Monitoring annular pressure while drilling is one of important subjects to avoid

drilling problems, such as pack off, formation fracture and hole cleaning issues.
Measurement while drilling (MWD) tool offers this monitoring service using
pressure sensor mounted on the collar wall.
In this article, I would like to describe the hardware operation, equivalent
circulating density (ECD) calculation and application of ECD data.

Annular Pressure (AP)

Annular pressure is created by hydrostatic pressure of mud column along the
wellbore. Since the mud has certain mud weight or mud density, the annular
pressure will be increasing as the depth increasing. There are 2 types of annular
pressure, they are static and dynamic.
Static annular pressure is created by hydraulic pressure of mud plus cuttings
suspended in the mud when there is no flow in the annulus, hence it is called
static. Dynamic annular pressure is static annular pressure plus pressure drop
along the annulus of well bore. This pressure drop is created by the friction force
between mud particles and wellbore and pipes due to mud flowing in the
annulus.
Both static and dynamic AP exert the mud against formation. Normally, the AP
is slightly higher than formation pressure to avoid the formation fluid to enter
annulus. In some cases, the AP is kept lower than formation pressure, and this
is known as under balance drilling.
If the AP is too high than formation pressure, the mud pressure able to fracture
formation and may lead to fluid (mud) loss into formation. This may restrict
hydrocarbon production when the loss is in production zone. If the AP is too
low than formation pressure, the formation fluid flows into annulus or known
as fluid influx. In worst case, fluid influx may become blow out at surface.
Drilling operation needs to control this AP within tolerance or is called safety
margin.
To measure AP, MWD tool is equipped with pressure sensor mounted on the
collar, pointing toward to the annulus. This sensor able to record both static and
dynamic pressure. Data collected by the sensor will then be transmitted to
surface and stored into internal tool’s memory.

Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD)

Annular pressure is normally expressed as equivalent circulating density. To
convert AP into ECD is simply using the following equation:
ECD = AP / (0.052 * TVD)
Where ECD is in ppg (pound per gallon); AP is in psi (pound per square inch)
and TVD is in ft (feet).
The AP value is taken directly from the transmitted measured data by the
pressure sensor. The TVD is the vertical depth between the pressure sensor depth
and the point where the mud is exposed to atmospheric pressure, which can be
flow line in the flow-line-quipped rig or mean se level when the rig is riser less.
To have the correct ECD calculation, the surface equipment must be set
correctly to those points of measurements.

Annular Pressure Application

ECD is a dynamic value which depend on wellbore conditions. It can increase or
decrease, so that the ECD can be used to understand the wellbore condition.
Here are some applications of ECD or AP.
· Formation Integrity Test (FIT) or Leak Off Test (LOT)
During FIT or LOT, battery powers the sensor to record the data. The tool
records data every one second or even faster. After the test has been done,
realtime data will be transmitted to surface. Only the highest and the lowest
pressure data will be transmitted. The complete pressure data can be retrieved
from tool’s internal memory when the tool reach surface. This data is used to
analysed the formation strength beneath casing shoe.
· Mud weight adjustment
Mud weight is critical during drilling to keep the formation stable, so that
maintaining mud weight to the correct value is important. The ECD is
calculated continuously as the annular pressure from tool’s pressure sensor is
received at the surface. The mud weight is then adjusted according to the
calculated ECD to have a balance with formation’s fracture gradient and
formation pressure.
· Hole cleaning
One of the function of drilling mud is to transport cuttings to surface. The
wellbore must be clean to avoid drilling problems such as torque increase or even
pack off. If the transportation of cutting is having problem, then the cutting
will accumulate in the wellbore. This makes the EMW increase. This is the
signal that the hole cleaning must be improved which can be done by pumping
high viscosity mud to sweep the cutting away; increase the flow rate or a
decision to make wiper trip.
· Mud gel strength breaking force
During make up drill pipe stand connection before continue drilling, the mud
pumps are stopped. It makes the mud in the annulus is in static state. During
this state, the mud becomes gel to suspend the cutting from being falling to the
bottom of the hole. After connection of drill pipe stand has been made, the
pumps are brought back to operation and the mud starts to flow again. At the
start of the flow, the pressure force is used to break the gel to make the mud
flowable. Although this force takes few seconds, it makes annular pressure to be
slightly higher than the annular pressure while drilling. This is critical when the
ECD safety margin is very tight, since there is a possibility to fracture the
formation especially beneath the casing shoe as it is considered as the weakest
point.
The disadvantage of this service is that the pressure sensor is unable to detect
pressure change below its location in the collar, or between bottom hole and
sensor depth and inside the drill string. When something happens between those
points, the only indication is the stand pipe pressure reading. Some MWD tool
is equipped with bore pressure sensor. It is similar to annular pressure sensor,
but the sensor is mounted toward the inner bore of the collar.

Presentation
The best way to present AP and ECD service is to plot them on time based log.
The middle track should be time annotated with depth. The first track is
common information i.e. block position and hook load. The second track is to
plot annular pressure together with stand pipe pressure. The third track will be
mud weight in and ECD. Annotation about the rig activity on the comment
track will be useful to understand the ongoing activity at that time, such as FIT
or LOT, turning on booster pump, displacing old mud with new mud, increasing
or decreasing mud weight and so on.
With this plot arrangement, one can analyse the curve trend along with time
lapse. Once there is anomaly trend, an action can be taken immediately.

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