Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Woha Godwin (Jnr), Joel Ogbonna and Oriji Boniface; Institute of Petroleum Studies, University of Port
Harcourt, Nigeria
Abstract
The worlds energy demand is rising and
favourable economics has allowed oil companies
prospect and drill for oil in deeper, more
challenging frontiers (which are prone to high
pressures and high temperatures) than ever
before. There are vast reserves of hydrocarbons in
these remote locations that promise to bridge the
gap between demand and supply for energy.
However HPHT prospects can be a formidable
challenge. The mud weight (which is higher for
HPHT wells) must be accurately controlled
because of the very narrow mud weight windows.
This high mud weight requirement leads to
problems of high solid loading and barite sag.
Technology to effectively monitor downhole
pressure and temperature conditions is not well
developed. Rig crews need to be adequately
trained to adopt best practices in HPHT drilling to
minimize the risk of well control issues. In this
study, the conventional practices and procedures
in mud design were studied and analyzed.
Advances in mud design were highlighted and
case studies of some HPHT wells in regions
around the world were reviewed to learn the
lessons and best practices that led to their
success. Many of the conventional practices were
found to be inadequate for HPHT drilling. Rigorous
Introduction
The aim of this study is to investigate the trend in
mud design advancement as the search for oil
takes us into even deeper frontiers. Drilling and
producing petroleum from remote locations and at
great depth has become increasingly attractive for
1
several reasons :
Abundant infrastructure in the way of
platforms,
producing
facilities,
and
pipelines that would allow new production
to flow quickly to market.
New technology such as 3D seismic and
faster computers to locate potential
formations.
The challenge facing the oil industry presently is
that the process of economically extracting what
remains of the worlds hydrocarbon reserves is
stretching the traditional drilling and completion
fluids to their performance limits and beyond. This
is particularly true in the case of offshore and High
Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) field
developments where the application conditions are
extremely challenging and the required fluid
2
performance demands are exacting .
Drilling Fluids
The term drilling fluid refers to a liquid, gas, or
gasified liquid circulating continuum substance
used in the rotary drilling process to perform any
or all of the various functions required in order to
successfully drill a usable wellbore at the lowest
4
overall well cost .
The objective of the drilling and completion
process is to safely deliver high quality wells that
are optimized in terms of providing shareholder
value:
Best well productivity at lowest drawdown
Best well integrity and longest structural
lifetime
Lowest well construction cost
Lowest environmental impact and liability
exposure
Best reservoir information capture.
The choice of drilling and completion fluid used in
a well construction operation has a critical
influence on the extent to which an operator can
meet this objective. In particular the fluids
performance will play a significant part in
determining whether or not an operator meets its
key performance indicator targets in the following
areas:
Time to drill and complete
Well control and safety incidents
Well integrity
Well lifetime and maintenance costs
Well productivity index
Waste management costs
Logging capability and interpretation
Environmental footprint and impact
Exposure to liability (short- and long-term)
SPE 150737
SPE 150737
SPE 150737
!!!! !!=
Viscometer
With the depth horizons of HP/HT drilling
expanding, a technology gap was recognized in
the measurement of fluid viscosity at down-hole
conditions. Historical viscometer technology is
limited to measurements at # 500F/20,000 psig.
Some completed and on-going HPHT wells have
bottom-hole conditions approaching 600F and
40,000 psig. Since this was identified as a major
technology gap and fluid behavior had never been
evaluated at these extreme conditions, Ron Bland
et al (2006) set out to develop a new viscometer
suitable for HP/HT drilling. Criteria for the new
HP/HT viscometer included:
Working pressure up to 40,000 psig
Working temperature up to 600F
Ron et al succeeded in designing and fabricating a
new HPHT viscometer capable of testing fluids
used for deep gas drilling and this was made
available to the industry. The new viscometer, the
Chandler 7600, has met the design criteria
40,000 psig/600F and is capable of accurate
measurements in fluids containing ferromagnetic
material.
