Otc 28052 Ms

OTC-28052-MS
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Designing Fluid Properties to Minimize Barite Sag and its Impact on Annular
Pressure Build Up Mitigation in Producing Offshore Wells
Luis Americo Calcada, Claudia Miriam Scheid, Luiz Augusto da Cruz Meleiro, and Bruno Francisco Oechsler,
Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro; Flávia Marques Fagundes, Nara Brandão Costa Santos, Fábio de
Oliveira Arouca, and João Jorge Ribeiro Damasceno, Federal University of Uberlândia; Elessandre Souza, Alex
Tadeu Waldmann, and Andre Leibsohn Martins, Petrobras
Copyright 2017, Offshore Technology Conference
This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference Brasil held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24–26 October 2017.
This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of
the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright.
Abstract
After the cementing of an oil well, part of drilling fluid is confined in the annulus between the cement and
an isolation tool (pack off). During the production phase of a well, the confined fluid will be exposed to a
temperature gradient due to the circulation of reservoir fluid through the production screen. This increase
in the temperature causes a pressure evolution that can damage isolation.
Among several possibilities for APB mitigation, the strategy of communicating the annulus with a
formation is often considered. In this case, when pressure reaches formation fracture, fluid would be drained
from the annulus and thus, the pressure would be released. However, several authors claim that, after a
period, barite sag in the drilling fluid will create an impermeable layer, which will prevent communication
of annulus with the formation; and APB mitigation strategy would fail. These wells are placed in operation
a few years after completion is concluded.
This article presents an extensive experimental task aiming the understanding of the effect of rheology
on barite sag for different fluid concepts. The experiments consisted of long time sedimentation tests
(monitored by gamma ray techniques) and a rheological characterization of the fluids. Fluids tested include
new and aged Synthetic based systems. The role of particle diameter in the permeability of the sedimented
bed was also investigated. The experimental results provide valuable guidelines for designing fluids aiming
APB mitigation.
Introduction
In oil well drilling, fluids are circulated to clean the wellbore, exert hydrostatic pressure and to stabilize
the wellbore walls (Bourgoyne, et al., 1991). To perform properly its functions, the drilling fluid must
present controlled physical properties, such as viscosity and density. To achieve the desired density in some
operations, high-density solidsare addedto the drilling fluids. The settling of barite, or any other weighting
material, provides undesirable fluctuations in the drilling fluids density. The settling of barite particles
(Nguyen, et al., 2009) causes problems such as stuck pipe, pressure control difficulties and lost circulation.
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The mitigation of barite sag is one of the major challenges during the drilling and completion operations
(Omland, 2009). Although many studieshave been performed, there are no satisfactory solutions, and the
proper characterization of this phenomenon is still a difficult task(Nguyen, et al, 2009). Calçadaet al.
(2016) developed a mathematical model for description of barite sag. However, this model was validated
only for clarified zone. In order to simulate the barite sag in drilling fluids, a two phase model, based on
conservation equations, was developed. The proposed model considers continuity equationand empirical
correlations for velocity of solid phase. The resulting model, comprised by a set of partial differential
equations, was solved by a well-known method of lines, after discretization along the axial direction with
the finite volumesmethod, using an upwind interpolation scheme for values of variables in faces of volumes.
The resulting dynamical differential equations were solved numerically with the DASSL code (Petzold,
1990). The unidirectional settling was investigatedin order to evaluate the modelsensitivity with respect
to the parameters associated to velocity of solid phase. With the aim to evaluate experimentally the barite
sag, settling runs were performedin a graduated cylinder. The experimental results were used to evaluate
the parameters of proposed correlations for solid phase velocity. Simulation data were also confronted with
experimental results.
Experimental Section
The experimental data were obtainedfrom a set of barite sag runs (without replicates) in oil based drilling
fluids. The main purpose of the experimental work was to obtainthe solid concentration profiles in the barite
sag process. The experiments were performed in a beakerwith 27 cm of height and outside diameter of 6.0
cm. The height of suspension in sag tests was 23 cm.
The solids concentration profiles of the drilling fluid during the settling experiment were monitored by
gamma-ray attenuation technique. Settling runs of olefin-based drilling fluids were performed for different
oil/water ratios and concentrations of weighting material. The monitoring of solids concentration profile
was based on gamma-ray attenuation technique using the radionuclide Americium (Am241). This procedure
is not considered destructive, since thatduring its implementation there is no disturbances in the systems
analysis. The experimental procedure was based initially in preparation and homogenization of 500 mL of
suspensions in a propeller stirrer during one hour, followed by addition of suspension in a glass pipe. The
settling apparatus is illustrated schematically in Figure 1. The Americium source limited solids maximum
concentration.
Figure 1—Scheme of the sedimentation unit monitored by beams ranges.

