Analytical Study of Early Kick Detection and Well Control Considerations for Casing while Drilling Technology

Abstract

Recently, casing while drilling (CwD) technology has been employed to reduce drilling time and expenses. These intelligent drilling technique improved wellbore stability, fracture gradient, and formation damage while reducing exposure time but when a well control issue arises, the differences in wellbore geometries and related volumes compared to regular conventional drilling procedures necessitate a distinct strategy. In this paper, the essential well control parameters were provided for casing while drilling operations, presents simplified method that has been developed to evaluate the maximum kick tolerance (KT) for both conventional and casing while drilling techniques using a mathematical derivation, the narrow annular clearance, in contrast to drilling with a conventional drill string would impair kick detection and handling operations. Furthermore, the large disparity in kick tolerances should be carefully evaluated in order to avoid lost circulation/kick cycles as well as examine and evaluate technical approaches to early kick detection (EKD) studying how they relate to safety, efficiency, and reliability in a variety of common casing while drilling operations. According to preliminary findings, by utilizing casing while drilling technology and compared to identical well was drilled conventionally using drill pipe, the annulus pressure loss (APL) is average 3 times of the conventional drilling technique. Furthermore, kick tolerance is reduced by 50% and maximum allowable well shut-in time reduced by 65% necessitating early kick detection.