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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Serie: Wiley-Scrivener
- Sprache: Englisch
Completely up to date and the most thorough and comprehensive reference work and learning tool available for drilling engineering, this groundbreaking volume is a must-have for anyone who works in drilling in the oil and gas sector. Petroleum and natural gas still remain the single biggest resource for energy on earth. Even as alternative and renewable sources are developed, petroleum and natural gas continue to be, by far, the most used and, if engineered properly, the most cost-effective and efficient, source of energy on the planet. Drilling engineering is one of the most important links in the energy chain, being, after all, the science of getting the resources out of the ground for processing. Without drilling engineering, there would be no gasoline, jet fuel, and the myriad of other "have to have" products that people use all over the world every day. Following up on their previous books, also available from Wiley-Scrivener, the authors, two of the most well-respected, prolific, and progressive drilling engineers in the industry, offer this groundbreaking volume. They cover the basic tenets of drilling engineering, the most common problems that the drilling engineer faces day to day, and cutting-edge new technology and processes through their unique lens. Written to reflect the new, changing world that we live in, this fascinating new volume offers a treasure of knowledge for the veteran engineer, new hire, or student. This book is an excellent resource for petroleum engineering students, reservoir engineers, supervisors & managers, researchers and environmental engineers for planning every aspect of rig operations in the most sustainable, environmentally responsible manner, using the most up-to-date technological advancements in equipment and processes.
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Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Introduction of the Book
1.1 Introduction of Drilling Engineering
1.2 Importance of Drilling Engineering
1.3 Application of Drilling Engineering
1.4 Drilling Problems, Causes, and Solutions
1.5 Drilling Operations and its Problems
1.6 Sustainable Solutions for Drilling Problems
1.7 Summary
References
Chapter 2: Problems Associated with Drilling Operations
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Problems Related to Drilling Methods and Solutions
2.2 Summary
References
Chapter 3: Problems Related to the Mud System
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Drilling Fluids and its Problems with Solutions
3.2 General Case Studies on Lost Circulation
3.3 Summary
References
Chapter 4: Problem Related to Drilling Hydraulics
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Drilling Hydraulics and its Problems and Solutions
4.2 Overall Recommendations
4.3 Summary
References
Chapter 5: Well Control and BOP Problems
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Well Control System
5.2 Problems with Well Control and BOP and their Solutions
5.3 Case Studies
5.4 Summary
References
Chapter 6: Drillstring and Bottomhole Assembly Problems
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Problems Related to Drillstring and their Solutions
6.2 Case Studies
6.3 Summary
References
Chapter 7: Casing Problems
7.0 Introduction
7.1 Problems Related to Casing and their Solutions
7.2 Case Studies
7.3 Summary
References
Chapter 8: Cementing Problems
8.0 Introduction
8.1 Problems Related to Cementing and their Solutions
8.2 Good Cementing Practices
8.3 Case Studies
8.4 Summary
References
Chapter 9: Wellbore Instability Problems
9.0 Introduction
9.1 Problems Related to Wellbore Instability and their Solutions
9.2 Case Studies
9.3 Summary
References
Chapter 10: Directional and Horizontal Drilling Problems
10.0 Introduction
10.1 Problems Related to Directional Drilling their Solutions
10.2 Case Studies
10.3 Summary
References
Chapter 11: Environmental Hazard and Problems during Drilling
11.0 Introduction
11.1 Problems Related to Environment during Drilling
11.2 Case Studies
11.3 Summary
References
Chapter 12: Summary and Conclusions
12.1 Summary
12.2 Conclusions
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Copyright
Contents
Begin Reading
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 2.1
Well Inspection Data.
Table 2.2
Variables that affect ROP.
Chapter 3
Table 3.1
PSD Selection criteria (Al Saba
et al.
,
2017).
Table 3.2
Lists of LCMs.
Table 3.3
Time lost during various operations in North Sea (from Stangeland, 2015).
Chapter 4
Table 4.1
Types of problems that can be related to the hydraulics (Albdiry and Almensory, 2016).
