Improving Drilled Cuttings Lifting Using Polypropylene Beads in Water-Based Mud at Different Annular Mud Velocities

Abstract

An effective drilled cuttings lifting from the bottomhole to the surface improves drilling performance. The transportation of drilled cuttings becomes more challenging when drilling a high angle or horizontal well. A sufficiently high annular mud velocity is essential to prevent drilled cuttings from settling and forming stationary beds on the low side of a hole. This can cause several drilling problems such as high torque and drag, stuck pipe, etc. This problem has been addressed via an experimental work which studied the effect of annular mud velocities on drilled cuttings removal using water-based mud with polypropylene beads in vertical, deviated, and horizontal holes. It was accomplished using a 3.96 m long flow loop which comprised 50.8 mm transparent acrylic section with a simulated drill string. The annular mud velocity was varied from 0.27 m/s to 1.06 m/s at ambient condition. The experimental results showed that increase in annular mud velocity has improved hole cleaning, i.e., cuttings transport ratio experienced an improved performance in the turbulent flow than in laminar flow. The findings further demonstrated that the presence of polypropylene beads in water-based mud has contributed positively to the performance of drilled cuttings lifting in a vertical hole by 9% in a turbulent flow. Index Terms-Annular drilling mud velocity, cuttings transport ratio, polyethylene beads, water-based mud, wellbore cleaning.

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

“…It could be observed that 45° holeangle inclination recorded the lowest CTE, indicating that it is the most challenging hole-angle for cuttings transportation. This behaviour could be ascribed to the tendency of The result obtained in the hole-angles of this study is in agreement with published reports of the following authors (Oseh et al 2018;Ismail et al 2016;Onuoha et al 2015;Ford et al 1990;Piroozian et al 2012;Ozbayoglu et al 2010;Sifferman and Becker 1992). They reported that cuttings transportation is more challenging in highly deviated and horizontal wells drilling than in straight hole-angle.…”

“…Decreased fluid velocity at the low side of the wall have been reported in numerous literatures to be the main cause of poor cuttings transportation with increasing hole-angle (Duan et al 2008;Ismail et al 2016;Ford et al 1990;Gavignet and Sobey 1989;Onuoha et al 2015). Gbadamosi et al (2018b), Hakim et al (2018), Elochukwu et al (2017), Afolabi et al (2017), Ismail et al (2016) and Piroozian et al (2012) all reported that the rheological and filtration properties of drilling fluids have significant contributions in determining the effectiveness of cuttings transportation. The rheological properties are often optimized to ensure that drilling fluid can function effectively and yet lessen the drilling cost.…”

“…Effective drilled cuttings removal from the wellbore has been reported to be a key challenge in drilling operations (Duan et al 2008;Gbadamosi et al 2018a, b;Hakim et al 2018). This challenge appears to have being well examined in case of straight hole-angle (Belavadi and Chukwu 1994), but in the case of highly deviated and horizontal portions of the well, removal of drilled cuttings is still a major problem (Ismail et al 2016). Also, when drilling in highly deviated and horizontal portions of the annulus, the cleaning of the well worsens with increasing well depth and hole deviation (Ismail et al 2016;Onuoha et al 2015;Gavignet and Sobey 1989).…”

“…This challenge appears to have being well examined in case of straight hole-angle (Belavadi and Chukwu 1994), but in the case of highly deviated and horizontal portions of the well, removal of drilled cuttings is still a major problem (Ismail et al 2016). Also, when drilling in highly deviated and horizontal portions of the annulus, the cleaning of the well worsens with increasing well depth and hole deviation (Ismail et al 2016;Onuoha et al 2015;Gavignet and Sobey 1989). Application of this form of drilling system is in most cases linked with serious drilling problems which often affect the performance of drilling muds.…”

“…Application of this form of drilling system is in most cases linked with serious drilling problems which often affect the performance of drilling muds. High torque and drag, barite sag, formation damage, lost circulation, slow drilling rate, increased equivalent circulating density (ECD), kick leading to blowout if not properly controlled, hole instability, and in terrible situation, differential stuck pipe, are several of the problems faced while drilling in highly deviated or horizontal wells (Ismail et al 2016;Onuoha et al 2015;Gavignet and Sobey 1989;Ford et al 1990). If these problems are not properly addressed, it can get worse and probably lead to well side tracking or even loss of the entire well (Gatlin 1960).…”