Development and testing of underbalanced drilling products

Technical Report · Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/106504· OSTI ID:106504

Maurer, W; Medley, G Jr

The first objective of this project is to develop a user-friendly, PC, foam drilling computer model, FOAM, which will accurately predict frictional pressure drops, cuttings lifting velocity, foam quality, and other drilling variables. The model will allow operating and service companies to accurately predict pressures and flow rates required at the surface and downhole to efficiently drill oil and gas wells with foam systems. The second objective of this project is to develop a lightweight drilling fluid that utilizes hollow glass spheres to reduce the density of the fluid and allow drilling underbalanced in low-pressure reservoirs. Since the resulting fluid will be incompressible, hydraulics calculations are greatly simplified, and expensive air compressors and booster pumps are eliminated. This lightweight fluid will also eliminate corrosion and downhole fire problems encountered with aerated fluids. Many tight-gas reservoirs in the US are attractive targets for underbalanced drilling because they are located in hard-rock country where tight, low-permeability formations compound the effect of formation damage encountered with conventional drilling fluids.

• Research Organization: Maurer Engineering, Inc., Houston, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC21-94MC31197
• OSTI ID: 106504
• Report Number(s): DOE/MC/31197--95/C0472; CONF-950494--36; ON: DE95014022
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
03 NATURAL GAS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CUTTINGS REMOVAL
DENSITY
DRILLING FLUIDS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
F CODES
FOAMS
FORMATION DAMAGE
MICROSPHERES
MITIGATION
NATURAL GAS WELLS
OIL WELLS
PRESSURE DROP
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
RESERVOIR PRESSURE
RHEOLOGY
VISCOSITY
WELL DRILLING
YIELD STRENGTH