SPE 150737
A Temperature Simulator
The mud temperature profile in a wellbore
changes depending on the drilling parameters and
circulating history. The changing temperature
profile leads to varied mud hydrostatic pressures
Pstatic. Therefore, a temperature simulator is
required to establish the temperature profiles at
different pump rates and times from initiation of
circulation. The information generated from the
temperature simulator is then used by the
hydraulics program to predict the Pstatic element at
circulating temperature profiles. The purpose of
this is to ensure that a certain hydrostatic
overbalance is maintained at different pump rates
to keep the well under control immediately after
stopping circulation. This also helps to analyze the
ECD more accurately.
The temperature simulator used generates the
following temperature profiles for both steady state
and transit conditions:
SPE 150737
SPE 150737
SPE 150737
SPE 150737
10
Field Results
No drilling related problems occurred during the
four HPHT sections. 20 days were allocated in the
drilling plan to drill the HPHT section of the well,
this section was completed in only 10 days. About
10 rig days were saved for the HPHT section
23
alone as no well control incidents occurred . In
other HPHT wells, well control incidents occurred
once or twice per well on average. The improved
performance was attributed, at least in part, to the
new procedures and mud design. To further
illustrate this point, maximum flowline temperature
o
reached 150 F during the HPHT sections, if
conventional procedures had been followed, the
mud weight would have maintained at 915 pptf at
(the elevated temperatures. This is equivalent to
a9.0 pptf increase in mud weight. This is
23
significant enough to fracture the formation .
SPE 150737
Mud weight
The same new approach to the mud weight as
applied in the Heron fields and reported by Erhu
(1998) was applied in the Shearwater project. A
standard temperature was defined and used to
correlate the surface mud weight with the
equivalent downhole mud weight. Surface mud
weight was then controlled by a temperature
28
versus mud weight chart . The surface mud
weight was allowed to increase with decreasing
flowline temperature and it was also allowed to
decrease with increasing flowline temperature so
that a constant bottomhole pressure can be
maintained.
S/W ratio
An increase in the brine phase or a reduction in
S/W (Synthetic/Water) ratio will significantly
increase the viscosity of the mud system, which
will reduce the requirement on viscosifier. The
traditional argument for low S/W ratio muds is that
the dispersed brine phase will increase the
suspension capacity due to the effect of hindered
28
settling, which minimizes barite sag . However,
with low S/W ratio, less viscosifier will be required,
which will reduce the formation of the gelling
structure. In theory, therefore, there should be an
optimum S/W ratio, at which the optimum
combination between the gelling structure for
suspension from viscosifier and the dispersed
brine droplets for hindered settling can be
achieved to minimize barite sag. Erhu (2000)
reported that the optimum S/W ratio for this project
at which minimum tendency for barite sag exists
was found to be 80:20.
During drilling operations the S/W ratio was
maintained in the range from
79:21 to 83:17 in the HPHT sections. The S/W
ratio was maintained in the specification
throughout the drilling phase, with an effort of
keeping the S/W ratio as close to 80:20 as
28
possible .
Mud Rheology
Traditionally, PV (plastic viscosity) and YP (yield
point) were used to define the specification of mud
11
SPE 150737
HPHT Procedures
Pilot testing
HPHT muds are very sensitive to treatments. Pilot
tests must be carried out before adding any
chemicals into the active system. Furthermore, the
mud should be pilot tested on a continuous basis
to ensure that any depletion of additives is
compensated for, particularly for the emulsifier and
oil wetting agent. The effects of emulsifier and oil
wetting agent concentrations on the PV were
monitored on a regular basis to identify their
depletion and any necessary treatments were
made
before
the
mud
properties
are
28
deteriorated .
HPHT training
12
Continuity of personnel
Mud engineers are part of the integrated part of
the rig team. In addition to mud treatments, the
mud engineers must work closely with the drilling
supervisor, the rig crew and other third parties. To
ensure that the operation can be run smoothly on
a continuous basis and lessons learnt can be
captured and carried from well to well, no changes
of the mud engineers should be allowed
throughout the project period and especially during
28
the HPHT sections . The above strategy proved
to be a success in Shearwater and is strongly
recommended on future multi-well HPHT projects.
