Early Kick Detection (EKD) is one of the most important areas for improvement in well control safety. The need for earlier, more accurate, more reliable kick detection across a wide range of drilling operations has become increasingly important as more operations are being conducted in deep water with increasingly tight pressure margins. In order to accomplish this, it is important to start measuring the indicators that have the greatest impact. This paper identifies and proposes two risk based Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to kicks: how long it takes to positively identify a kick, and how long it takes to respond to a kick once the identification is made. These KPIs are the Kick Detection Volume (KDV) and the Kick Response Time (KRT) respectively. They provide the ability to directly measure kick detection and management approaches. A third metric, the Drilling Mode Kick Frequency (DMKF), while not a performance indicator, is critical to help determine the point at which drilling operation kicks are most likely to occur and thereby to aid in the evaluation of kick detection methodologies. This paper discusses and compares technical approaches to early kick detection including how they relate to safety, efficiency, and reliability over a range of common deep water operations. By identifying "actionable" indications of a kick, a general approach is suggested to help focus on technologies leading to the most likely improvements for EKD. Irrespective of the EKD optimization path chosen however, the proposed KPIs can be used to quantitatively evaluate and compare the performance of different technologies and operational strategies.

When drilling conventionally, upon indication of an influx, the drill string is lifted off bottom, circulation is stopped, a flow check is performed, and if the well is flowing, the well is shut in. The influx is then circulated out through rig choke using a reduced circulating rate. With Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), when kicks occur, they are typically smaller, contained more quickly, and, in some cases, they may be circulated out through MPD equipment without drilling or circulation interruption. The IADC MPD sub-committee has drafted a Well Control Matrix (WCM) in an effort to offer guidelines on when it is acceptable to kill the well dynamically when practicing CBHP MPD. Rotating Control Devices (RCD) are commonly used on conventional overbalanced mud programs. To many in the industry, no specific distinction is made or special name is given to this type of operation. Confidence acquired over time has encouraged the common practice of drilling ahead while kicks are being circulated out, in appropriate circumstances. An influx, with only a very basic equipment configuration and whether it's called MPD or not, has often been handled in the industry as a routine operation without any special preparation or a formal WCM. If a WCM is to be required to be in place, it should be engineered properly. A methodology for developing a WCM will be discussed in this paper. Procedures to control influxes as well as how to determine when to revert to secondary well control equipment under these operating conditions and examples of practical applications will be discussed.

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 1.972.952.9435. AbstractDrilling with casing is a method of drilling wells using casing as the drillstring. This method has been used in South Texas to reduce well costs. To help reduce well costs even further, underbalanced drilling seemed to have the potential of enabling the elimination of an intermediate casing string.By drilling underbalanced, it would be possible to drill with a mud weight low enough to prevent loss of circulation in the shallow weak zones while dealing with the gas from the pay zones below. Drilling with casing eliminates the necessity of trips, thus simplifying underbalanced operations. However, once total depth (TD) was reached and drilling complete, it would be necessary to balance the well to allow cementing of the production casing string.The challenge was to develop a way to kill the well so that the cement could be placed and allowed to set while at the same time not breaking down and losing circulation into the weak upper zones. This had to be done by having different equivalent circulating densities (ECD) and equivalent mud weights (EMW) up and down the hole throughout the circulating and cementing operation. In addition, this technique needed to be relatively simple and easily accomplished in the field. All this had to be done without shutting in the well or using chokes, since that would also cause breaking down the upper zone and result in an underground blowout. This paper describes the development of the required methodology and its successful field application in South Texas. This same technique can readily be applied elsewhere.