BOP Equipment Casing Spool

 The blowout prevention (BOP) equipment is the
equipment which is used to shutting a well and
circulate out an influx if it occurs. The main
components of this equipment are the blowout
preventers or BOP's. These are valves that can
be used to close off the well at the surface. In addition
to the BOP's the BOP equipment refers to the
auxiliary equipment required to control the flow
of the formation fluids and circulate the kick out
safely.
 The wellhead, from which the casing strings are
suspended are made up of casing spools. A casing spool
will be installed after each casing string has been set. The
BOP stack is placed on top of the casing spool and
connected to it by flanged, welded or threaded
connections. Once again the casing spool must be rated to
the same pressure as the rest of the BOP stack. The casing
spool outlets should only be used for the connection of
the choke and/or kill lines in an emergency.
 A wellhead component used in flanged wellhead
assemblies to secure the upper end of a casing string.

Choke and Kill Lines

Two Types of Blowout Preventer

 Annular  When circulating out a kick the heavy fluid is pumped

 Ram
1. Annular Preventers
An annular blowout preventer is a large valve designed to
seal, control, and monitor oil and gas wells.
The advantage of such a well control device is that the
packing element will close off around any size or shape
of pipe.
2. Ram Preventer
Ram preventers have two packing elements on opposite
sides. Three types of ram preventers are available:
 Blind rams - which completely close off the
wellbore when there is no pipe in the hole.
 Pipe rams - which seal off around a specific size
of the pipe thus sealing of the annulus. In 1980
variable rams were made available by
manufacturers. These rams will close and seal on
a range of drill pipe sizes.
 Shear rams are the same as blind rams except
that they can cut through drill pipe for
emergency release as a last resort. A set of pipe
rams may be installed below the shear rams to
support the severed drill string.
Drilling Spool
down the drill string, up the annulus and out to surface.
Since the well is closed in at the annular preventer the
wellbore fluids leave the annulus through the side outlet
below the BOP rams or the drilling spool outlets and pass
into a high-pressure line known as the choke line.
Choke line
 carries the mud and influx from the BOP stack to the
choke manifold.
 A high-pressure pipe leading from an outlet on
the BOP stack to the backpressure choke and
associated manifold.
Kill line
 a high-pressure pipeline between the side outlet, opposite
the choke line outlet, on the BOP stack, and the mud
pumps and provides a means of pumping fluids downhole
when the normal method of circulating down the drill
string is not possible.
 A high-pressure pipe leads from an outlet on the BOP
stack to the high-pressure rig pumps.
BOP stack
 A set of two or more BOPs used to
ensure pressure control of a well.