Field Results
Application of the new procedures from mud
formulation to best operational practices has
proved to be a great success. The Shearwater
project has set new standards for the drilling of
HPHT wells.
The Shearwater project has outperformed the best
in class HPHT wells by about 60 days from
handover to production. It is also on record that of
the North Sea HPHT wells, that four out of the five
best performing wells were delivered by the
28
Shearwater project . In total, the six-well HPHT
project was 230 days ahead of schedule and $48
million below budget.
Conclusions
Recent developments and advances have
contributed to the successful drilling of many
HPHT wells. The importance of a stable mud
system, detailed drilling program, best practices
and correct field execution are fundamental. The
following main conclusions and recommendations
about fluid engineering and management in HPHT
wells have been drawn.
1. Rigorous laboratory testing is necessary to
generate detailed engineering guidelines
for HPHT drilling fluids. PVT information of
the base fluids is used to achieve an
accurate pressure profile of the well due to
hydrostatic pressure from the drilling fluid.
2. A compositional model to determine the
change in density due to pressure and
temperature has been presented. Each
component is considered in expressing
the density of a whole fluid as a function of
pressure and temperature. Performing the
density correction every 100 feet of
vertical depth has proven to be an
acceptable method for Equivalent Static
Density (ESD) prediction.
SPE 150737
13
References
1. Ron, B. et al.: HP/HT Drilling Fluids
Challenges IADC/SPE 103731, presented at
the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology
Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 13-15
November 2006.
2. Downs, J, D. et al.: Drilling and Completing
Difficult HP/HT Wells With the Aid of Cesium
Formate Brines-A Performance Review
IADC/SPE 99068, presented at the IADC/SPE
Drilling Conference, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.,
21-23 February 2006.
3. U.S.
Department
of
Energy.
Energy
Information
Administration. June
2006.
International Energy Outlook 2006. Report #
DOE/EIA-0484 (2006).
4. Azar, J.J. and Robello, S. G. Drilling
Engineering,
PennWell
Corporation,
Okhlahoma, USA, 2007.
5. Somiari, P., Unpublished lecture notes on
Drilling Fluids and Cementing Operations,
PPD 607-3, 2010, IPS UNIPORT.
6. IPS Drilling School, Unpublished Training
Manual on Mud Engineering, Institute of
Petroleum Studies, University of PortHarcourt, 2010.
7. Nguyen, J. P., Drilling Oil and Gas Field
Development Techniques, Editions Technip,
Institut Francais Du Petrole Publications,
Paris, 1996.
8. Baroid Drilling Fluids Inc., Manual of Drilling
Fluids Technology, Copyright Houston,
Texas, 1990.
9. Rommetveit, R., Fjelde, K.K., Aas, B., Day,
N.M., Low, E. and Schwartz, H.: HPHT Well
Control; an Integrated Approach, OTC 15322,
Offshore Technology Conference, Houston,
May 5-8, 2003.
10. Francis, P. A., Eigner, M.R.P., Patey, I.T.M.
and Spark, I.S.C.:Visualization of DrillingInduced Formation Damage Mechanisms
using Reservoir Conditions Core Flood
Testing, SPE 30088, SPE European
Formation Damage Conference, The Hague,
The Netherlands, 15-16 May 1995.
11. Sutanto, H. and Semerad, C.A.W.: Annulus
Corrosion in High Temperature Gas Wells,
SPE Production Engineering, Vol. 5, pp 295298, August 1990.
12. Ibrahim, M.Z., Hudson, M., Selamat, K., Chen,
P.S., Nakamura, K. and Ueda, M.: Corrosion
Behaviour of S13Cr Martensitic Stainless
Steel in Completion Fluid, Corrosion/2003,
Paper No. 03097, NACE International 2003,
Houston, Texas, USA.
SPE 150737
14
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
SPE 150737
15
SPE 150737