Experimental investigation of hole cleaning in directional drilling by using nano-enhanced water-based drilling fluids

Abstract

Inadequate hole cleaning often leads to challenges in drilling and well completion operations such as low rates of penetration, pipe sticking, losing tools, difficulties in liner/casing placements, etc. Designing a drilling fluid with improved rheological properties would be a solution to increase cuttings transportation efficiency. This study investigates the performance of nanosilica water-based drilling fluids for the hole cleaning process in directional drilling operations. Different inclination angles have been considered in a flow loop system with different rotational speeds (0 and 150 rpm) to simulate the drilling conditions in a wellbore. The performance of nano-enhanced drilling fluids in the cuttings removal process was compared with conventional water-based drilling fluids, and it was found that silica nanoparticles increased the cuttings transport efficiency in all experiments. The results indicated that the presence of nanosilica in the mud increased the colloidal interactions with cuttings and contributed to the improvements in cuttings transportation efficiency by 30.8 to 44% for different nano-enhanced water-based drilling fluids used in this study. The implementation of nanosilica in water-based drilling fluids showed promising results in the hole cleaning process which demonstrates the feasibility of using them in extended reach drilling operations.

Experimental investigation of the effect of henna leaf extracts on cuttings transportation in highly deviated and horizontal wells

“…This is because flow with high viscosity has a tendency to be less turbulent compared with a low viscosity. Though high inertial forces have a tendency to induce more turbulence, viscous forces has the propensity to repress turbulence by damping off the variations in the flow motion via friction; hence, reduced cuttings transportation (Boyou et al 2019). Agreeing with the report of Suradi et al (2015), in which they stated that cuttings transport can be enhanced when viscosity improves, which is in agreement with the viscosity of fresh water of 1 cP of this study.…”

Prevention of Barite Sag in Oil-Based Drilling Fluids Using a Mixture of Barite and Ilmenite as Weighting Material

“…These settled particles will not contribute to the fluid density, leading to serious well control issues [18,19], and they interfere with drilling and production operations ( Figure 1) [7]. Moreover, the accumulated solid particles and drilled cuttings increase the possibility of pipe sticking and decrease the rate of penetration [20]. Barite sag phenomenon may occur in both vertical and directional wells at static and dynamic conditions, and it is more serious under dynamic conditions with a low shear rate [21].…”

“…NPs improve the performance of the drilling fluid in many ways, such as improving the rheological properties, minimizing friction and fluid filtrate invasion, and enhancing the thermal stability of the drilling fluid at HPHT conditions [31][32][33]. A study was conducted by Boyou et al [20] to enhance the suspension capability of the drilling fluid to efficiently transport drilled cuttings and prevent the development of cuttings bed by adding nanosilica in different concentrations to water-based drilling fluids. They evaluated the performance of nan-enhanced water-based fluid in directional drilling operations by conducting an experimental study at different angles of inclination using a flow loop setup.…”

The effect of drill–pipe rotation on improving hole cleaning using polypropylene beads in water-based mud at different hole angles

“…Drilling fluids have routinely been used in the oil and gas industry for several years, and such fluids have served many roles, such as balancing formation pressures in the wellbore, lubricating the drill string and so forth (Beck et al 1947;Bland et al 2006;Duan et al 2008;Hussaini and Azar 1974;Katende et al 2019;Ozbayoglu et al 2010;Pigott 1941;Saboori et al 2018;Salehi et al 2016;Saxena et al 2017;Sayindla et al 2017;Shu and Ma 2016;Sifferman et al 1974;Werner et al 2017). Nevertheless, an essential role of drilling fluid is to lift cuttings from the drill bit through the annular section and to the surface (Becker and Azar 1985;Clark and Bickham 1994;Frigaard et al 2017;Heshamudin et al 2019;Luo et al 1994;Majid et al 2018;Onuoha et al 2015;Shu and Zhang 2018a, b;Yu et al 2004).…”

“…Normally, the mixing of polymer beads, such as polypropylene beads, with WBM has proven (Hakim et al 2018;Yeu et al 2019;Yi et al 2017) to be successful in reducing the slip velocity of cuttings, which makes the polymer bead buoyant in the mud, thus causing a reduction in the Reynolds number of particles. The decrease in the Reynolds number of particles results in an increase in drag force (Bird and Garrett 1996;Skalle 2010;Williams and Bruce 1951). The increase in drag force results in better mud lifting capacity for a good wellbore cleaning at various angles, such as vertical, horizontal and even deviated conditions (Onuoha et al 2015;Ozbayoglu et al 2004).…”