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The gamma-ray attenuation technique (GRAT) is based on the relationship between the energy of the
incident radiation and passes on a kind of buffer. In this second stage, to evaluate the model has been used a
second dataset of degradated fluids with barytes. The full composition and physical properties of the fluids
areshown in Table 1.
Table 1—Composition and Physical Propertiesperformed in Sag Tests
Mathematical Modelling
As discussed by Kynch (1951) and McCabe (1993), settling processes presents a typical solids concentration
behavior, where some different regions can be identified, as illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2—Typical Settling Patterns in Sedimentation (McCABE, 1993).
In batch tests, the interface between the free settling zone and the non-compression zone can be
monitored; while the second zone is very difficult to track. Generally, batch tests present three sedimentation
zones (McCabe, 1993), as detailed below:
▪ A free settling zone, where particles fall freely without contact between them;
▪ A non-compression zone, where the concentration increases and the sedimentation rate of the particles
decreases, and;
▪ A compression regime, where particles aggregate due to the contact with each other. In the
compression zone, the solids concentration will depend on the pressure transmitted along the annulus.
In order to formulate a phenomenological model based on mass conservation law, the following
hypotheses were considered:
▪ Settling is one-dimensional;
▪ The liquid phaseis non-compressible;
▪ Wall effects can be neglected;
▪ The fluid may present non-Newtonian rheological behavior,
▪ Velocities and shear rates are low enough;
▪ Due to previous hypothese, changes in apparent viscosities can be neglected.
The resulting set of governing model equations is presented below:
4 OTC-28052-MS
Continuity equation for the solid phase
(1)
Where Cs is the solids volumetric concentration, vs z is the velocity of solid particles, t the time and z direction
of sedimentation.Equation (1) is subject to the condition of absence of solid flow in the bottom as at the top
of the vessel. Futhermore, the following initial condition must be considered:
(2)
Regarding to solid phase velocity in settling processes, Table 2 presents some empirical correlations
published on open literature. Table 3 shows the main parameters associated to empirical correlations
presented in Table 2.
Table 2—Empirical correlations for sag velocity of solid phase
Table 3—Parameters of empirical correlations for sag velocity of solid phase
Richardson & Zacki (1954), as shown in Table 2, published the first correlation for computation of solid
velocity as a function of local concentration of solids. However, this correlation fails on description of
incompressible sediment region, since it supposes the maximum volumetric solids concentration can be
100%. However, Michaels & Bolger (1962) purposed a correction of correlation of Richardson &Zacki
(1954) by insertion of maximum volumetric solids concentration in incompressible sediment region. The
correlation purposed by Barton et al. (1992) presents similarity with the equation of Michaels & Bolger
(1992), with addition of a second term that lead take into account the ascention velocity of liquid phase. In
this work, the correlation of Michaels & Bolger (1992) was evaluated for computation of velocity of settling
in drilling fluid, while liquid phase velocity was calculated by equations of d'Avilla (1978) and Richardson
&Zacki (1954). Parameters n and q were estimated by inspection.
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Results
The accuracy of the proposed model was evaluated from simulation tests, using the second set of
experimental data (obtained from sag tests of fluids weighted with barite). Convergence of discretization
scheme was seen with use of 200 volumes. Simulated and predicted results in sag experiments with fluids
1 and 2 are presented in Figures 3 and 4. Corrected values of parameters n , q and Cs ,max used in simulations
are shown in Table 4.
Figure 3—Detailed results of experimental run with fluid 1: MP (model predictions), and ED (experimental data).
Figure 4—Detailed results of experimental run with fluid 2: MP (model predictions), and ED (experimental data).
Table 4—Parameters of empirical correlation of Barton et al. (1992)

