COMMON DRILLING & DRILLING

FLUID PROBLEMS

SHALE PROBLEMS

SHALES
Shales makes up over 75% of drilled formation & causes over 90% of wellbore instability problems

Classification of shales

Soft Shales (Gumbo)

Hard/ Brittle Shale

SOFT SHALES
Usually contain smectite and/ or Illite Problems : Bit Balling Mud Rings Plugged flow lines Hole Washout

SOFT SHALES
Clay Swelling Mechanism
Water enters between clay sheets Bonds tightly to Na+ ion Several layers of bound water Increased hydrodynamic Volume Increased viscosity

SOFT SHALES
Control Clay Swelling
Halide Salts eg. KCl, NaCl, CaCl2
Other salts eg Silicates, acetates, formates Base exchange eg. Lime, Gypsum

Water binders eg. Glycol, Glycerol

Polymers eg. PHPA Filtration Control Polymers eg. PAC, Starch

Capillary Plugging Agents eg. Asphaltics

SOFT SHALES

Control Clay Swelling (OBM)

Base oil (or ester) + emulsifiers Salt (usually CaCl2) in water phase Filtration Control Agents Capillary Plugging Agents eg. Asphaltics

SOFT SHALES
Drilling Practices
Controlled ROP Avoid annular overloading Avoid the formations of mud rings

Short trips
Circulate hole clean prior to tripping Rig modifications

SOFT SHALES
Symptoms of hole erosion
Increased amount of cuttings Excess LGS in drilling fluid

Increase in bottom-up time

Poor hole cleaning Problems controlling direction

HARD/ BRITTLE SHALES

Less amount of water w/ more illite, kaolinite, and/or chlorite Problems : Tight hole Wellbore cavings

HARD/ BRITTLE SHALES

Indications of wellbore cavings

Large pieces of cutting (smooth surface) Trouble running drillstring to bottom

Un-clean hole (torque & drag, increased pump pressure)

HARD/ BRITTLE SHALES

Drilling Practices
Adequate MW to maintain wellbore stability Circulate hole clean prior to trip Wiper trip Slowly tripping to minimize surge & swab

LOST CIRCULATION

LOST CIRCULATION
Complete or partial loss of whole mud to a formation as a result of hydrostatic and/or annular pressure exerted by a drilling fluid

LOST CIRCULATION

Potential Type of Lost Circulation Zone :

Highly permeable formations Naturally fractured formations

Cavernous formations
Induced fractures due to a pressure imbalance

LOST CIRCULATION

Types of Lost Circulation

Seepage Losses Partial Losses

Wellbore Breathing
Severe Losses Total Losses

SEEPAGE LOSS
Rate < 10 bph mainly due to poor filtration loss

Treatment
Pre-treatment with Barofibre, Baracarb, Steelseal Pills contain high concentration of LCM spot frequently Spot LCM prior to POOH LCM with PSD matches to sand being drilled

PARTIAL LOSS
Rate 10-50 bph

Treatment
Steelseal addition to increase fracture initiation pressure Spot pills with wide range particle size & type Mixtures of Baracarb and Barofibre

WELLBORE BREATHING
Wellbore breathing can range from an almost complete return of all fluid lost, to severe losses

Preventing is the best solution Controlling ECD and surge pressures Pre-treat the system with LCM (Barofibre and Steelseal)

SEVERE LOSS
Can result on well control and hole instabilty problem

Treatment
Mixtures of coarse LCM materials and wide size distribution Flexplug Gunk Squeeze Cement Squeeze

TOTAL LOSS
No returns come to surface

Treatment
Mixtures of coarse LCM materials and wide size distribution Flexplug Gunk Squeeze Cement Squeeze Mud Cap Drilling Blind Drilling until TD

CAUSES OF LOST CIRCULATION

Higher MW than pressure formation

Higher rheology which increase the ECD and pressure

High gel strength which will increase initial pressure when break circulation

Lower than needed rheology which in-effectively bring out the cutting, thus increase the ECD

CAUSES OF LOST CIRCULATION

High tripping speed cause high surge pressure Excessive ROP, annular overloading increase ECD Bring the pumps on rapidly cause pressure spikes Long periods of sliding, followed by rapid rotation drilling annular overloading, increase ECD

PREVENTING LOST CIRCULATION

Reduce Mechanical Pressures

Casing Points Pre-treat system with LCM as bridging agent (Wellbore Stress Management)

PREVENTING LOST CIRCULATION

Reducing Mechanical Pressure

Control the ROP to prevent ECD that will increase pressure

Choose minimum practical mud weight

Maintain minimum annular flow rate to allow adequate hole cleaning

Use good hole cleaning practices Keep pipe movements slow to minimize surge & swab Break circulation slowly

PREVENTING LOST CIRCULATION

Choosing Casing Point

As deep as possible, and set in non-porous formation

Pre-treatment with LCM Bridging agent will bridge the porous zone and minimize seepage loss

Lost Circulation Strategy

Corrective Treatments

LCM Type
Type Fibrous Flake Granular Mixture of Types Active Materials Product Name Barofibre, Fracseal Jelflake Steelseal, Walnut, Baracarb Hydroplug, Kwikseal N-Seal, N-Squeeze

LCM Guidelines
When pumping LCM through bits, avoid blocking jets When using fibrous & flakes LCM, concentration of LCM should less than twice the jet size (eg. If 12/32 jets, do not exceed 24 ppb LCM) Remember to remove mud pump filter screen if pumping medium and/or coarse LCM through open ended pipe