Table 4.2
Data for casing and corresponding depth.
Chapter 6
Table 6.1
Dimensions and Strength of API Seamless Internal Upset Drillpipe
Chapter 7
Table 7.1
Buckling criteria.
Table 7.2
Types of excess water production problems (From Seright
et al
., 2003)
Table 7.3
Profit comparison of optimum conditions under different scenarios for various wells.
Table 7.4
Comparison of results between new approach and previously practiced approach.
Table 7.5
Summary of Field Applications.
Table 7.6
Properties of Ludox and Sodium silicate solutions.
Table 7.7
Cost study area
Chapter 8
Table 8.1
Acceptance table for casing cement according to NORSOK standard D-010 2004, Table 22 (From Norsok Standard, 2018).
Table 8.2
Examples of cement additives with their effects on cement slurry (from Mwang’ande, 2016).
Table 8.3
List of symptoms of various cement-related problems.
Table 8.4
Faults interpreted from well data and seismic data
Table 8.5
Well data for Case 1 (from Mwang’ande, 2016).
Table 8.6
Vital data in case 2 well.
Table 8.7
Vital data on Case 3.
Table 8.8
Data related to Displacement efficiency for Good Case V.
Table 8.9
Data on failed case 1.
Table 8.10
Data related to Ontology engineering for Failed Case 01
Table 8.11
Causal relation for failed case 1.
Table 8.12
Vital data of Bad case 2.
Table 8.13
Data related to Ontology engineering for Failed Case 2.
Table 8.14
Causal relationships of failed case 2.
Table 8.15
Data related to Displacement efficiency for failed Case 0.3.
Table 8.16
Data related to Ontology engineering for Failed Case 03.
Table 8.17
Causal relation for failed case 3
Table 8.18
Data related to Displacement efficiency for Failed Case 04.
Table 8.19
Data related to Ontology engineering for Failed Case 04.
Table 8.20
Causal relation for failed case 04.
Chapter 9
Table 9.1
Causes of wellbore instability.
Table 9.2
Indicators of wellbore instability.
Table 9.3
The drilling fluid properties of three horizontal wells of Nahr Umr Formation.
Table 9.4
The formation fluid properties of Halfaya oilfield.
Table 9.5
Mineral composition and content of the Nahr Umr Shale.
Table 9.6
Clay mineral composition and content of the Nahr Umr Shale.
Table 9.7
Swelling ratio and recovery of the Nahr Umr Shale.
Table 9.8
Experimental results of shale UCS after immersing in drilling fluid.
Table 9.9
Key operational parmeters used for drilling in well X-51.
Table 9.10
Key operational parmeters used for drilling in well X-53.
Table 9.11
Key operational parmeters used for drilling in well X-52.
Chapter 10
Table 10.1
The different horizontal drilling categories with the corresponding turning radii and build rates (From Joshi
et al.,
1991).
Table 10.2
Recommended mud weight planned for well X-4.
Table 10.3
Ranking of wells based on severity
1
.
Chapter 11
Table 11.1
Descriptive summary of study site, sampling regime, and drilling activities.
Table 11.2
Sources of exposure and the number of cases with each exposure.