6 OTC-28052-MS
Runs with fluids 1 and 2 were performed with similar fluid composition. The only difference was the
addition of REVDUST in second fluid. Regarding the experimental data behavior, it was not noticed
significant difference in measured dynamic profiles of solid concentration. Additionally, the model
presented similar behavior in the description of both experimental runs.
Figure 3a presents simulated and experimental results for free sag region with fluid 1. From these results,
it is possible to state that model was able to describe qualitatively the experimental dynamic profiles in
heights of 21 and 20 cm of column, presenting deviations smaller than 20% and average deviation of 9%.
However, a significant deviation between the model and experimental results can be seen in height of 22 cm.
This deviation can be attributed to problems in the experimental measurement of the solids concentration
due to the positioning of the sensor near the top of the column. These features will be evaluated in the next
steps of this research. Experimental and simulated results of compression region can be seen in Figure 3b.
Simulated results are in accordance with experimental data of solid concentration in heights of 0.5 and 1.0
cm of column. However, a lag in simulated dynamic profile of solid concentration can be seen in height of
12.0 cm, when compared with the experimental data.
Regarding to results of sag test with fluid 2, Figure 4a presents simulated and experimental results
of clarified region. The simulated results for dynamic profiles of solid concentration were sactisfatory
in heights of 22 and 21 cm of column. As can be seen in Figure 4a, the purposed model was not able
to describe the dynamic behavior of solid concentration profile in height of 20cm. Particularly, it can
be noticed an increase of solid concentration before the settling of particles. In this case, the increase
of fluid viscosity can provides an increase of interactionforces between the solid particles in this region.
Therefore, solid concentration can increases due to lag in settling of particles. However, the purposed
model described the three sag regions as shown in Figures 3 and 4: (a) clarified region (without solids);
(b) free sedimentation region (with constant concentration); and (c) compression region (with increasing
concentration). Futhermore, the model predicts qualitatively the experimental results of suspension's upper
interface fall.
The influence of particle size, liquid viscosity and initial solid concentration was also evaluated through
simulation tests. In these simulations, physical properties and parameters of empirical correlation were kept
fixed in values corresponding to fluid 1, as shown in Tables 1 and 4. Figure 5 presents the simulated results,
illustrating the effect of particle size in dynamic profiles of solid concentration in clarified and compression
regions. One can observe in Figure 5 that with particle size increase, the settling speed increases too. It is
known that, as particle diameter approaches to zero the system tends to behave as a single phase (Brennen,
2005). The effect of fluid viscosity in dynamic profiles of solid concentration in clarified and compression
regions is shown in Figure 6. Simulations were carried with fluid viscosities of 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05 Pa.s.
As expected, the settling velocity decreases with viscosity increase, due to the higher drag force in more
viscous liquids.
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Figure 5—Influence of particle size in dynamic profiles of solid concentration: (a) z = 22 cm; and (b) z =0.5 cm.
Figure 6—Influence of fluid viscosity in dynamic profiles of solid concentration: (a) z = 22 cm; and (b) z =0.5 cm.
In order to present the effect of solid concentration in dynamic profiles of solid concentration, simulations
were carried with initial concentrations of 10, 15 and 20%. Simulation results for clarified and compression
regions are shown in Figure 7. One can observe that with solids concentration increase, the settling speed
decreases. That is the physical behavior (known as hindered settling) wasobserved experimentally and well-
posed in literature(Massarani, 2002).
8 OTC-28052-MS
Figure 7—Influence of initial solid concentration in dynamic profiles of barite sag: (a) z = 22 cm; and (b) z =0.5 cm.
Conclusions
