Interview questions

1- What are the types of mud?

- Water base mud
- Oil base mud
- Air base mud

2- What is the function of the mud?

- Remove cuttings from the well.
- Control formation pressures.
- Suspend and release cuttings.
- Seal permeable formations.
- Maintain wellbore stability.
- Cool, lubricate, and support the bit and drilling assembly.
- Transmit hydraulic energy to tools and bit.

3- What is the viscosity?

- It is resistance to flow.

4- What is the annular and slip velocity and the relation between them?
- Annular velocity: The velocity at which a cutting moves up the annulus.
- Slip velocity: The rate at which a cutting settles in a fluid.
- The relation: If the annular velocity of the drilling fluid is greater than the slip
velocity of the cutting, the cutting will be transported to the surface.

5- What are the types of the flow regime?

- Laminar flow: Is generally associated with low flow rate, low fluid velocities and
with fluid movement in uniform layers.
- Turbulent flow: In generally occurs at high flow rates, high fluid velocities, and
is characterized by an erratic, random movement of the drilling fluid particles.

6- What is the plastic viscosity (PV)?

- Is the resistance of the fluid particles to move against each other in dynamic state
- PV is a function of solids.
- PV depends on the concentration of solids, size and shape of solids.
- The finer solids, higher PV due to the increase of surface area which surrounded
by more Volume of water.

7- What is the yield point?

- It’s the electro – chemicals attraction between solids or mud components.
8- What is the gel?
- Is the measurement of chemical attraction forces between mud particles under
static conditions.

9- What are the types of gel strength?

- Fragile or flat Gel:
Gel strength of 10 minute is slightly higher than 10 seconds gel even if 10 seconds gel reading is
high.

- Progressive or elevated Gel:

Gel strength increases significantly after 10 minute, even if 10 seconds gel is low.

10- What is the PH?

- The negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration.

11- Why do you make PF and MF test?

- To determine CO3, HCO3 and CO2 contamination in the mud.

12- What is the relation between PF and MF and what is the contamination of
each case?
- PF = MF…………… OH
- 2PF > MF……....….. OH & CO3
- 2PF = MF………….. CO3
- 2PF < MF………….. CO3 & HCO3
- PF = 0 ...…………... HCO3 & CO2

13- What should you do if you don’t have PHPH indicator to make PF and MF
test?
- Use PH meter to determine the end point of PF & MF.

14- What is the end point of PF and MF?

- MF end point is 4.3
- PF end point is 8.3

15- If you have CO3 contamination, what is the test can you do to know it? Not pf
and mf test?
Ca test, if the concentration of Ca decrease, it means that the mud has CO3.
16- What are the common chemical reactions in mud?
- Soda ash with Anhydrite: CaSO4 + Na2CO3 CaCO3 + 2Na+ + SO4–
- Cement with sodium bicarbonate: Ca(OH)2 + NaHCO3 CaCO3+ NaOH + H2O
- Carbon dioxide with lime: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 CaCO3 + H2O
- Hydrogen sulfide with zinc oxide: H2S + ZnO ZnS+ H2O

17- What is the flash point of the fluid?

- It is the lowest temperature where enough fluid can evaporate to form a combustible
concentration of gas.

18- What is the special about graphite materials, why are they used for high over
balance drilling?

- It is used as lost circulation prevention in water base and oil-based drilling fluids in
porous and fractured zones.
- Increases lubricity of water-based fluids.
- Helps reduce torque and drag.
- Does not adversely affect rheological properties.
- It is used for high over balance drilling because it allows tightly packed particles
under compression in pores and micro-fractures to expand or contract without being
dislodged by changes in differential pressure.

19- What are the characteristics of the filter cake?

- Impermeable
- Non Porous
- It must be thin to minimize well sticking and reduce friction forces between drill
string and pore hole wall.

20- What is the shear thinning fluid?

- Shear thinning is the non-Newtonian behavior of fluids whose viscosity decreases

under shear strain.

21- What is tau zero?

- It is the shear stress at zero shear rate.

22- What are the bridging materials?

