Casing-Drilling Application in the Depleted La Cira Infantas Mature Field, Colombia

Herrera, Edwin Alfredo Lopez; Bonilla, Pablo Antonio

doi:10.2118/139020-ms

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…Although the exact mechanism of the smear effect is not known, pipe size, annular clearance, rotary speed, mud type and penetration rate are the parameters that affect it (Kiran et al, 2014). Researchers reported that DwC technology showed a 10% reduction in cost and 30% savings in time (Lopez and Bonilla, 2010;Sánchez et al, 2012). Other investigators showed that lost circulation was significantly reduced (Fontenot et al, 2003;Karimi et al, 2011) and stated that fracture gradient and wellbore strengthening were improved (Salehi et al, 2013).…”

Section: Drilling With Casing And/or Liner Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulics and Well Control Complications in Unconventional Shale Laterals

Elshehabi¹

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Unconventional shale resources are drilled horizontally following the geologic bed dip upward or downward to maximize reservoir contact. Despite the efforts to control formation pressures, well control emergencies arise. Wellbore communication with high pressure zones through natural or induced fractures is a major cause of blowouts in unconventional shales. The philosophy of well control is to maintain the bottomhole pressure while balancing the formation pressure; however, it is a challenging process. The objective of this study is to investigate mud hydraulics and well control complications in unconventional shale laterals. This included the impact of wellbore configuration (inclined upward or downward laterals), drilling fluid type (water or oil based mud), and drillstring configuration (drillpipe, casing, or liner). This research employed an interactive drilling and well control full-scale simulator for more than 500 hours of real-time operations. It also utilized a robust steady-state hydraulics and multiphase dynamic well control program. A hydraulics base model was developed and verified with field data from a recently drilled Marcellus Shale well in Monongalia County, WV. In inclined upward laterals, gas bubbles migrated and accumulated at the lateral end. Consequently, the choke experienced lower pressure, volume, and gas discharge rate for extended periods of time. Thus, higher circulation rates and longer operation times were essential to flush-out the dispersed and trapped gas bubbles. The deeper and over-pressurized Utica Shale presents more challenges compared to Marcellus Shale wells. Well integrity was verified by monitoring surface choke, casing shoe, and bottomhole pressures throughout the entire well control operations. This research revealed that it is crucial to identify accurate hydraulics and well control complications for unconventional shale laterals. Some examples were drilling inclined upward and downward laterals using different string and fluid configurations. This improves rig and personnel safety and diminishes the environmental risks and hazards associated with blowouts.

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Section: Drilling With Casing And/or Liner Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulics and Well Control Complications in Unconventional Shale Laterals

Elshehabi¹

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Casing During Drilling With Rotary-Steerable Technology in the Stag Field—Offshore Australia

Graves

Herrera

2013

SPE Drilling &Amp; Completion

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Summary Originally discovered in 1993, the Stag oil field, located on the Northwest shelf of Western Australia, has produced more than 58 million bbl since production began in 1998 (Goodacre et al. 2000). The field is shallow (680 m subsea), encompassing highly unconsolidated and highly permeable sandstone. Reservoir depletion, unconsolidated rock, water breakthrough, and sand production have created conditions under which infill-drilling campaigns have become increasingly problematic in the Stag field in recent years. There have been numerous papers documenting the history of the Stag field (McDiarmid et al. 2001; Muecke et al. 2002; Wibawa et al. 2008). On three recent infill wells, the intermediate 12¼-in. intervals were drilled and cased with casing-while-drilling (CWD) technology with a rotary-steerable system (RSS). This was used to navigate wellbore congestion, to drill designer well paths to avoid "incoherencies" [a seismic attribute that is mappable and correlates with drilling problems (Chima et al. 2012)], to land the horizontal section, and then to drill horizontal tangent sections out to the initial reservoir penetration (liner point). The CWD applications progressed from a "new technology" trial to a stretch reach and performance goal, to finally successfully being used as a key enabling technology to drill a well that might otherwise be undrillable because of instability issues. The directional CWD 12¼-in.-hole intervals were drilled from just below the 13-⅜in. surface casing to the 9⅝-in.-casing point, building from 25° inclination to horizontal and holding thereafter. This program (the first applications of this type in Australia) resulted in two consecutive world-record runs. The result is that CWD is a viable enabling technology that will be used to drill future Stag infill wells and should be considered as a viable alternative on other drilling projects. This paper will discuss the identification of the technology application, planning, implementation, results, and lessons learned. This paper will end with a notional conversation regarding CWD becoming a mainstream method.

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Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Gas Kick Migration During Casing While Drilling

Guo

Chen

Coutinho

et al. 2017

Day 2 Wed, April 19, 2017

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Significantly narrower annular spaces are encountered during Casing while Drilling(CwD) due to the larger diameters of the casings that are used as drill strings, comparing to those used in conventional drilling. The understanding of two phase flow in narrow annuli is important to predict gas migration in wellbores during casing/liner drilling operations, which is crucial in early kick detection and gas kick management under such circumstances. In this study, a two-phase flow experimental apparatus using 3 ½ inch and 2 inch PVC pipes within a 4- inch outer pipe was developed to represent narrow and wide annular conduits. Liquid holdups and annular pressure losses were recorded while flowing air and water through test sections. The experimental results showed that the flow patterns within narrow annuli were more sensitive to changing air and water flow rates. New drift-flux models for narrow and wide annuli, were developed based on experimental results. These models can be further extended to a wide range of flow conditions. In addition, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models were developed using volume of fluid (VOF) method. The simulation results were in a good agreement with experimental data and new model predictions within the range of flow rates that were used in this study.

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Casing-Drilling Application in the Depleted La Cira Infantas Mature Field, Colombia

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

Hydraulics and Well Control Complications in Unconventional Shale Laterals

Hydraulics and Well Control Complications in Unconventional Shale Laterals

Casing During Drilling With Rotary-Steerable Technology in the Stag Field—Offshore Australia

Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Gas Kick Migration During Casing While Drilling

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