

with the drilling fluid or removed in a junk basket. A milling tool may be an

ordinary drilling bit, a special type of drilling bit, or a solid-head tool with

a grinding surface. The use of carbide as a cutting surface is quite

common. The carbide, in the form of small splinters, is interspersed ina

specially blended matrix, and this mixture is applied to the head of the

milling tool. This design results in a self-sharpening tool with a very long

cutting life.

A junk basket is a tool run either seperately or in conjunction with

a milling device. It is designed to recover the smaller fragments which

can be lifted by the circulating action of the drilling fluid, but may be too

large to be circulated to the surface.

Since much of the material that may become lost in the hole is

comprised principally of steel, the use of a magnet to recover small

objects has been quite successful. Magnetic fishing tools may be either

of the permanent-magnet type or the electromagnetic type. In the

permanent-magnet type of tool, a powerful, permanent magnet is located

inside a nonmagnetic material. The lower end of the tool is engaging face,

and the magnetic force is concentrated at this lower face. This tool is

usually run on drill pipe or tubing. A circulating hole is provided on most

magnetic fishing tools to permit normal drilling-mud circulation during the

course of the fishing operation. The electromagnetic type of fishing tool

is run on an electric cable, and once the tool is in the hole over the fish,

an electrical current is passed through the tool to energize the magnet.

As much as several hundred pounds of lost metallic material can be

recovered in one operation by using these magnetic fishing tools.

Another utilization of the shaped-charge explosive principle is the

shaped-charge fragmentizer, which is used in the fragmentizing of small

objects so that they can subsequently be rcovered with a junk basket.

This process may even permit drilling operations to proceed without

recovery of the fragments. The operation consists of lowering the tool in

the hole on an electrical cable until the tool is in contact with the object

to be destroyed. The explosive energy of the tool is directed downward,

and when the charge is dtonated, this force is concentrated on the

object, and its fragmentization results. It can be used to fragmentize

bits, bit parts, slips, and other relatively small objects.

 A necessary item in most fishing-tool string is a safety joint, a

device which permits release from the fish if it cannot be pulled and the

releasing mechanism of the fishing tools become inoperative. In most

fishing operationsthe safety joint is located immediately above the

fishing tool. Most safety joints are released with left-hand torque. When

it becomes necessary to utilize the features of the safety joint, the

upper part of the tool is retrieved with the tubing or drill pipe, and the

lower part remains with the tools in the hole.

Because of their very nature, fishing operations may become quite

expensive. Before a fishing operation is initiated, therefore, the operator

should figure the investment in the present hole and lost equipment, and

then in the light of subsequent fishing operations, he can determine

intelligently whether it is economically feasible to continue fishing.

Altough not the normal procedure, in some instances it may be more

economical to leave the equipment in the hole, skid the rig, and begin

drilling a new hole. In many cases, expensive fishing operations have

continued for months, and in the end, a new hole had to be drilled. It

should be realized, of course, that another few days of fishing could

result in recovery of the fish; neverthless, the financial considerations

should be continually reviewed to determine the most economical

procedure.
 Proper and frequent inspection of equipment will reduce the

frequency of fishing jobs, altough it will be impossible to eleminate them

completely because of the nature of drilling operations. Mechanical

failures are the cause of most lost or stuck tools, and if undue operating

strain is not imposed on the equipment, frequent inspections made, and

poor equipment removed, then the number of fishing operations can

certainly be reduced to a minimum.

Cable-Tool Fishing Devices

Recovering stuck or lost tools in a cable-tool operation is

essentially no different from recovering equipment in a rotary-drilled

hole in that the equipment to be recovered must be carefully studied and

a tool selected that will satisfactorily perform the job. The principal

difference in rotary and cable-tool operations is that in the latter,

fishing tools are lowered into the hole on a wire line rather than drill pipe.

Fishing jars are widely used in cable-tool fishing operations,

because in most cases the drilling line and rig preclude the use of large

pulling strains, and impact blows exerted by the jars must be relied upon

to recover equipment that has become stuck.

A fishing operations expert system

If we wish to give an example of expert system in fishing

operations; we may give, Petrobaras, a Brezilian company developed a

system to help the special operations called fishing. The system is

delivered on Nexpert/Toolbook/MS-Windows PC platforms.