- Chemicals added to a drilling fluid to bridge across the pore throat or fractures of an
exposed rock thereby building a filter cake to prevent loss of whole mud or
excessive filtrate.
23- What is the PHPA?
- Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide Polymer.
- It is a co-polymer of anionic character and high molecular weight.
- It is a water-soluble polymer.
- It is used to
 It functions as an inhibitor by coating or encapsulating shale.
 It also restricts the interaction of water hydratable & dispersible shale.
 It can be used as a flocculent in clear water drilling.
 It also provides inhibition properties to fresh water, sea water and also in presence of
calcium ions.

24- What are the types of shale inhibition and the mechanism of each type?
- KCL
 K ion has diameter can fit the space between the shale layers.
- PHPA (New drill plus)
 Inhibitor by coating or encapsulating shale.
- Gilsonite (Black fury or black nite)
 Seal micro fractured shale when drilling with water-base fluid, lubricity and
reduce accretion from sticky clays.
- Sulphonated Asphalt (Soltex)
 Seals small fractures in stressed shale formulation.
- Ploy amine (Max guard)
 Enter into the lattice of the clay mineral, electrostatically binding and
minimizing the uptake of water.
- Glycol
 The glycol clouds out at higher down hole temperatures, coating the surface
of clays and preventing hydration.

25- What is the effect of high PH in spud mud and why?

- Increase the viscosity because it increases dispersion of clay.

26- How do you mix spud mud?

- Check ca and the salinity of the water
- Add caustic soda
- Add soda ash
- Add bentonite and leave it for 6-8 hours to hydrate

27- Why should you treat Calcium before mixing spud mud?
- Because ca decreases the performance of bentonite hydration because the ca is
divalent so it will replace the Na and increase the attraction force between the
bentonite layers.
28- What is the value of water loss in spud mud?
- It is uncontrolled and it is 14-16.

29- What is the maximum salinity of water that using for mixing bentonite?
- 2000 mg/l.

30- How do mix spud mud with saline water?

- Mix all concentration of bentonite in fresh water and leave it 6-8 hours to hydrate the
bentonite after that add salt water.

31- What is the concentration of bentonite that you mixed before?

- 25-30 ppb.

32- If you drill a section that has total loss circulation zone and shale formation,
what the mud type can you use?
- Spud mud and make fly mix.

33- Why do you use KCL polymer mud?

- Because KCL is shale inhibitor

34- Why is KCL shale inhibitor?

- Because K is the only ion has diameter can fit the space between the shale layers

35- What the ionic diameter of K and Na?

- K is 2.66 A and Na is 1.92 A

36- What are the types of shale?

1- Non swelling shale: Attapulgite and Sepiolite.
2- Slightly swelling shale: Illite, Chlorite and Kaolinite.
3- Swelling shale: Montmorillonite (Smectite)

37- Which types of shale that K is inhibitor?

- Smectite, Vermiculite, Illite and Mica

38- What are the shale types in KSA?

- Montmorillonite, Kaolinite and Illite.

39- Why do you add hydrogen peroxide 3% in MBT?

- To remove the effect of organic materials such as CMC, lignosulfonates and lignites
 40- What is the typical concentration of KCL?
- 10% (wt) or 37 pbb

41- What is the typical concentration of K in KCL polymer mud?

- 52000 mg/l.

42- What is the test of KCL?

1- 7 ml filtrate
2- 3 ml sodium perchlorite.
3- Use the centrifuge and take the value to know the lb/bbl from the chart
4- Use the KCL table to know the % (wt)

43- Can you calculate K concentration from CL?

- Yes I can, K= 1.103*CL

44- Is this value accurate? Why?

- No, because the concentration of k will decrease during the drilling and the
concentration of CL will be constant.

45- What are fluid loss reducer chemicals and what is the maximum temperature
of each one?
- Starch…………………………….... 170-200 f (theoretical 250 f)
- Pac (pac-lv & mil pac-lv)………......300 f
- Resinex II………………………….. 400 f
- Tannathin……………………......… 400 f
- Dristemp…………………………... 400 f

46- How do you mix OBM?

