A Method for Handling Gas Kicks Safely in High-Pressure Wells

Low, Emile; Jansen, Case

doi:10.2118/21964-pa

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…While drilling a gas-bearing formation with high or ultrahigh pressure, it is essential to increase the density of drilling fluid to ensure smooth drilling operations and prevent emergencies such as well kick and blowout (Low and Jansen, 1993;Williamson and Dawe, 1994;Boscan et al, 2003;Shaughnessy et al, 2003). If only considering the effect of gas removal influenced by the enhanced density of drilling fluid, with the 1460 Z. Zhu et al increment of the differential density of the gas-liquid phase, gas can be easily separated from liquid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on a Surface Gas-Removing System for Weight Drilling Fluid

Zhu

Lei

Liu

et al. 2011

Petroleum Science and Technology

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A gravitational separator is often used to remove gas in contaminated drilling fluid during conventional drilling but fails to meet the gas-removing need for weight drilling fluid and to maintain the stable property of fluid by high viscosity for high-pressure gas formation. Therefore, it is essential to research the surface gas-removal system. According to the existing gravitational separator and centrifugal separator structure, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation technology is applied to show the flowfield characteristics of a gravitational separator and centrifugal separator, and a numerical simulation scheme was designed using an orthogonal design method. Range analysis and variance analysis were used to determine the independent factors, such as air bubble diameter and fluid viscosity. Then, based on the numerical simulation results under the separator structure and working condition, the laboratory simulation platform was designed. By comparing numerical calculation with in-house laboratory investigation, the results show that the calculated change tendency of gas-removal efficiency is in agreement with the obtained result from by laboratorial tests on the whole. The design of a double-stage gas-removal system is preferable to dealing with the gas-contaminated weight drilling fluid, which can remarkably raise the gas-removal efficiency. Under laboratory conditions, the doublestage gas-removal system obtained a maximal amplitude beyond 15% compared with the one-stage system, and the separated density was close to the unaerated density. Numerical simulation was helpful for optimizing the structure and determining the best working conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%