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Scrivener Publishing100 Cummings Center, Suite 541JBeverly, MA 01915-6106
Publishers at ScrivenerMartin Scrivener ([email protected])Phillip Carmical ([email protected])
Drilling Engineering Problems and Solutions
A Field Guide for Engineers and Students
M. E. Hossain
M. R. Islam
This edition first published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USAand Scrivener Publishing LLC, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J, Beverly, MA 01915, USA© 2018 Scrivener Publishing LLC
For more information about Scrivener publications please visit www.scrivenerpublishing.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
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For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of WarrantyWhile the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials, or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-1-118-99834-2
To first author’s mother, the late Azizun Nesa and uncle the late Mohammad Ismail
Foreword
With recent awareness of environmental sustainability, it has become clear that most of our technological advances are in fact a quick fix of problems that arose from practices that shouldn’t have been commenced to begin with. At the risk of being labeled an anarchist, it is only proper to say, this fear has been shared by some of the most non-controversial engineers and scientists (Nobel Laureate Chemist, Robert Curl, for instance). In this era of technological advancement being later labelled as ‘technological disaster’, drilling technologies bring in a silver lining. The advancements made in drilling technologies have been phenomenal and marks one of the proudest moments of the petroleum industry. Unfortunately, whenever disasters strike, the blame game begins and everyone rushes to disavow modern technology. With the spectacular failure in Deep water horizon project in 2010, many questioned the validity of modern drilling advances, particularly in the areas of offshore drilling. Lost in that hysteria was the fact that research that fuelled the instant solutions sought during that fateful drilling operation was in fact flawed. After the dust settled, however, the tragic event established one fact: there has to be a Q&A type of problem solving book that addresses real-life drilling problems with well researched answers. This book is the first of its kind that addresses field problems and answers with solutions that can become a guide for avoiding such problems in future. The book doesn’t compromise the relevance or scientific details in responding to hard hitting field problems. Rather than giving a technician’s response or a quickfix, it gives a researcher’s response with backing of field engineers with decades of experience. The book is a masterpiece that is helpful for practicing engineers as well as professors, who can better serve the discipline by introducing field problems that are solved with a combination of research and field experience.
S.T. Saleh, GeomechG.V. Chilingar, University of Southern California
Acknowledgements
The first author would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this book-writing grant through project number IN141025. The support received from the department of Petroleum Engineering at KFUPM is also gratefully acknowledged. The author would like to thank Prof. Sidqi Ahmed Abu-Khamsin for his countless administrative support toward the accomplishment of the book project. The author acknowledges the support of his family members that provided him with full support during the book-writing project. The dedication of the author’s wife gave him continuous support under all circumstances. During this long journey, the sacrifice of the children, Ijlal Hossain, Ryyan Hossain, Omar Mohammed Ali-Hossain and Noor Hossain remained the most important source of inspiration. In addition, there are many more friends, colleagues, staff and secretaries who have dedicated time to this book-writing project.
Chapter 1Introduction
1.0 Introduction of the Book
Albert Einstein famously stated, “Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.” It is no surprise that any engineering project begins with defining a problem. However, the degree and the magnitude of the problems vary due to the nature of an engineering endeavor. Petroleum resources are the lifeline of modern civilization and drilling operations form the most important component of the petroleum industry. As such, drilling engineering has numerous problems, solutions of which are challenging. Added to this complexity is the fact that drilling operations involve the subsurface – clearly out of our sight. In absence of direct evidence, the best a drilling engineer can do is to speculate based on existing geological data and experience of the region. As a result, planning of drilling and its implementation is one of the greatest challenges for planners, administrators, and field professionals. To complete an engineering project, the planning phase must have all possible problem scenarios, followed by projected solutions. This is because once the problem occurs, one doesn’t have the time to figure out the solution impromptu. This book is designed to help in solving likely problems encountered during drilling operations. Of course, the list of problems is not exhaustive but the science established in solving the problem is comprehensive, thereby allowing operators to draw upon personal experiences and use this book as a guideline. This chapter introduces the fundamental aspects of the drilling problems faced by the drilling operators, drillers, crews, and related professionals in general. It identifies the key areas in which drilling problems are encountered, along with their root causes.
1.1 Introduction of Drilling Engineering
Despite recent concerns about their sustainability, petroleum resources continue to be the lifeline of modern civilization. This role of oil and gas will continue in the foreseeable future. Petroleum production is inherently linked to drilling technology, ranging from exploration to production, from monitoring to remediation and environmental restoration. Nearly one-quarter of the petroleum industry’s entire exploration and production budget is dedicated to drilling expenses. The complete cycle of petroleum operations includes seismic survey, exploration, field development, hydrocarbon production, refining, storage, transportation/distribution, marketing, and final utilization to the end user. The drilling technology has been developed through the efforts of many individuals, professionals, companies and organizations. This technology is a necessary step for petroleum exploration and production. Drilling is one of the oldest technologies in the world. Drilling engineering is a branch of knowledge where the design, analysis and implementation procedure are completed to drill a well as sustainable as possible (Hossain and Al-Majed, 2015). In a word, it is the technology used to unlock crude oil and natural gas reserves. The responsibilities of a drilling engineer are to facilitate the efficient penetration of the subsurface with wellbore and cementing operations that range from the surface to an optimum target depth, while minimizing safety and environmental hazards.