- Diesel tank: - Brine tank

- Diesel as OWR - Water as OWR

- Lime - CACL2 depend on WFS
- Primary emulsifier
- Fluid loss reducer
- Secondary emulsifier

- Transfer the brine to the diesel tank very slowly

- Mix it for 2 hours

- Add viscosifer and weighting material

47- What is the important factor in OBM?
- Electrical stability (ES).

48- Why do you use emulsifier?

- To make the emulsion between the oil and the water to be homogeneous phase

49- What is the ES?

- It is the measure of the emulsion stability.

50- What is the mechanism of ES meter?

- Measure the conductivity of the mud.
- Decrease conductivity ………… increase ES.
- Increase conductivity …………. decrease ES.

51- Which temperature should you measure ES?

- 120 F.

52- How can you check any drop in ES without ES meter?

- From HPHT test, all filtrate should be oil, if you find water that mean ES decrease.

53- Why do you use Cacl2 not Nacl with OBM?

- Because CaCL2 give salinity more than Nacl to control the osmosis pressure and the
water activity of Ca (0.4) less than Na (0.75)

54- What is the maximum salinity of CACL2 and NACL?

- CACL2………………. 357000 mg/l
- NACL………………... 189000 mg/l

55- What is the osmosis pressure?

- The pressure results from transferring the fluid from low salinity to high salinity.

56- What are the OBM tests?

-Add 1 ml OBM
-Add 25 ml Isopropyl Alcohol
-Add 25 ml Xylene
-Mix for 30 seconds
-Add distilled water to reach 100 ml
-Add 10 drops of Phenolphthalein (Pink Color will appear)
-Titrate with 0.1N H2SO4 till Color disappears.
-No of H2SO4 ml = POM (mud alkalinity)
-Excess Lime = POM * 1.295
-To Same Sample add:
 -10 drop potassium Chromate (Yellow color will appear)
-Titrate with silver Nitrate 0.282 till red Brown color appears.

57- What is the equation of cacl2% wt in OBM?

- Whole Chloride Mud (mg/l) = ml of Silver Nitrate * 10000
- CaCl2 Mud (lb/bbl) = ml of Silver Nitrate *5.48
- CL% / WT =
(15.65*ml of Silver Nitrate *100)
((15.65*ml of Silver Nitrate) + (Water factor*1000))

58- What is the effect on the hole if you have emulsion breaking?
- Shale Swelling.
- Barite and solid settling in the hole.

59- What is the contamination in OBM?

- Solids, water and gases

60- How do you displace the hole from WBM to OBM?

- Use spacer ( 20 bbls diesel and 30-50 bbls high vis OBM)

61- What is the wetting agent?

- It is a chemicals used to wet the solid and the treatment chemicals by diesel.

62- What are types of stuck?

- Differential stuck
- Mechanicals stuck

63- What are the indicators of each type?

- Differential stuck:
 Full circulation, no RPM and no moving up or down
- Mechanical stuck:
 No circulation, no RPM, little moving up and down

64- What is the mechanism of differential stuck?

- High overbalance on the formation increases the water loss and the differential
pressure between the mud and the formation so the stuck occur.

65- Is there partial circulation with mechanical stuck? Which type?

- Yes, key seat.

66- What is the mechanism of key seat stuck?

- Key seats occur when the drill string rubs against the formation on the inside of a
dogleg.

67- Why do you make sand content test?

- To detect the concentration of the sand in the mud because excessive sand causes:
 Thick filter cake
 Abrasive sand wears the pump parts, the bit and the drill string.

68- What is the important of the centrifuge?

- To remove the LGS

69- Can you use it with high MWT?

- Yes, I can use barite recovery system.

70- What is the mechanism of barite recovery?

- Using two centrifuges, the first to separate the barite by working with high rate and
low RPM and the second to remove the solids by working with low rate and high
RPM

71- What is the minimum solid size that centrifuge can separate?
- 6 micron

72- What is the cabr2?

- It is a completion fluid.
73- What is the corrected solid?
- It is the total solid minus the dissolved salt.
74- What is the maximum weight of cabr2?
- 106 pcf

75- Why do you use it?