In fishing operations, there is the necessity of new techniques

and technologies absorbtion, periodics courses for new fishers and

specilization and recycling for the more skilled people. In this process

there is a knowledge based system development for diagnosis and

treatment procedures according to the type of accidient, aiming to

spread the knowledge and to accelerate the formation of a new fisherman

generation.

Petrobaras operating in the down and upstream segments,

producing almost 900,000 bbl/day. It is settled in Rio de Janerio and

connected 6 regional groups. In 1995 there were 63 fishing occasions on

drilling wells and 469 on production wells.

Artificial intelligience is the part of computer science that

designs and develops intelligant computeble systems and their technique

allow to represent the human knowledge in data structures. Therefore

they support the decisions taken in specified knowledge area, in analysis

of alternatives and diagnosis elobration, in face of incomplete, qualitative

or distorded data.

Commercial use of knowledge based systems (KBS) is spreading

fast in Brazil, especially with financial applications. Engineering

applications are still scarce. Petrobaras is one of the pioneers and this

project is the principal in the Company.

On the beginning of the 90s, most of Petrobaras fishers were

next to their retirement time. In 1990 15 of them retired and more

existed due to following years and that was being lost by the absence of a

systametic transfer or retainment process. This was fundemental to the

decision of starting a knowledge acqusition process.

The system, with its extensive analysis, would help the engineer to

explore the better alternatives and to consider all the avaliable

informations. This system will provide them with portability, consistency,

economical feasibility and permanent documentation; and the human being

with creativity, adaptability capacity, non-abridgment, sensible

experience and common sense.

Another strong motivation was the perfect adequacy between the

problem and the expert systems technique exhibited. Fishing is almost a

didactics application of one of expert system types here divided in 2

parts; diagnosis of the physical cause of the problem and suggestion of

treatment.

The diagnosis part has a neutral knowledge represantation using

expert systems techniques. The treatment part is considered more

complex, mixing expert systems solutions and hypermedia.

The company choose experimented and competent professionals

whose capacity was recoqnized by all the people aimed by the project, so

that knowledge would have credibility and would be expected by future

users. The final product of this phase was a set of rules representing the

knowledge, specially focused on the diagnosis of the causes of sticking.

Includes, also, prevention procedures or resolution of the accidient in

superficial form to be detailed on the later phases. The system runs in

micros PC 386, needing for 4Mbytes in memory, due to performance

questions.

The system can be divided into 2 groups; the trace and the

knowledge system. Trace, shows all the application steps up to the final

conclusion. And options for alter any answer with the consequent

information reprocessing. The knowledge based system, allows the user to

set up and draw the stuck string and the well. It is exhibited to the user

as a sequence of multiple selection questions. The number of questions

varies according to the complexity of the accidient or the well of fishing

characteristics knowledge level.

The system accomponies in the dynamics of a fishing operation

and includes a justifier that shows the employed reasoning, exhibit the

reasons by which a diagnosis is or not possible and shows how the

confidence levels are obtained.

Being this first system developed in this field, Petrobars consider

of great value the know-how acquired in the process. The involved cost is

enough small compared not only to the benefits obtained and to the

numbers involved in fishing operation, but also related to the cost of

other equivalent expert systems reported. With the liberation of use of

Nexpert run-time copies, the system can be installed in any

microcomputer, in basis or rigs.

And more afterwards thay are planning to connect to well

monitoring systems and to acqusition of real time data, besides

informations of rendering service companies, as the logging ones.

The Economics of Fishing

Some fishing jobs can go on for months before the fish is

retrieved. After a certain period, however, the cost of fishing operations

and lost drilling time become prohibitive. As a rule of thumb, once these
costs reach about half the cost of sidetracking and redrilling, fishing

should be abandoned. Another way to evaluate fishing economics is to

calculate the number of days that should be allowed for fishing, using the

following equation:

D = (V + Cs)/(R + Cd)

Where;

D = number of days to be allowed for fishing;

V = replacement value of fish;

R = daily cost of fishing tool rental and services;

Cs= estimated cost of sidetracking;

Cd= daily rig operating cost.