I.1.

1 Définition

The drilling fluid, also called drilling mud, is a system composed of

different liquid (water, oil) and / or gaseous (air or natural gas)
constituents containing in suspension other mineral and organic
additives (clays, polymers, surfactants, cuttings, cements, ...). The drilling
fluid was already presented in 1933 at the first World Petroleum
Congress, where it was the subject of five papers The first treatise on
drilling fluids was published in 1936 by Evans and Reid. In 1979, the
American Petroleum Institute (API) defined drilling fluid as a fluid in
continuous circulation throughout the drilling period, both in the borehole
and on the surface. The fluid is prepared in sludge tanks, it is injected
inside the rods to the tool from where it goes up into the ring finger,
loaded with the cuttings formed at the face. At the exit of the well, it
undergoes various treatments, sieving, dilution, addition of products, so
as to eliminate the excavated material transported and to readjust its
physico-chemical characteristics to their initial values. It was then reused
(Landriot, 1968)....

Ensure removal of cuttings from the bottom of the well to the surface by
the circulation of a viscous fluid in the annular space. This cuttings
provide geological information on the formations drilled.

Keep the cuttings in suspension when there is no circulation in order to

prevent sedimentation of cuttings which may lead to mecanical stuck,
this is possible thanks to the thixotropic nature of the fluid.
Cool and lubricate the bit to prevent rapid wear of moving metal parts.

Formation pressure monitoring

The formation pressure is the pressure of the fluid within the pore spaces of the formation
rock while the hydrostatic pressure is the total fluid pressure created by the weight of a
column of fluid acting on any given point in a well and it is mathematically represented
by equation 1 and 2. The fluid formation pressure must be kept and maintained at a level
that is sufficiently lower than the fluid hydrostatic pressure in order to prevent the inflow
of formation fluid into the well bore. Uncontrolled fluid formation pressure can result in
formation fracture, abnormal inflow of formation fluid into the wellbore (Kick) and an
uncontrolled kick will eventually lead to blow out [Rabia 1986]. One common method
of increasing the hydrostatic pressure is by increasing the drilling mud density. Drilling
muds are typically required to have moderately high densities that provides sufficient
hydrostatic pressure to prevent influx of formation fluids into the well bore, counter
abnormal formation pressure and to mechanically stabilize unstable formation.
Excessively high density can result in loss of circulation, damage to the drilled formation
and lower drilling rate.

4 Sealing of permeable formation

During oil and gas drilling activities, the mud filtrate invades the porous and permeable
formation that is being drilled because the mud column pressure is higher than the
formation pressure and the filtrate invasion process continues until the solid components
of the mud form a thin low permeability filter cake on the wellbore wall that forms a seal
and thus prevents further invasion. Drilling mud system must be carefully formulated to
prevent the deposition of thick filter cake that unarguably cause tight holes, poor log
result quality, stuck pipe, lost circulation and potential damage to the formation [Anawe
and Folayan,2018a