Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores

Anthony Kerunwa

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores

Anthony Kerunwa

Published in International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering (Volume 8, Issue 4)

Received: 18 July 2020 Accepted: 10 August 2020 Published: 27 August 2020

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Abstract

The estimation of equivalent circulation density (ECD) in oil well drilling and completion is rather of crucial importance and much care must be given in its calculation. This is because ECD being so sensitive, errors in its value estimation could lead to severe drilling and completion problems like kicks, loss circulation etc. especially when drilling in horizontal well sections, deepwater, depleted reservoirs, and wells with narrow pressure window. Traditional ECD calculation have only focused on the annular frictional pressure loss (AFPL) as the only contributory pressure loss (PL) in the ECD calculations, and most literatures have given more attention to this concept. Other factors aside AFPL contributes to the total PL at the bottom of the wellbore and these affect the value of ECD during drilling and completion operations. One of these factors is PL due to drill cuttings in the wellbore. In this work, the additional effect of drill cuttings to the annular frictional loss (AFL) in the wellbore has been considered. Awah BX2 well in the Niger Delta was used as case study. The Awah BX2 well is a deviated well that starts its inclination at 5000ft depth and having a measured depth of 14000ft. Mud of 8.8 ppg was used in the study. Matlab software was used in the model simulation. Emphasis was made on results from the mud with and without drill cuttings. Effects of ROP, mud flowrate, concentration of cuttings have been investigated to determine the ECD values and pressure losses in the wellbore. From the results, it was observed that the presence of cuttings in the mud increased pressure loss and hence the ECD. It was also observed from the analysis that increasing value of bit rate of penetration (ROP) increases the concentration of cuttings and hence the pressure loss and ECD for a particular mud flowrate but when the concentration of cuttings increases so much, the ROP decreased. Increase in mud flowrate decreases the effective solids density and hence decreases the ECD and pressure loss. The model utilized in the study more accurately predicts pressure losses and ECD than that traditionally used in ECD calculations.

Published in	International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering (Volume 8, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12
Page(s)	82-90
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Well Drilling, Pressure Loss, Completion Operations, Drillpipe Rotation, Differential Sticking

References

[1]	Cho, H., Shah, S. N., and Osisanya, S. O. (2001). Effects of fluid flow in a porous cuttings bed on cuttings transport efficiency and hydraulics. SPE 71374.
[2]	Ogunrinde, J. O. and Dosunmu A. (2012). Hydraulics optimization for efficient hole cleaning in deviated and horizontal wells. SPE-162970-MS.
[3]	Kerunwa A. and Gbaranbiri B. A. (2018): Evaluation of Local Viscosifiers as an Alternative to Conventional Pac-R. Advances in Petrol. Expl. Devept., Vol. 15 (1): 1-8.
[4]	Yanghua X. and Gefei L., (2012). Impact of Cuttings Concentration on ECD during Drilling. Paper AADE-12-FTCE-7.
[5]	Ozbayoglu, M. E., Saasen A., Sorgun M. and Svanes K. (2010a). Critical fluid velocities for removing cuttings bed inside horizontal and deviated wells. Pet. Sci. Technol., 28: 594-602.
[6]	Ozbayoglu E. M., Miska S. Z., Reed T. and Takach N (2003). Cutting Transport with Foam in Horizontal and Highly Inclined Wellbore. SPE 79856-MS.
[7]	Fadairo A. S. A, Adekomaya O., Falode O. (2009). Effect of Drilling Cuttings Transport on Pressure Drop in a Flowing Well. SPE-125707-MS.
[8]	Piroozian A., Ismail I., Yaacob Z., Babakhani P. and Ismail A. S. I. (2012). Impact of drilling fluid viscosity, velocity and hole inclination on cuttings transport in horizontal and highly deviated wells. J Petrol Explor. Prod Technol 2: 149–156.
[9]	Ozbayoglu, M. E., Osgouei R. E., Ozbayoglu A. and Yuksel E. (2010b). Estimation of very-difficult-to-identify data for hole cleaning, cuttings transport and pressure drop estimation in directional and horizontal drilling. SPE-136304-MS.
[10]	Mokhtari, M., Ermila M. A., Tutuncu A. N. and Karimi M. (2012). Computational modeling of drilling fluids dynamics in casing drilling. SPE-161301-MS.
[11]	Han, S. K., Hwang Y. K., Woo N. S. and Kim Y. J. (2010). Solid-liquid hydrodynamics in a slim hole drilling annulus. J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 70: 308-319.
[12]	Kummen, H. T. and Wold A. A. (2015). The effect of cuttings on annular pressure loss - An analysis of field data in the North Sea. Thesis submitted to the Dept. of Petrol. Engrg. and Applied Geophysics, Norwegian Uni. of Sci. and Tech.
[13]	Sorgun, M., Aydin I. and Ozbayoglu M. E. (2011). Friction factors for hydraulic calculations considering cuttings presence and pipe rotation in horizontal/highly-inclined wellbores. J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 78: 407-414.
[14]	Ahmed, R., Sagheer M., Takach N., Majidi R. and. Yu M. (2010). Experimental studies on the effect of mechanical cleaning devices on annular cuttings concentration and applications for optimizing ERD systems. SPE-134269-MS.
[15]	Adari, R. B., Miska S., Kuru E., Bern P. and Saasen A. (2000). Selecting drilling fluid properties and flow rates for effective hole cleaning in high-angle and horizontal wells. SPE-63050-MS.
[16]	Yoong W. L. S. (2012): Calculations of Equivalent Circulating Densities in Underbalanced Drilling Using Landmark WELLPLAN. Bachelor’s Project, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh Perah.
[17]	Skalle, P. (2010). Drilling Fluid Engineering. © 2010 Pål Skalle & Ventus Publishing ApS, ISBN 978-87- 7681-552-3.
[18]	Irawan S. and Kinif I. B. (2018): Solid Control System for Maximizing Drilling. Retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/books/drilling/solid-control-system-for-maximizing-drilling.

