Investigation of Factors Affecting Mud Cuttings Transport in Slimhole Well Drilling

Abstract

Mud cuttings transport plays a very important role for the well drilling plan and operation. Especial for slimhole well drilling, the efficient removal of mud cuttings from drilled wells is considered a necessity for the success of the well drilling plan operation. However, there are still a little limited number of works relating to the mud cuttings transport in slimhole wells. In this article, two models developed from empirical approaches, namely Larsen's model and Rubiandini's model, were employed to consider the mud cuttings transport in slimhole well drilling. The effects of various drilling factors to the minimum flow velocity and flow rate required for an effective mud cuttings transport were investigated through simulation scenarios of case studies. The calculations from two empirical models showed that both models have the same trend for the minimum flow velocity and flow rate required for the transportation of mud cuttings with drilling parameters, such as rate of penetration (ROP), mud weight (MW), mud rheology, etc. Furthermore, several recommendations on how to achieve better mud cuttings transport are proposed from the obtained simulation results when using Larsen's and Rubiandini's models for calculating the critical mud flow rates in slimhole well drilling.