- If I need high weight completion fluids, more than 86 pcf.

76- How do you make hole cleaning in horizontal well?

1-Good mud rheology:
RPM 6 = (1.2 - 1.5) hole size
RPM 3 = (1 - 1.5) hole size
LSYP = hole size
2-Good drilling parameter
High flow rate
High RPM
Low ROP
3-Pump tandem pill (low viscous pill and high weight pill)

77- What is the mechanism of tandem pill?

- Low viscosity to make turbulent flow to move the cutting from the low side
and high weight to push the cutting.

78- Why do you use high weight not high VIS?

- Because I need force to push the cutting.

79- If you have good rehology, good RPM and good flow rate but have bad hole
cleaning, why?
- Because of high ROP.

80- What is the turbidity?

- Measure of the cleanliness of brine.
- The unit of measure for turbidity is the Nephelometer Turbidity Unit (NTU).

81- What is TCT?

- True crystallization temperature.
82- What is the eutectic point?
- The eutectic point is the lowest possible crystallization temperature.

83- What is the pilot test?

- It is a test used to make s simulation to the mud to make good treatment and to check
any new chemicals.
- Put 350 ml the mud (equivalent 1 bbl) and put 1 gram chemical (equivalent 1 lb),
start the agitator and check the mud.

84- What is the bit balling and how do you prevent it?
- The bit is covered by clay.
- Add 3 % volume of penetrex or drill zone in the active during the drilling and put 1/3
can of the condet down the drill pipe every connection.

85- What is the maximum weight of:

- Barite…………….. 152 pcf
- Hematite…..……… 187 pcf
- Marble……..……… 87 pcf
- NACl………..…….. 75 pcf
- KCL…………...….. 73 pcf
- CACL2…………..... 86 pcf
- CABR2…………....106 pcf
- CACL/CABR2…....112 pcf
- NA formate……….. 83 pcf
- K formate……….....98 pcf
- ZNBR2…………....143 pcf
86- What is the specific gravity of:
- Hematite………………. 5
- Barite…………………. 4.2
- Marble…………..…… 2.75
- Bentonite…………….. 2.65
- Diesel………………... 0.84
- Safra oil…………….... 0.79
- LGS………………... 2.6-2.65

87- What are the types of LCM?

- Non reservoir LCM:
 Mica, barofiber, cotton seed, marble, baracarb, soluflake, LC lube, LC lube fine, steel
seal and nut plug.

- Reservoir LCM:
 Marble, baracarb and soluflake (acid soluble)

88- What are the types of losses?

- Sea page……………….. < 10 bbls
- Partial…………………. 10-100 bbls
- Sever....………………... > 100 bbls
- Complete……………… No return

89- What is the GGT?

- It is garret gas test and used to determine the concentration of H2S.

90- What is the H2S scavenger with WBM?

- Zinc Oxide
- Sourscav

91- What is the chemical name of sourscav?

- Iron gluconate.

92- What is the ECD?

- It is the pressure loss in the annulus plus the mud weight

93- What is the source of PH in formate mud?

- Soda ash and sodium biocarbonate

94- Why don’t you make a retort in formate mud?

- Because the expansion force of the formate mud push the solid into the condensate
bottle and plug it.
95- What is the using of glycol?
- It is shale inhibitor and lubricant.

96- What is the contamination in WBM?

- Solids
- Cement
- Anhydrite
- Salt
- Carbonate
- H2S

97- What is the equation of hydrostatic pressure?

- Hydrostatic pressure = 0.052*TVD*MWT
 Hydrostatic pressure….. psi
 TVD…………………... ft
 MWT………………….. ppg

98- What is the equation of kill mud weight?

- Kill mud weight = (SIDP/ (TVD*0.052)) + MWT
 Kill mud weight…………...….. ppg
 SIDP…………………………... psi
 TVD………………………...… ft
 MWT………………………….. ppg

99- Why do you double the result value from HPHT test?
- Because the filter paper area of the HPHT (3.5 in2) is half the filter paper area of API
(7 in2).