 A drilling spool is a connector that allows choke and kill

lines to be attached to the BOP stack. The spool must
have a bore at least equal to the maximum bore of the
uppermost casing spool. The spool must also be capable
of withstanding the same pressures as the rest of the BOP
stack. These days outlets for connection of choke and kill
lines have been added to the BOP ram body and drilling
spools are less frequently used. These outlets save space
and reduce the number of connections and therefore
potential leak paths.
 Drilling Spool is an accessory used as a spacer in wellhead
equipment. It provides room between various wellhead
devices (such as the blowout preventers) so that devices
in the drill stem (such as a tool joint) can be suspended in
it.
 Lesson 2
WATER BASED MUD
Water-Based Drilling Fluid (WBFs)
 the most commonly used of the mud systems. They are
generally less expensive and less difficult to maintain than
oil muds.
 If a water-based fluid is used, the water will tend to enter
the formation and change the mechanical properties of
the rock. These changes may be enough to cause
formation damage and borehole instability. These
damaging effects can be minimized by using an inhibited
water-based fluid.
 The base fluid may be fresh water, seawater, brine,
saturated brine, or a formate brine.
 Water is not viscous therefore the viscosity will be
increased by adding clay or polymers. Being the cheapest,
clay material is almost always used and is responsible for
two beneficial effects:
1. Increase in viscosity which improves lifting capacity
2. Building a wall cake thus prevents fluid loss
Two types of solids present in a drilling fluid
1. Active Solids
 solids that will react with water and can be
controlled by chemical treatment. (e.g.,
hydratable and commercial clays)
2. Inactive or Inert Solids
 solids which do not readily react with water.
(e.g., Barite, Limestone, and Sand)
Clay Chemistry
Clay minerals can be divided into 2 main groups:
1. Expandable (hydrophilic) clays
 these will readily absorb water (e.g.,
montmorillonite)
2. Non-expandable (hydrophobic) clays
 these will not readily absorb water (e.g., illite)
Clay minerals have a sandwich-like structure usually consists of
three layers. The alternate layers are of silica and alumina. A clay
particle usually consists of several sandwiches stacked together
like a pack of cards.
Hydration of Clay Minerals
Expandable and Non-expandable clays in water
Wyoming Bentonite (Sodium Montmorillonite)
 most commonly used clay in drilling fluids
Dispersion
 Process in which in fresh water, the clay layers absorb
water, and the chemical bonds holding them are
weakened and the stack layer disintegrates.
 This causes the fluid to viscosify because of increase of
particles in suspension.
Flocculation
 Process in which positively charged cations separate from
clay leaving the flat surface of the particles negatively
charged while the edges are positively charged. It is likely
that some plates will tend to form edge-to-face
arrangements.
Plastic viscosity
 In a Bingham plastic fluid, Plastic viscosity can be thought
of as that part of the flow resistance caused by
mechanical friction between the particles present in the
mud and will therefore be dependent on solids content.
Yield point
 is that component of resistance caused by electro-
chemical attraction within the mud while it is flowing.
ASSOCIATION OF CLAY PARTICLES
1. AGGREGATION (FACE-TO-FACE)
 In this configuration, there are a small number of
particles in suspension and therefore the plastic
viscosity of the mud is low.
 If the mud has, at some time been dispersed,
aggregation may be achieved by introducing
cations to bring the plates together.
 Lime or gypsum may be added to achieve this
effect.
2. DISPERSION
 It occurs when the individual clay platelets are
dispersed by some mechanism.
 It increases the number of particles and causes
an increase in plastic viscosity.
 Clays will naturally disperse in the presence of
freshwater but this process will be enhanced by
the agitation of the mud.
 Bentonite does not usually completely disperse
in water.
3. FLOCCULATION
 Is when a house of cards structure is formed
because of the attraction between the positive
charges on the face of the particles and the
negative charges on the edge of the particles.
 It increases the viscosity and yield point of the
mud.
 The severity of flocculation depends on the
proximity of the charges acting on the linked
particles.
 Anything that shrinks the absorbed water film
around the particles will decrease the distance
between the charges on the particles and
increase flocculation.
4. DE-FLOCCULATION
 Occurs when the house of cards structure is
broken down and something is introduced into
the mud that reduces the edge-to-face effect.
 Chemicals called “thinners” are added to the
mud to achieve this.
ADDITIVES TO WBM’s
A. Viscosity Control Additives
 Commercial clays are used to control the
viscosity of water-based muds. These are graded
according to their yield.
 The yield of clay is defined as the number of
barrels of 15 centipoise viscosity mud which can
be obtained from 1 ton of dry clay.
 Wyoming bentonite has a yield of about 100
bbl/ton, whereas native clay would cause higher
solids content and mud density than the
Wyoming bentonite to build the same viscosity.
 The yield of clay will be affected by the salt
concentration in the mix water. The hydration
and therefore dispersion of the clay are greatly
reduced by the presence of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions.
To overcome this problem, various measures can be
taken:
 Chemical treatment
 Dilution with fresh water
 Attapulgite clay may be used
 First hydrate the clay in freshwater, then add the
slurry to the salt water.
 Use organic polymers
3. CMC (sodium carboxyl methyl cellulose)
 can be polymerized into 3 different grades of
viscosity (High, Medium, Low). It controls
filtration by wedging long chain polymers
into the formation and plugging the pores.
4. Polyacrylates
 Long chain polymersrs which become
absorbed onto the edge of the clay particles.
5. Lignosuphonates
 similar in starch in reducing fluid loss.
6. Polynoinic cellulose
 An organic compound that controls fluid loss
in high salt concentration. Fluid loss control
agents may also act as thinners, or
viscousifiers under certain circumstances
and react unfavorably with other chemicals
in the mud
D. pH control additives
 caustic soda NaOH is the major additive used to
keep pH of the mud high that commonly ranges
from 9.5 to 10.5. caustic potash, KOH and slaked
lime, Ca(OH)2 may also be used.

To reduce the viscosity of the mud E. Removal of contaminants

 Lower the solids content.  contaminants have an effect on the quality of
mud. The main contaminants are as follows:
 Reduce the number of particles per unit Volume.
 Neutralize attractive forces between the
1. Calcium (Ca2+)
particles.
 it reduces the viscosity building properties of
bentonite.
B. Density Control Additives
 Barite is the primary weighting material used in
2. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
muds. Calcium carbonate and galena are also
 may cause adverse filtration and gelation
used as weighting material.
characteristics when entrained in the mud.
C. Filtration control additives
3. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S)
 Excessive filtration rates and thick wall cake lead
 highly toxic gas which also causes hydrogen
to problems such as:
embrittlement of steel.
o Tight spots in the hole
o Differential pipe sticking
4. Oxygen (O2)
o Formation damage due to filtrate
 cause corrosion and pitting of steel pipes.
invasion

Filter cake is greatest at static condition while dynamic

filtration results in thinner mud cake due to erosion. The
aim is to deposit a thin and impermeable filter cake.
Several types of material may be added to the mud to
control fluid loss:

1. Clays/ Bentonite
 Is an effective fluid loss agent because of its
particle size and shape, and also because it
hydrates and compresses under pressure.

2. Starch
 It is an organic chemical that rapidly swell
and seal off the permeable areas effectively.