Lost circulation

Lost circulation is uncontrolled flow and loss of whole mud or cement slurry to a
subsurface formations as shown in figure. Lost circulation is one of the most common and
troublesome drilling problems in the oil and gas industry. It has been a drawback to drilling,
completions and work over operations. Sometimes it is called “Loss Returns”.
Other hole problems such as wellbore instability, stuck pipe and even blowouts have
been the result of lost circulation. Lost circulation has historically been one of the primary
contributors to high mud costs. Estimates of direct and indirect costs of lost circulation
problems in the drilling industry worldwide run into hundreds of millions of US dollars
annually. It has negative impacts on well economics.

Figure 1. Lost Circulation

Causes of Lost Circulation
There are many factors that cause to happen lost circulations. However, there are two main
dominant factors of loss conditions. They are
1. Formations with flow channels
2. Overbalance effect between well bore and formation
Both of these conditions must be present although one or the other factor may predominate.
For instance, a very small overbalance may be sufficient to drive fluid into a highly porous and
permeable rock. Even a relatively nonporous, impermeable rock can accept considerable
amounts of fluid if the overbalance is large enough to induce fracturing.
Formations Types
As mentioned above, lost circulation is related to the types of formations. The typical
loss zones that mostly encounter lost circulation are
1. Permeable Zone
2. Natural Fractures
3. Induced Fractures
Permeable Zones
Coarse, unconsolidated formations can have sufficiently high permeability for whole
mud to invade the formation matrix, resulting in lost circulation. This high permeability is often
present in shallow sands and gravel beds. Formations that were once reefs and oyster beds also
have similar tendencies.
One important reason for preventing mud loss in shallow intervals is that it may cause
these unconsolidated formations to wash out, forming a large cavity that is less stable which
could cave in more easily from overburden and rig weight.
Producing formations in the same field, or general vicinity, may cause subnormal
formation pressure due to the extraction of the formation fluids. In such a case, mud weights
required to control other exposed formation pressures may be too high for the depleted
formation, forcing mud to invade the low pressure depleted formation as shown in figure.
If this situation exists, plans should be formulated to prevent lost circulation or stuck
pipe from occurring in the depleted zone.

Figure 2. Loss Zone related to formation types

Natural Fractures
Formations such as naturally fractured sandstones, shale and carbonate have secondary
porosity and permeability. They are also conductive to lost circulation.
Natural fractures may be either horizontal or vertical depending on a rock’s depth,
mechanical characteristics and stress environment.
In a horizontal fracture network, lost circulation may manifest itself as a gradual
lowering of the pit level and lead to a complete loss of returns if additional fractures are
encountered.
Vertical fractures will take progressively increasing amounts of mud as drilling
progresses and more of the fractures are exposed.
Vugular and Cavern
Cavernous or vugular zones are usually associated with low-pressure carbonate
(limestone and dolomite) or volcanic formations. In limestone, vugs are created by the previous
continuous flow of water that dissolved part of the rock matrix (leaching), creating a void space
often later filled with oil.
When these vugular formations are drilled, the drill string may fall freely through the
void zone and a rapid loss of mud is usually experienced. The volume and persistence of this
kind of loss depends on the degree to which the vugs are interconnected. Similar vugs and
caverns can develop during the cooling of volcanic magma or ash.

Induced Fractures
If lost returns occur in an area where offset wells have not experienced lost circulation,
the problem is likely the result of fracturing that is induced during well operations, rather than
the result of a natural fracture network.
Most of the predominant factors that caused induced fractures are as follows. They are
1. Drilling Fluid such as weight, density and ECD
2. Well architecture like casing setting point and cementing program
3. Mechanical Failures like leaks in shallow casing string

Severity
The severity of the problem can be expressed in terms of mud lost and static fluid level drop.
Losses can be classified into
1. Seepage Loss (less than 10 bbl.)
2. Partial Loss (more than 10 bbl.)
3. Severe Loss (less than 200 bl.)
4. Complete Loss (No returns)