1.2 Importance of Drilling Engineering
It is well known that the petroleum industry drives the energy sector, which in turn drives modern civilization. It is not unlikely that every day human beings are getting the benefits out of the petroleum industry. The present modern civilization is based on energy and hydrocarbon resources. The growth of human civilization and necessities of livelihood over time inspired human beings to bore a hole for different reasons (such as drinking water, agriculture, hydrocarbon extraction for lighting, power generation, to assemble different mechanical parts, etc.). Only a small fraction of petroleum resources is considered to be recoverable and an even tinier fraction of that is available on the surface, making underground resources virtually the only source of hydrocarbons. The flow of oil is ensured only through drilling engineering playing a pivotal role. Naturally, any improvement in drilling practices will bring multifold benefits to the energy sector and much more to the overall economy.
1.3 Application of Drilling Engineering
Throughout human civilization, drilling in numerous forms played a significant role. As such, the applications of drilling technology are numerous. The applications of drilling range from children’s toys to modern drilling of a hole for the purpose of any scientific and technological usage. Humans have been using this technology for underground water withdrawal from ancient times. Drilling technology is a widely used expertise in the applied sciences and engineering such as manufacturing industries, pharmaceutical industries, aerospace, military defense, research laboratories, and any small-scale laboratory to a heavy industry, such as petroleum. Modern cities and urban areas use the drilling technology to get the underground water for drinking and household use. The underground water extraction by boring a hole is also used for agricultural irrigation purposes. Therefore, there is no specific field of application of this technology. It has been used for a widespread field based on its necessity. This book focuses only on drilling a hole with the hope of hydrocarbon discovery; therefore, here the drilling engineering application means a shaft-like tool (i.e., drilling rig) with two or more cutting edges (i.e., drill bit) for making holes toward the underground hydrocarbon formation through the earth layers especially by rotation. Hence the major application of drilling engineering is to discover and produce redundant hydrocarbon from a potential oil field.
1.4 Drilling Problems, Causes, and Solutions
The oil and gas industry is recognized as one of the most hazardous industries on earth. Extracting hydrocarbon from an underground reservoir is very risky and uncertain. Therefore, it is very important to find out the root causes of its risk and uncertainty. The majority of the risks and uncertainties related to this business are encountered while drilling. As a result, drilling problems offer an excellent benchmark for other practices in petroleum engineering as well as other disciplines. However, the key to having a successful achievement of the drilling objectives is to design drilling programs based on anticipation of potential drilling problems. The more comprehensive the list of problems the more accurate the solution manual will become. The best modus operandi is to avoid running into a scenario where problems arise. This preventative style will lead to safer and more cost-effective drilling schemes. It is well understood that even one occurrence of the loss of human life, environmental disaster, or loss of rig side area can have a profound effect on the welfare of the entire petroleum industry. Some of the drilling problems comprise of drillpipe sticking, stuck pipe, drillstring failures, wellbore instabilities, hole deviation and well path control, mud contamination, kicks, hazardous and shallow gas release, lost circulation, formation damage, loss of equipment, personnel, and communications. There are some other problems specifically related to slim hole drilling, coiled tubing drilling, extended reach drilling, and under-balance drilling, etc. There is a famous saying, “prevention is better than cure”. So, the motto should be “drill a hole safely without having any accident, incident, or harm to this planet, with minimum costs”. The drilling operations should be in a sustainable fashion where the minimization of drilling problems and costs has to have the top priority.
