Special Well Control

PETE 625 Applications

Well Control ™ Underbalanced Drilling

™ Well Control in Unconventional Hole

Lesson 17 Programs

Special Well Control ™ Casing and Cementing Operations

Applications
2

Schedule
Assignments
Project Abstracts are due on Thursday,
November 20. Type-written, less than
HW # 11: Ch 5, Problems one page. Drilling topic.
5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 5.8, 5.13
QUIZ B: Monday, November 24,
6-8 p.m. in Room 407M.
Due Tuesday, November 18.
Project Presentations: December 2 and 4.

FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, December 9,

Read: Chapters 5 & 6 2:30 -5:00 p.m. Room 407M.

Underbalanced Drilling Reasons for UBD

™ These are wells where the ECD is
intentionally kept below the
formation pore pressure.
™ Minimize formation damage
™ Faster penetration rates
™ Longer bit life and fewer trips

™ Eliminate one or more casing strings

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1
 Reasons for UBD Underbalanced Drilling

™ Reduced risk of lost circulation ™ Air and Natural Gas Drilling

™ Reduced risk of differential sticking ™ Mist and Foam Drilling

™ Lower mud costs ™ Underbalanced Drilling w/Mud

™ Earlier oil sales

7 8

Simplified Air
Drilling System
Using the
Choke to
Control
Pressures in
Well Control
and in UBD

9 10

Well Control
Equipment Rotating
for Air or Head used
Natural Gas in Air
Drilling Drilling

11 12

2
How do you
determine
Air and Natural
BHP? Gas Drilling

Compressor at
surface Casing gauge
is used to
Drillpipe Float predict BHP
Gas in drillstring
Friction γ gD

These make DP
p p = pcs e 53.3 zT

gauge unreliable
for BHP
determination
13 14

γ gD
p p = pcs e 53.3 zT

15 16

Mist and Foam Drilling

γ gD

p sh = pcs e 53.3 zT ™ Mist drilling may be used when small

water flows would cause mud rings
with air or natural gas drilling.

™ Water is injected downstream of the

compressors until the air is nearly
saturated with water vapor.

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3
 Mist and Foam Drilling Underbalanced Drilling with Mud

™ Foam drilling can tolerate still more ™ Air can be injected into the mud stream
water than mist. to lighten the mud column.
™ Foams are generated by shearing ™ One way is to inject at the standpipe
water and gas together with a
foaming surfactant and bentonite or
polymers added for better hole
cleaning.
19 20

Used to determine volume of air to inject:

Reduce 9.0 lb/gal mud to 5.0 lb/gal effective density at TD

ρm
ρe ρm – ρe lb/gal
9.0 – 5.0 = 4.0

ρe lb/gal
5.0

Air Injection
Options
21 22

Mud

γp
ρ=
2.77 z T

Simulator 23 24

4
 25 26

27 28

UBD with Weighted Mud UBD with Weighted Mud

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5
 Annulus is
Unconventional Wellbores
filled with
heavy mud
and Drilling Practices
as DP is
being ™ Horizontal and ERD Wells
pulled out
of hole
™ Slim-Hole Applications

™ Coil-Tubing Operations

31 32

Horizontal and ERD Wells

™ For Horizontal and ERD Wells the window for
acceptable mud weights narrows.

™ The high angle reduces frac pressure,

lowering the maximum mud weight allowed

™ Hole collapse increases the minimum mud

weight.

™ Mud weight may limit the length of the lateral NOTE Same TVD, but ERD well has smaller
MW window, and higher ECD.
33 34

Heel
Terminus

9,642’
10,000’
KOP
35 36

6
 Additional Pressure Concerns Less
in Horizontal Wells overbalance
during trip
™ Cuttings beds require high annular
velocity
∆pSWAB = 10.3 * 3
™ Surge and Swab pressures higher = 31 psi

Circulating while
POH can offset
swab pressure
37 38

SIDPP = SICP
Additional Pressure
Fig. 6.15
Concerns Surface
Pressure
™ ERD wells more prone to kicks and lost Relationship
circulation (smaller MW window) for a
Horizontal
™ SICP lower for ERD
Well closed
™ Gas migration less of a problem in on a kick

39 40

Gas trapped
in washouts
reduces
migration

Vertical height remains

constant in lateral section

41 42

7
 Slim-Hole Applications
™ High annular friction during circulation

™ Small pit gains yield long vertical height

of kick fluid resulting in high SICP

43 44

Coil-Tubing Operations

™ Continuous, non-jointed pipe which is

stored on a reel and transported to a
wellsite to perform a specific
operation

45 46

Fig 6.19 –
Coiled Tubing
stuffing box

47 48

8
 Coiled Tubing

49 50

Casing and Cementing

CT growth with time Operations
™ Running the Casing

™ Cementing the Casing

™ The Annular Flow Problem

™ Liner Top Tests

51 52

Running the Casing

™ Operator should replace upper DP
rams with casing rams.

™ SIP could result in large upward forces Comparison of surge/swab

on the large diameter casing. pressures for casing vs. DP

™ Large diameter casing results in high

surge and swab pressures.

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9
 Cementing the Casing
™ pbh = pch + ph + ∆pf +- ∆pss + ∆pa Fig. 6.34
™ pbh = BHP Downhole
Pressures
™ pch = choke backpressure associated
™ ph = HSP with a
Cement Job
™ ∆pf = circulating friction pressure
™ ∆pss = surge or swab pressures
™ ∆pa = pressure resulting from fluid
acceleration
55 56

Effect of bridged
annulus on wellbore
Cementing Consideration pressures while
cementing
™ Spacer density and volume

™ High viscosities

™ U-tubing of cement slurries

™ Freefall of cement

™ Flash setting of cement

57 58

Fig. 6.36 – The Annular Flow Problem

Effect of
Cement ™ The transition period between
Channeling development of gel strength and
on “setting” sometimes allows flow
Hydrostatic
Pressures ™ High gel strength cement can
support the HSP of mud column
above and allow flow into the cement

™ Gas may then percolate upward

59 60

10
 Fig. 6.37 – Cement
Gel Strength
Development and
HSP Reduction
Formation Pressure with Time

No gas migration if
gel strength exceeds
500 lbf/100 sq/ft

61 62

11