Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lecturer
Kashif Iqbal
wah engineer College
university of wah
Drilling fluids (mud)
The key to making the rotary drilling system work is the ability to
circulate a fluid continuously down through the drill pipe, out through
the bit nozzles and back to the surface.
The drilling fluid can be air, foam (a combination of air and liquid or a
liquid.
Liquid drilling fluids are commonly called drilling mud.
All drilling fluids, especially drilling mud, can have a wide range of
chemical and physical properties. These properties are specifically
designed for drilling conditions and the special problems that must be
handled in drilling a well.
Purpose of Drilling Fluids
Cooling and lubrication. As the bit drills into the rock formation, the friction caused by the rotating bit against the rock
generate heat. The heat is dissipated by the circulating drilling fluid. The fluid also lubricates the bit.
Cuttings removal. An important function of the drilling fluid is to carry rock cuttings removed by the bit to the surface.
The drilling flows through treating equipment where the cuttings are removed and the clean fluid is again pumped down
through the drill pipe string.
Suspend cuttings. There are times when circulation has to be stopped. The drilling fluid must have that gelling
characteristics that will prevent drill cuttings from settling down at the bit. This may caused the drill pipe to be stuck.
Pressure control. The drilling mud can be the first line of defense against a blowout or loss of well control caused by
formation pressures.
Data source. The cuttings that the drilling mud brings to the surface can tell the geologist the type of formation being
drilled
To wall the hole with impermeable filter cake. This will give a temporary support to the wall of the borehole from
collapsing during drilling.
Types of drilling fluids
Water-base mud
This fluid is the mud in which water is the continuous phase. This is the most common
drilling mud used in oil drilling.
Oil-based mud
This drilling mud is made up of oil as the continuous phase. Diesel oil is widely used to
provide the oil phase. This type of mud is commonly used in swelling shale formation.
With water-based mud the shale will absorb the water and it swells that may cause stuck
pipe.
Air and foam
There are drilling conditions under which a liquid drilling fluid is not most desirable
circulating medium. Air or foam is used in drilling some wells when these special
conditions exist.
Drilling Fluid treating and monitoring equipment
In addition to the main mud pumps, several items of mud treating equipment are found on most rigs. Much of this
equipment is aimed at solids removal, including shale shakers, desanders, desilters and centrifuges.
Shale shakers remove larger particles from the mud stream as it returns from the bottom of the hole. Shakers are
equipped with screens of various sizes, depending on the type of solids to be removed.
Finer particles in the mud stream are removed with desanders, desilters and centrifuges. Each of these items of
solids-control equipment is applicable only over a certain range of particle sizes.
In addition to removing solids, mud handling equipment may also include a mud degasser to remove entrained gas
from the mud stream. Degassing the drilling fluid is sometimes necessary when small volumes of gas flow into the
well bore during drilling.
Additional equipment include mixers to agitate mud in the tanks, smaller pumps to various duties and equipment for
adding chemicals and solid materials to the mud system.
The drilling stages
Wells are normally drilled in stages, starting with a surface hole drilled to
reach a depth anywhere from 60 to 400 meters, depending on final well depth
and area conditions. The crew then pulls out the drill string and inserts steel
pipe, called surface casing, which is cemented in place, to keep the wall from
caving in. It controls the return flow of mud and other fluids encountered
during drilling and also prevents contamination of groundwater. The
beginning of the actual drilling, which takes place after the surface hole is
drilled.
After setting surface casing and installing the blowout preventers (BOPs), the
crew resumes drilling. A probe for shallow gas or heavy oil in eastern Alberta
may require only two or three days to drill 450 metres through soft shales and
sandstone to the target depth. However, a rig may work eight months or longer
to penetrate 4,500 meters or more through hard, complex rocks in the foothills
of the Rockies.
The drilling stages
When the bit needs to be replaced because of wear or changing rock strata, the
crew has to pull out the entire string, unscrewing sections of pipe in single,
double or triple sections, depending on the height of the derrick, and stacking
them upright in the derrick.
Then they have to put the whole string back into the hole again, with the new
bit in place. This process, which can be very laborious and time-consuming for a
deep hole, is called tripping. Major improvements in the durability of bits and
the formulation of drilling fluids since the 1980s have greatly reduced the
number of trips required to drill a well. Many shallow wells today are drilled
without a bit change.
If the string breaks or gets stuck in a hole, a specialist is called in to help the
crew go fishing with special tools. No one wants to lose an expensive bit and
bottom-hole assembly, but the blocked hole is the real problem. As a last resort,
the crew drills a curved section called a sidetrack to bypass the debris.
Under ground rock layers on drilling site
This illustration is a simplified cross-section
of the surface and underground rock strata
where gas well drilling generally occurs.