1.5 Drilling Operations and its Problems
Globally, modern rotary oil well drilling has been continued for over a century. Although, drilling itself has been a technology known to mankind for millennia (going back to Ancient China and Egypt), the earliest known commercial oil well in the United States was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1857. Before this time, such innovations as 4-legged derrick, “jars”, reverse circulation drilling, spring pole method, and other drilling accessory techniques had been patented. Drake’s famed well itself was drilled with cable tool and reached only 69 ft below the surface – a distance far shallower than drilling feats achieved by water wells. Even though M. C. and C. E. Baker, two brothers from South Dakota, were drilling shallow water wells in unconsolidated formations of the Great Plains, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that the Baker brothers were using rotary drilling in the Corsicana field of Navarro County, Texas. In 1901 Captain Anthony Lucas and Patillo Higgins applied it to their Spindletop well in Texas. By 1925, the rotary drilling method was improved with the use of a diesel engine. In the meantime, soon after the Drake well, the Sweeney stone drill was patented in 1866. This invention had essential components of modern-day drilling, such as swivel head, rotary drive and roller bit. In terms of drilling bit, the most important discovery was the introduction of the diamond bit. This French invention of 1863 (although ancient Egyptians were known to use such drills in rock quarries) was put in practice to drill a 1,000 ft hole with a 9” diamond bit in 1876. In terms of drilling mud, the history of early oil wells indicates that natural drilling mud was used, with the addition of locally available clay. It is conceivable that early engineers learned the technique of drilling mud operations by observing the fact that as water collected in situ mud from the formation its ability to clean the wellbore increases. However, the use of mud was formalized by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1913, soon after which significant changes to mud chemistry were invoked. By the 1920s, natural clay was substituted in favor of barite, iron oxide, and mined bentonite clays. With the introduction of a commercial drilling mud company (NL Baroid), mud chemistry has evolved drastically to make access to deeper formations possible (Barrett, 2011). The next quantum leap would come in the 1970s when conventional drilling mud materials were deemed unsafe for the environment and new regulations were introduced. The tradition of environment-friendly drilling operations began.
Today’s sophisticated techniques are allowing unreachable formations to extract hydrocarbon beyond vertical and direction wells. In the 1980s, the petroleum industry went through a revolution during which period horizontal well technology was introduced and perfected. At present, drilling companies can drill vertically, directionally, and horizontally using the available technologies with an unprecedented precision and speed. However, there are gaps in these quantum leaps and certain aspects of drilling remain improvised and in need of modernization. These areas have been skipped because the primary focus of the last few decades has been automation and control rather than overall effectiveness of the drilling operation. Once a drilling site is identified, a drilling team starts to make preparations of rig installation prior to drilling. During the whole process of drilling, there might be numerous problems such as technical, geological, geographical, manpower, management, financial, environmental, and political. This book is limited to a focus on technological, geological and environmental problems and their solutions.
1.5.1 Common Drilling Problems
Farouq Ali famously wrote, “It’s easier to land a man on the moon than describing a petroleum reservoir” (JPT, 1970). Indeed, the petroleum industry is the only one that doesn’t have the luxury of ‘field visit’ or ‘field inspection’. In the drilling industry, the most evident problem is the nature of the job itself. The obvious challenge is that we cannot see with our naked eyes what is really happening inside the subsurface. Even if we plan very carefully, it is almost certain that problems related to drilling operations will happen while drilling a well. Understanding and anticipating drilling problems, understanding their causes, and planning solutions are necessary for an overall well cost control which ensures successfully reaching the target zone.