100- What is the chemicals mane of max guard?

- Poly amine

101- For what is poly amine using?

- For shale inhibition.

102- What is the accepted concentration of CO3 in the mud?

- (500 – 2000) mg/l.

103- What is the treatment you should add with CO2 contamination?
- Lime.

104- What is the mean of damage formation?

- Plugging the porosity of the formation and decrease the permeability.

105- What is the definition of glycol cloud point?

- It is the temperature when the solution transfers from soluble to be insoluble.

106- What is the water activity?

- The ―activity‖ of a solution is a measure of the vapor pressure or ―relative humidity‖.

- Water would have an activity of 1.0; higher salinity reduces activity.

107- What is the buffer solution?

- It is the solution that can resist large pH changes when a base or acid is added to a
solution.

108- What is the normality?

- A 1.0 normal (N) solution is defined as a solution with a concentration that contains 1
g-equivalent weight of a substance per liter of solution.
- For example, 1.0 N solution of HCl has 36.5 g solute per liter of solution.

109- What are the sources of carbonates and bicarbonates?

- Carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, as the CO2 dissolves; it becomes carbonic acid
(H2CO3) and is converted to bicarbonates (HCO3) and/or carbonates (CO3)
depending on the pH of the mud.
- Over-treatment with soda ash.
- CO2 gas intruding from the formation.
- Thermal degradation of lignosulfonate and lignite at temperatures above 325°F.
110- What is the mechanism of starch?
- Starch consists of two polysaccharides: amylose and amylopectin.
- To make starch effective in drilling fluids, it is necessary to rupture the protective
shell coating of amylopectin to release the inner amylose. The starch granules are
heated until the cells rupture, which allows the amylose to disperse. Once dispersed,
the starch hydrates water.

111- What is the mechanism of spersene?

- Lignosulfonates are organic acids that supply anions (negative ions) to the fluid.
These anions reduce the yield point and gel strengths by neutralizing the cations
(positive ions) on the clay particles, thus deflocculating the clay slurry causing clay
particles to repel one another.

112- What is the emulsifier?

- Emulsifiers are surfactants that reduce the surface tension between the water droplets
and oil. They stabilize the mixture by being partially soluble in water and partially
soluble in oil.
- Emulsifier particles form a coating around the water droplets to keep them from
coalescing.

113- What is the calcium soap?

- Some emulsifiers are soaps that are formed by the reaction of a fatty acid ester with
an alkali (such as lime) where the hydrogen on the fatty acid is replaced by a metal,
such as calcium from lime.

114- What will happened for the density of brine in the bottom of the hole?
- High temperature causes thermal expansion of brines, which causes a reduction in
density and hydrostatic pressure.

115- How do you displace from WBM or OBM to brine?

- From WBM to brine:
 First spacer — viscosified water with surfactant.
 Second spacer — chemical wash.
 Third spacer — viscous brine.
- From OBM to brine:
 First spacer – base oil.
 Second spacer – viscosified water spacer with surfactant.
 Third spacer – chemical wash.
 Fourth spacer – viscous brine.

116- What is the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)?

- The quantity of cations per unit weight of clay
- The CEC is expressed in mill equivalents per 100 g of dry clay (meq/100 g)
117- What is the hydration of clay?
- The bentonite crystal consists of three layers: an alumina layer with a silica layer
above and below it. The clay platelet is negatively charged and has a cloud of cations
associated with it. When dry clay contacts freshwater, the interlayer spacing expands,
and the clay adsorbs a large ―envelope‖ of water.

118- What is D-50?

- It is the value of the particle diameter at 50% in the cumulative distribution.
- For example: if D50= 5 um, then 50% of the particles in the sample are larger than 5
um and 50% smaller than 5 um.

119- How can you know about well control issue?

- Flow or kick.
- Increase CL in case of salt water flow.
- Decreasing MWT.

120- What is the accepted concentration of Ca in the mud?

- Less than 400 mg/l.

Prepared by: Ahmed Abdou Fayed.

Mud engineer, MBPS company.