Unique non intrusiveolephin based drilling fluis long timesedimentation experiments monitored by gamma
ray techniques are detailed in this article. The experimental data showed the presence of the tree classical
sedimentation zones. We evaluated the role of particle diameter in the sedimentation, so we can observe
that effects in the permeability of the sedimented bed. The proposed experimental tests provide valuable
guidelines for designing fluids aiming APB mitigation.
A mathematical model was developed in this work to evaluate the barite sag in oil based drilling fluids.
The description of the investigated from continuity equation and empirical correlation for solid phase
velocity was performed sactisfatorilyin the analysedcase studies. Simulations were carried to evaluate the
model behavior in different settling conditions, and using diferent fluids composition.
A further step is to evaluate the model behaviorin cases studies involving all phenomenawhich were
studied separately in this work. The full model validation will be performed with experimental and field data.
The main uncertainty in the present model of barite sag in drilling fluids is associated with the appropriate
description of interactionsforces, taking into account the effect of fluid rheology.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the financial and technical support provided by PETROBRAS and CAPES.
Nomenclature
Cs Solids volumetric concentration
Dp Particle diameter
g Acceleration of gravity
l Index to refer to the liquid phase
s Index to refer to the solid phase
t Time
v Velocity
z Axial position
Greek letters
μ Viscosity
ρ Density
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References
Barton, N.G.; Li, C.H.; Spencer, S.J. Control of a surface of discontinuity in continuous thickness. The Journal of the
Australian Mathematical Society. Series B. Applied Mathematics, 269-282, 1992.
Bourgoyne, A. T., Milheim, K. K., Chenevert, M. E., Young, F. S. "Applied Drilling Engineering", Second Edition, SPE,
Richardson, Texas, USA, 1991.
Brennen, C. E. "Fundamentals of Multiphase Flow", Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Calçada, L.A., Scheid, C. M., Meleiro, L. A. C., Ribeiro Jr, J. M., Seufitelli, G. V. S., Peliano, V., Santos, H. F. L., Souza,
E. A., Monteiro, V., Martins, A. L., Barite Sag and Its Impact On Annular Pressure Build Up Mitigation In Producing
Offshore Wells. SPE-181377. Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE Annual Technical Conference
and Exhibition held in Dubai, UAE, 26–28 September 2016.
D'Avilla, J.S. Um Modelo Matemático para Sedimentação. Thesis, DSc, COPPE/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1978.
Kynch, G. J. A Theory of Sedimentation. Trans. Amer. Soc., pp. 166–176, 1951.
Massarani, G. "Fluidodinâmica em Sistemas Particulados", Second Edition, E-papers, Brazil, 2002.
McCabe, W.L.; Smith, J.C.; Harriot, P. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering. Fifth Edition, McGraw-HiII Chemical
Engineering Series, New York, 1993.
Michaels, A.; Bolger, J. Settling rates and sediment volumes of flocculated kaolin suspensions. Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry Fundamentals, 1, 24-23, 1962.
Nguyen, T. C.; Miska, S.; Takach, N. Predicting Dynamic Barite Sag In Oil Based Drilling Fluids. SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition - New Orleans Louisiana, 2009.
Omland, T. H. Particle Settling In Non-Newtonian Drilling Fluids. Dissertation (Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering) – Faculty
of Science and Technology, Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger. Stavanger, 2009.
Petzold, L. R. DASSL code; Computing and Mathematics Research Division: Livermore, CA, 1990.
Richardson, J.F.; Zacki, W.N. Sedimentation and fluidization: Part I. Transactions of Institution of Chemical Engineers,
32, 82-100, 1954.

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Copyright 2017, Offshore Technology Conference

Figure 1—Scheme of the sedimentation unit monitored by beams ranges.

Figure 2—Typical Settling Patterns in Sedimentation (McCABE, 1993).

Continuity equation for the solid phase

Table 2—Empirical correlations for sag velocity of solid phase

Table 3—Parameters of empirical correlations for sag velocity of solid phase

Table 4—Parameters of empirical correlation of Barton et al. (1992)

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