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APA Style

Anthony Kerunwa. (2020). Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering, 8(4), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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ACS Style

Anthony Kerunwa. Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. Int. J. Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2020, 8(4), 82-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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AMA Style

Anthony Kerunwa. Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. Int J Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2020;8(4):82-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12,
  author = {Anthony Kerunwa},
  title = {Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores},
  journal = {International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering},
  volume = {8},
  number = {4},
  pages = {82-90},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ogce.20200804.12},
  abstract = {The estimation of equivalent circulation density (ECD) in oil well drilling and completion is rather of crucial importance and much care must be given in its calculation. This is because ECD being so sensitive, errors in its value estimation could lead to severe drilling and completion problems like kicks, loss circulation etc. especially when drilling in horizontal well sections, deepwater, depleted reservoirs, and wells with narrow pressure window. Traditional ECD calculation have only focused on the annular frictional pressure loss (AFPL) as the only contributory pressure loss (PL) in the ECD calculations, and most literatures have given more attention to this concept. Other factors aside AFPL contributes to the total PL at the bottom of the wellbore and these affect the value of ECD during drilling and completion operations. One of these factors is PL due to drill cuttings in the wellbore. In this work, the additional effect of drill cuttings to the annular frictional loss (AFL) in the wellbore has been considered. Awah BX2 well in the Niger Delta was used as case study. The Awah BX2 well is a deviated well that starts its inclination at 5000ft depth and having a measured depth of 14000ft. Mud of 8.8 ppg was used in the study. Matlab software was used in the model simulation. Emphasis was made on results from the mud with and without drill cuttings. Effects of ROP, mud flowrate, concentration of cuttings have been investigated to determine the ECD values and pressure losses in the wellbore. From the results, it was observed that the presence of cuttings in the mud increased pressure loss and hence the ECD. It was also observed from the analysis that increasing value of bit rate of penetration (ROP) increases the concentration of cuttings and hence the pressure loss and ECD for a particular mud flowrate but when the concentration of cuttings increases so much, the ROP decreased. Increase in mud flowrate decreases the effective solids density and hence decreases the ECD and pressure loss. The model utilized in the study more accurately predicts pressure losses and ECD than that traditionally used in ECD calculations.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores
AU - Anthony Kerunwa
Y1 - 2020/08/27
PY - 2020
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12
DO - 10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12
T2 - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
JF - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
JO - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
SP - 82
EP - 90
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2376-7677
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12
AB - The estimation of equivalent circulation density (ECD) in oil well drilling and completion is rather of crucial importance and much care must be given in its calculation. This is because ECD being so sensitive, errors in its value estimation could lead to severe drilling and completion problems like kicks, loss circulation etc. especially when drilling in horizontal well sections, deepwater, depleted reservoirs, and wells with narrow pressure window. Traditional ECD calculation have only focused on the annular frictional pressure loss (AFPL) as the only contributory pressure loss (PL) in the ECD calculations, and most literatures have given more attention to this concept. Other factors aside AFPL contributes to the total PL at the bottom of the wellbore and these affect the value of ECD during drilling and completion operations. One of these factors is PL due to drill cuttings in the wellbore. In this work, the additional effect of drill cuttings to the annular frictional loss (AFL) in the wellbore has been considered. Awah BX2 well in the Niger Delta was used as case study. The Awah BX2 well is a deviated well that starts its inclination at 5000ft depth and having a measured depth of 14000ft. Mud of 8.8 ppg was used in the study. Matlab software was used in the model simulation. Emphasis was made on results from the mud with and without drill cuttings. Effects of ROP, mud flowrate, concentration of cuttings have been investigated to determine the ECD values and pressure losses in the wellbore. From the results, it was observed that the presence of cuttings in the mud increased pressure loss and hence the ECD. It was also observed from the analysis that increasing value of bit rate of penetration (ROP) increases the concentration of cuttings and hence the pressure loss and ECD for a particular mud flowrate but when the concentration of cuttings increases so much, the ROP decreased. Increase in mud flowrate decreases the effective solids density and hence decreases the ECD and pressure loss. The model utilized in the study more accurately predicts pressure losses and ECD than that traditionally used in ECD calculations.
VL - 8
IS - 4
ER -