The most prevalent drilling problems include pipe sticking, lost circulation, hole deviations and directional control, pipe failures, borehole instability, mud contamination, formation damage, annular hole cleaning, hazardous gas and shallow gas (i.e., H2S-bearing formation and shallow gas), cave-in hole (collapse), bridging in wells, crookedness of wells/deflection of wells, mud cake formation, pollution and corrosion in wells, stacked tools, drillstring failures, kicks, slow drilling, formation damage, and equipment, communications and personnel-related problems. There are some specific problems related to directional drilling which cover directional/horizontal well drilling, multilateral well drilling, coiled tubing drilling, under-balanced drilling, slim hole drilling. To get the true benefits after knowing the real problems and their solutions, we have to know the answers to the following: i) what problems are to be expected, ii) how to recognize the problem signals, iii) what courses of action need to be taken to combat these problems quickly and economically, and iv) how to employ the learning from the experiences and best real-world solutions. The direct benefit of these answers will have an impact on reducing overall drilling cost, assurance of an economically successful hydrocarbon recovery, and improving the performance of the overall well construction.
1.6 Sustainable Solutions for Drilling Problems
Drilling is a necessary step for petroleum exploration and production. However, drilling into a formation that is thousands of meters underground with extremely complex lithology is a daunting task. The conventional rotary drilling technique falls short since it is costly and contaminates surrounding rock and water due to the use of toxic drilling fluids. The overall approach that includes the usage of toxic chemicals as determined in the 1970s continues to be in operation. In view of increased awareness of the environmental impact, efforts are being made for making drilling practices sustainable (Hossain and Al-Majid, 2015). To make the process sustainable and environmentally friendly, however, is an extremely challenging task. It involves making fundamental changes in engineering practices that have been in place ever since the plastic revolution took place over a century ago. This is the most difficult challenge faced by the petroleum industry tasked with reducing environmental impact of petroleum operations. Recent advances in the petroleum industry have made it possible to have a drilling technique that meets both technical and environmental challenges. Such solutions were considered to be an impossible task only a decade ago. For example, sustainability is one of the prime requirements for greening the drilling fluid system. However, it is a challenge for us how to green the drilling fluid because it depends on the source/origin of the base materials, additives, technology used, and the process itself. Therefore, the development of a sustainable drilling operations and green fluid requires a thorough cost-effective investigation.
In this globalization era, technology is changing every day. Due to the continuous changes and competition between the organizations, it is becoming a challenge for saving this planet. As a result, in management, a sustainable organization can be defined as an organization where exist i) political and security drivers and constraints, ii) social, cultural and stakeholder drivers and constraints, iii) economic and financial drivers and constraints, and iv) ecological drivers and constraints. Thus sustainability concept is the vehicle for the near future Research & Development (R&D) for technology development. A sustainable technology will work towards natural process. In nature, all functions or techniques are inherently sustainable, efficient and functional for an unlimited time period (i.e. Δt→∞). By following the same path as the function inherent in nature, some recent research shows how to develop a sustainable technology (Appleton, 2006, Hossain et al., 2010; Hossain, M.E., 2011; Hossain, M.E., 2013; Khan et al., 2005; Khan and Islam, 2005; Khan 2006a and 2006b). The success of a high-risk hydrocarbon exploration and production depends on the use of appropriate technologies.
Generally, a technology is selected based on criteria, such as technical feasibility, cost effectiveness, regulatory requirements and environmental impacts. Khan and Islam (2006a) introduced a new approach in technology evaluation based on the novel sustainability criterion. In their study, they not only considered the environmental, economic and regulatory criteria, but investigated sustainability of technologies (Khan et al., 2005; Khan and Islam, 2005; Khan 2006a and 2006b). “Sustainability” or “sustainable technology” has been used in many publications, company brochures, research reports and government documents which do not necessarily give a clear direction (Khan, 2006a; Appleton, 2006). Sometimes, these conventional approach/definitions mislead to achieve true sustainability.
Engineering is an art that needs conscious participation and skillful mentoring. The best way to learn how to handle an engineering problem is to sit down next to a friendly, patient, experienced practitioner and work through problems together, step-by-step. Matters of research in fundamentals of drilling engineering, complete with knowledge and most up-to-date information are extremely useful in designing a sustainable drilling well design which ultimately help in reducing the drilling problems in general.
