Air and Gas Drilling Manual: Applications for Oil, Gas, Geothermal Fluid Recovery Wells, Specialized Construction Boreholes, and the History and Advent of the Directional DTH

541 Pages·2020·11.283 MB·English

by  William C. Lyons, James H. Stanley, Francisco J. Sinisterra, Tom Weller

Air and Gas Drilling Manual
Air and Gas Drilling Manual
Applications for Oil, Gas, Geothermal Fluid Recovery
Wells, Specialized Construction Boreholes, and the
History and Advent of the Directional DTH
Fourth Edition
William C. Lyons
James H. Stanley
Francisco J. Sinisterra
Tom Weller
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Preface
ThisisthefourtheditionoftheAirandGasDrillingManual.Thefirsteditionof
this book was published in 1984 by the former Gulf Publishing Company of
Houston, Texas. That initial edition was written primarily for the oil and gas
recovery drilling industry. This first edition enjoyed moderate success and
wassoldoutofitsinitialprintingbythelate1980s.Althoughitwasnotknown
at the time, the success of this first book and its content in the later part of the
1980s and early 1990s,was in reality, ananomaly since thoseyearsweresome
oftheworsteverexperienceduptotimebythepetroleumindustryintheUnited
States. In the early 1990s, the North American petroleum engineers and their
uniqueinnovativedrillingpersonnelhadbeguntoconsiderthepotentialadvan-
tagesofdrillingandcompletingwellswithdrillingfluidpressureslowerthanfor-
mation pore pressures. The birth of underbalanced drilling and completion
techniques was underway. At about this same time, the book’s authors began
considering a new second edition ofthe book.
Inthelate1990sGulfPublishingCompanybeganconcentratingonitsinter-
national energy information businesses, e.g., World Oil, Petroleum Economist,
and Hydrocarbon Processing, and began losing interest its long list of profes-
sionalbooktitles,e.g.,AirandGasDrillingManual.Thisledtheauthorstoseek
anewpublisherforasecondedition.Aftergettingareleaseofthebooktitlefrom
thenewownersofGulfPublishingCompany,theauthorsbegansearchingfora
newpublishingcompany.Theauthorsenvisionedthenewsecondeditionwould
initiateinvestigationsintounderbalanceddrillingand completionsengineering
planningandoperations.Also,thisneweditionwouldexpanditsindustrialout-
looktoincludegeothermaldrillingandcompletions,andanearlylookintodeep
construction operations utilizing direct circulation and reverse circulation air
hammer technologies. This second edition was published 2001 under a
McGraw-Hill Company professional title.
Duringthe2000s,technologiesforbothdirectcirculationandreversecircu-
lationofairandgasdrillingequipmentandoperationshadgreatlyimprovedin
the intervening years. This was particularly the case in the Appalachian region
wherepioneerslikeBrooksJavins,RubenGraham,RudyLyon,AngeloSpedale,
RinerBeccu,TomDonovan,GlennWright,JayGodfrey,RayShelor,RudyFlores,
Jeff White, Shantanu Swadi, Tom Weller, and many others who pushed the
designs of the DTH and their applications. This was particularly the situation
with the new discoveries of producible oil and gas from horizontally drilled
andfrackedwellsintheUticaandMarcellusshales.TheseAppalachiandiscov-
eriespromptedinterestbylocaldrillingequipmentsuppliersandcontractorsto
improvetheverticaldrillingtimesandcostefficiencybyincorporatingdownhole
air hammers (DTHs) in the BHAs. Along with those advances were the many
xi
xii Preface
greatstridesforwardinreversecirculationdrillingequipmentformining,envi-
ronmental, constructionapplicationsbyArtHolte and histeamin Oregon,and
international manufactures specializing in this type of large diameter shallow
depth drilling equipment. Through the 2000s, Elsevier had acquired access for
rights to publish professional books from the old Gulf Publishing Company.
The new third edition of the Air and Gas Drilling Manual was published by
Elsevierin 2009.
Thenewfourtheditionhaspulledtogetherthenewestinnovationsforboth
the direct circulation and the reverse circulation technologies over that past
decade,andcondensedtheimportantengineeringcalculationsandapplications
forbothoftheseimportantdrillingtechnologies.Themajorinnovationindirect
circulation has been the development of the ability to drill long reach and
mediumreachdirectionaldrillingwithBHAscomposedofPDMsrotatingDTHs.
InreversecirculationArtHolteandhisteaminOregondevelopedtheabilityto
drilllargediameterboreholesandgroutthemasthedrillingequipmentiswith-
drawn from the borehole. These are spectacular inventions for the industries
theyserve.Thisfourthedition,asinthethirdedition,makesuseoftheMathcad
mathematicalmodeling.Theseexamplesolutionsshowstep-by-stepcalculations
in familiar mathematics that can be duplicated in any of the engineering pro-
gramminglanguages,FORTRAN,C+,MatLab,etc.Mathcadisanimportanttool
forteachingengineersandtechniciansthelogicorderlysolutionsandthevalue
of the calculations for planning.
TheauthorswouldliketothankthestaffatElsevierfortheirforbearanceand
