Hole cleaning and drilling rate remain major challenges once it comes to plan and drill workover and development wells. Inadequate hole cleaning is responsible for a large portion of all stuck pipe problems. Approximately 33% of stuck pipe incidents because of bad hole cleaning. The rate of penetration is extremely related to hole cleaning. If optimum hole cleaning can be ensured, that will lead to a high rate of penetration. To ensure perfect hole cleaning, it must be engineered. There are several correlations, mothed, designs, models, tools, charts, fields results, experimental studies and chemical materials to enhance the hole cleaning, but several of them are just based on theory and lack proper experimental data and not feasible in drilling operations. The knowledge of the size of cuttings, size of annulus, flow pattern, and down hole fluid properties cannot determined with high accuracy. This paper will show the influence of hole cleaning on the rate of penetration that will ensure optimum performance and mitigate stuck pipe problem and how the approach was applied during drilling operations. Knowledge from this paper will help in knowing hole cleaning more accurately and therefore facilitate improving drilling rate. The application of approach of Well drilling performance by using carrying capacity index and cuttings concentration in the annulus for ensuring perfect hole cleaning, and achieving enhanced well drilling performance by using optimum drilling parameters that can ensure minimum DSE. The Approach has been validated in the fields, and used to drill in challenging hole sections, and has improved the well drilling performance more than 55% and minimized DSE more than 54%.
Drilling companies are constantly evaluating ways to improve the efficiency and safety of their operations, the way the returns of the well are circulated while drilling has remained unchanged for decades, however, having a circulating system open to the atmosphere imposes a risk to the drilling crew in the rig flow. Conventional influx detection methods can easily allow the gasification of the mud column in the annulus before it is noticeable and H2S or flammable gas alarm can be triggered before any action is taken. A rotating control device (RCD) is a piece of equipment that diverts the returns of the well from the rig floor while allowing the drill pipe to be rotated and reciprocated, that means tripping and drilling operations can be performed while the well is isolated from the rig floor by the RCD. The RCD is a key component in Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) operations as it is responsible for containing the annular surface pressure and preserving the integrity of the circulation system, hence maintaining a slight overbalance condition on the well, additionally the RCD can be deployed independently for other applications that enhance the safety and optimize the costs of the drilling operation. For this reason, efforts are made to ensure that optimum operating conditions are present to reduce the chances of system failure. Historical data detailing the performance of RCD systems, including total stripped footage, total rotating hours and failure mechanisms were used to evaluate the reliability of this technology and to set operating limits to optimize its performance. Historically there are conditions that are known to reduce the life span of RCD bearing assemblies, such as misalignment of the Blowout Preventer (BOP) stack, hard banding or bad condition of drill pipe tool joints, excessive drill pipe vibration, temperature and type of fluid out of the well, among others. Ensuring that the operating limits are observed regarding rotating speed, pressure and temperature were observed to be key to maximizing the life cycle. It was observed that the base technology over which RCDs are designed is far from recent and new additions to the current setup are needed to "smarten up" an otherwise very basic piece of equipment, this with the intention of obtain better data regarding its operating conditions and the parameters that affect its performance. New technologies in terms of elastomer compounds, seal design improvements, monitoring systems and implementation of artificial intelligence are some of the upcoming developments discussed in this document and that are to be implemented in the short and medium term in RCD operations in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In their development of onshore gas fields in South Texas Shell has encountered margins in which the difference between dynamic ECD and static BHP is the difference between lost circulation and influx. Their solution to eliminate those problems included liner drilling and automated MPD. Those complementary technologies allowed Shell to extend static underbalanced drilling to extremely tight margins, eliminate losses and stuck pipe, and manage constant BHP during periods of high drill gas and cementing operations. An automated and modular MPD system was recently used in two wells to hold constant BHP in a very narrow window without a back pressure pump. In the first well, Shell used the system to drill-in 740 ft of 7-5/8” liner in an 8-1/2” hole with 15.0 ppg mud statically underbalanced relative to wellbore stability. In the second, the system was used to drill-in 700’ of 3-1/2” tubing in a 6-1/2” hole with a static mud of 15.7 and a dynamic ECD of 16.2 ppg. In that interval the upper limit was estimated to be a 16.5 ppg fracture gradient and the lower limit, a 15.8 ppg pore pressure. In the second well the level of drill gas rose to over 1400 units. However, even with such high levels of gas the new MPD system was able to maintain the BHP between +/− 0.2 ppg while making connections and trapping gas in the annulus. Shell was able to avoid the cost of a contingency 5-1/2” liner drilling operation and for the first time used an automated MPD system to manage constant BHP while cementing a drilled-in production tubing string. The small footprint and improved control capability of the new MPD system can provide onshore and offshore operators an efficient solution to improve drilling and cementing operations in mature depleted fields.
The intelligent drilling system (IDS), based on the 57,000 bits per second and bi-directional wired drill pipe telemetry, has been under experimental trial in the industry in a variety of applications. Several SPE papers have covered these applications, which include: drilling optimization, hole cleaning, drilling risks and NPT reduction. The IDS can also be utilized with other tools to expand the window of drilling optimization applications to include the risk management approach, where the system value and the impact on drilling operations will be greater. To achieve this change, it is important to expand and improve the current techniques and develop new methods that will expand the application of the wired drill pipe (WDP) system. This paper will describe the application of WDP in middle east during a trial test, showing how it was expanded and customized to suit complex drilling environments. This field trial involved a three-phase approach. Each of these phases tested the functionality and application of the IDS to determine the potential benefit for different projects. Phase 1 aimed at testing the system functionality and integrity. This includes along string measurements (ASMs), logging while drilling (LWD) data transmission, wired bottomhole assembly components, top drive and surface system, and interface sub and signal boosters. Phase 2 aimed at testing the top-of-mud measurements derived from the ASMs pressure readings. The objective was to test the algorithm and validate the results to ensure accurate readings. Measuring the fluid level is critical in managing total loss situations. Phase 3 aimed at early kick detection simulation. In this phase, a kick was simulated by pumping a heavy mud pill and checking ASM response while the pill was progressing up the annulus. This simulation has important applications in early downhole kick detection in total loss situations where there are no returns to surface. Finally, the paper will outline future applications of the IDS in managing risk in complex and risky drilling environments. This is where total losses are encountered while drilling across high-pressure reservoirs. Fluid level, in total losses situation, will be monitored by high-frequency downhole pressure measurments at multiple depths. These measurements of the downhole hydrostatic and dynamic pressure will also be providing early kick detection.
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