Thermally Stable Cutter Technology Advances PDC Performance in Hard and Abrasive Formations, Kuwait

Abstract

Efficiently drilling the 16" hole section in high temperature/high pressure (HTHP) conditions through hard/abrasive Jurassic formations in Kuwait's oil fields has been a distinctive challenge for more than a decade. The difficult sequence of lithologies starts with abrasive Zubair sand (with pyrite) followed by reactive Ratawi shale and then hard carbonates (UCS 10–30kpsi). The Zubair is approximately 1300ft thick and has historically been drilled with four/six rollercone TCIs or a combination of two TCIs and two PDC bits or two/three PDCs. The objective has been to reduce the total number of bits/trips and ultimately drill the Zubair and as much Ratawi as possible with one PDC bit. Initial attempts with PDC were encouraging, but not economically successful compared to rollercone cost/ft. To improve performance, an FEA-based modeling system was used to predict downhole behavior. Based on these knowledge gains, a new PDC bit design was produced with optimized blade orientation and reconfigured cutting structure. Although the new design did improve performance, the drilling team concluded the PDC shearing elements were unable to withstand the HTHP environment (thermal degradation) and vibration induced impact damage. The operator required new technology to enhance cutter longevity. To deliver a suitable solution, new cutter technology was developed using a two-step manufacturing process high temperature/high pressure pressing technique. Laboratory tests indicated the new style cutter has significantly increased resistance to abrasive wear and thermal fatigue compared to standard cutters without compromising impact resistance. The HTHP cutters were run in a nine-bladed PDC with outstanding results setting a new Kuwaiti single run Zubair footage record (1302ft) and Zubair/Ratawi field footage record (1347ft). The authors will discuss the application challenges and resulting performance improvement. Offset analysis will document a performance step-change that saved the operator an average of 10 days of rig-time (﹩500,000USD).

3D Numerical Simulation of Rock Cutting of an Innovative Non-Planar Face PDC Cutter and Experimental Verification

“…While in hard abrasive formations serious failures, such as chipping, broken cutter and falling off of the PDC, often occur and the drilling effect is not satisfactory [1][2][3][4], which is difficult to meet the exploration and development needs of unconventional resources in deep formations [5,6]. To improve the performance of conventional PDC bits in deep formations, a series of approaches has been conducted on the material refinement and the design method supplement, such as increasing the number of cutters and blades [7], optimizing diamond packing [8] and using high-temperature and high-pressure (HT/HP) sintering for higher diamond volume in the PDC layer [9,10]. However, the actual improvement in field application is not obvious.…”