The lack of proper training in environmental sustainability has caused tremendous frustration in the current energy management sector. While everyone seems to have a solution, it is increasingly becoming clear that these options are not moving our environment to any cleaner state. This book offers some of the advanced and recent achievements related to drilling operation problems in addition to fundamentals of different drilling-related problems and sustainable operations. Relevant parameters, ranging from drilling fluid properties to rock heterogeneity will be discussed and methods presented to make the operation sustainable. Complexities arising from directional and horizontal wells in difficult-to-drill formations will be discussed in order to offer practical solutions for drilling problems.
1.7 Summary
This chapter discusses some of the core issues related to drilling engineering. Starting with the history of petroleum well drilling, the chapter introduces various topics of drilling engineering, as presented in this book Topics include, even before starting drilling operations, different types of drilling problems, and the concept of sustainable drilling operations.
References
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Barrett, Mary L., 2011, Drilling Mud: A 20th Century History, Oil-Industry History, v. 12, no. 1, 2011, pp. 161–168.
Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board. 2002. Environmental Protection Board. White Page. <http://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/Environment/evironment.html> (Cited: April 21, 2002).
EPA, 2000. Deovelopment document for final effluent limitations guidelines and standards for synthetic-based drilling fluids and other non-aqueous drilling fluids in the oil and gas extraction point source category. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Water, Washington DC 20460, EPA-821-B-00–013, December 2000.
Holdway, D.A., 2002. The Acute and Chronic Effects of Wastes Associated with Offshore Oil and Gas Production on Temperature and Tropical Marine Ecological Process. Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol. 44: 185–203.
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Hossain, M.E. (2013), “Managing drilling waste in a sustainable manner”, presented as an invited speaker from the Middle East Region in the conference on Drilling Waste: Manage, Reduce, Recycle, organized by the Drilling Waste Forum, 8 – 11 December, 2013, Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
Hossain, M.E., “Development of a Sustainable Diagnostic Test for Drilling Fluid”, Paper ID – 59871, Proc. of the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and the Environment (ISSE) 2011, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE, March 23–24, 2011.
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Chapter 2Problems Associated with Drilling Operations
2.0 Introduction
The rotary drilling rig and its components are the major vehicle of modern drilling activities. In this method, a downward force is applied on the drill bit that breaks the rock with both downward force and centrifugal force, thereby forming the pivotal part of an effective drilling operation. The conventional practice in the oil industry is to use robust drillstring assembly for which large capital expenses are required. However, during any drilling operation, numerous challenges are encountered, each of which can have significant impact on the time required to complete a drilling project. Often, one problem triggers another problem and snowballing of problems occurs, thus incapacitating the drilling process. In this process, there is no ‘small’ or ‘large’ problem, as all problems are intricately linked to each other, eventually putting safety and environmental integrity in jeopardy. Any such impact has immeasurable financial impact beyond short-term effects on the ‘time loss’. This chapter discusses some of the generic drilling problems, such as H2S-bearing zones and shallow gas, equipment and personnel, objects dropped into the well, resistant beds encountered, fishing operations, junk retrieve operations, and twist-off. It identifies the key areas where we encounter drilling problems, their root causes, and solutions related to drilling methods. In well planning, the key to achieving objectives successfully is to design drilling programs on the basis of anticipation of potential hole problems rather than on caution and containment. The desired process is to preempt any problem, because drilling problems can be very costly after they occur. The most prevalent drilling problems include pipe sticking, lost circulation, hole deviation, pipe failures, borehole instability, mud contamination, formation damage, hole cleaning, H2S-bearing formation and shallow gas, and equipment and personnel-related problems.
2.1 Problems Related to Drilling Methods and Solutions
2.1.1 Sour Gas Bearing Zones
During drilling and workover operations, the consequences of leaks with sour gas or crude may be devastating. Drilling H2S-bearing formations poses one of the most difficult and dangerous problems to humans and equipment. Personnel can be injured or even killed by relatively low concentrations of H2S in a very short period of time. Equipment can experience terrible failure due to H2S gas-induced material failure. This risk depends primarily on the H2