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Author Information

Anthony Kerunwa

Department of Petroleum Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria

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APA Style

Anthony Kerunwa. (2020). Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering, 8(4), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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ACS Style

Anthony Kerunwa. Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. Int. J. Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2020, 8(4), 82-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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AMA Style

Anthony Kerunwa. Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores. Int J Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2020;8(4):82-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12,
  author = {Anthony Kerunwa},
  title = {Contributory Influence of Drill Cuttings on Equivalent Circulation Density Model in Deviated Wellbores},
  journal = {International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering},
  volume = {8},
  number = {4},
  pages = {82-90},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20200804.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ogce.20200804.12},
  abstract = {The estimation of equivalent circulation density (ECD) in oil well drilling and completion is rather of crucial importance and much care must be given in its calculation. This is because ECD being so sensitive, errors in its value estimation could lead to severe drilling and completion problems like kicks, loss circulation etc. especially when drilling in horizontal well sections, deepwater, depleted reservoirs, and wells with narrow pressure window. Traditional ECD calculation have only focused on the annular frictional pressure loss (AFPL) as the only contributory pressure loss (PL) in the ECD calculations, and most literatures have given more attention to this concept. Other factors aside AFPL contributes to the total PL at the bottom of the wellbore and these affect the value of ECD during drilling and completion operations. One of these factors is PL due to drill cuttings in the wellbore. In this work, the additional effect of drill cuttings to the annular frictional loss (AFL) in the wellbore has been considered. Awah BX2 well in the Niger Delta was used as case study. The Awah BX2 well is a deviated well that starts its inclination at 5000ft depth and having a measured depth of 14000ft. Mud of 8.8 ppg was used in the study. Matlab software was used in the model simulation. Emphasis was made on results from the mud with and without drill cuttings. Effects of ROP, mud flowrate, concentration of cuttings have been investigated to determine the ECD values and pressure losses in the wellbore. From the results, it was observed that the presence of cuttings in the mud increased pressure loss and hence the ECD. It was also observed from the analysis that increasing value of bit rate of penetration (ROP) increases the concentration of cuttings and hence the pressure loss and ECD for a particular mud flowrate but when the concentration of cuttings increases so much, the ROP decreased. Increase in mud flowrate decreases the effective solids density and hence decreases the ECD and pressure loss. The model utilized in the study more accurately predicts pressure losses and ECD than that traditionally used in ECD calculations.},
 year = {2020}
}

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