great patience during the creation of this new fourth edition. We would partic-
ularly like to thank Katie Hammon, the Elsevier Acquisitions Editor who took
anotherchanceonustoproduceafourtheditiononthissubject.Wewouldalso
like to thank our Editorial Project Managers Hillary Carr and Mona Zahir for
struggling through our delays. The really valuable assistance came from our
figure drawing artists and the proof readers that had to endure many drafts.
Our special thanks go out to the artists Trish Richardson and Ann Gardner
who gave us near instant reproductions from our hand sketches. The proof
readersenduredaspecialmessofmissing(to’s,the’s,in’s,a’s)astheydealtwith
our late night drafts by theauthors. So our thanksgo out to our proofreaders,
GlennaWoody,GracePeterson,and AnnGardner whohad todeal withnearly
three years of endlessrevisions.
William C.Lyons
JamesH. Stanley
Francisco J. Sinisterra
Tom Weller
Acknowledgments
“Iwouldliketothankthefollowingpeopleforsharingtheirexpertise:ArtHolte,
FrankA.Seidel,ReubenL.Graham,BoyunGuo,RudyFlores,PatSullivan,and
Shane Sayler.”
xiii
CHAPTER
1
Introduction, Calculation
Programming, and
Unit Systems
1.1 INTRODUCTION
There is a wide variety of air and gas drilling operations being used by many
diverseindustriesinagreatvariationoflocationsaroundtheworld.Thesevary
from the air- or gas-assisted drilling of very shallow subsurface boreholes for
large and small construction projects to the drilling of extremely deep vertical
to horizontal boreholes used for the extraction of important natural resources
(e.g., fresh water resources, geothermal fluids with dissolved minerals in live
steam,naturalgas,andcrudeoils).Bothindustryandgovernmententitiesspon-
sortheseoperations.Fromtheinceptionoftherockandsoildrillingtechnologies
forperceivedneedsinindustries,theindividualinventorswithinthesemarkets
have been dedicated to innovations that would make these drilling operations
safer,reliable,andcost-effective.Suchinnovationsarefollowedbyactivedevel-
opmentofnearlyallnewideasandultimatelythecommercialapplicationwithin
thevarious industries.
Deepholedrillingairandgastechnologiesusedfordiscoveryandrecoveryof
crudeoil,naturalgas,andgeothermalfluidshaveinthepastbeenlimitedtouse
in mature sedimentary basins. Mature sedimentary basins are older basins that
havecompetentsubsurfacerockformations,arewellcementedwithnaturalmin-
erals,andhavebeentectonicallyupliftedsuchthatlittleformationwaterremains
in near-surface porous and fractured beds. Usually, their geological ages are
priortoabout65millionyears.Modernairandgasdrillingtechnologyandoper-
ationsbeganintheUnitedStatesinthe1930s.Itispresentlybeingusedinmany
drillingoperationsthroughouttheworld’smanyoilandgasproducinggeologic
provinces.Itisimportantatthistimeinthedevelopmentofthistechnologythat
thebasicprinciplesofthetechnologybecommunicatedinamannerthatalldril-
ling personnel will understand.
Innovation in subsurface drilling equipment has been usually initiated by
smaller business entities or individual inventors. These innovators are the “tin-
kers”intheindustryandtheideasforchangesoftencomefromthefieldhands
whooperateandhandlethesetoolsonaday-to-daybasis.Therearemanyexam-
ples of these innovations coming from these innovative small business entities
over the past seven decades. Examples of such important early innovation are
as follows: the top drive rotary system, the downhole compass sub, the bent
1
AirandGasDrillingManual.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815792-3.00001-5
#2021ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
2 CHAPTER 1 Introduction, Calculation Programming, and Unit Systems
sub, for direction drilling, the formation coring bit, the downhole positive dis-
placementmotor(PDM),thedownholeairhammer,andthereversecirculation
drill string. Therefore, this manual will discuss not only the existing important
technologiesbutalsosomeofthenewinnovationsthatareenteringthevarious
industrymarkets.Itisbelievedthatthiskindofexposuretothenewinnovations
taking place in industry will hasten the acceptance and application of these
inventionsintothelargerindustrialmarkets.Inessence,thelargermarketswill
become“infected”earlierfrom thesuccesses in the smaller markets.
Largerdiametershallowandintermediatedepthwellsareoftendrilledwith
reversecirculationtechniques.Thesetechniquesandtheirassociatedequipment
are easier to manufacture to incorporate any new innovations and test them.
Thus, virtually unknown ideas, like reverse circulation drilling, may someday
be used in deep well drilling with small diameter drill string BHAs. That will
likelynecessitatetheinventionofnewmaterialsandfabricationtechniquesthat
have not yet been invented to create the concept of flexible dual wall pipes.
Air and gas drilling technologies account for approximately 10% of the
world’slandoilandgasdrillingoperations.Itwasasomewhathigherpercentage
adecadeorsoago,butoverthatdecade,theoilandgasdrillingindustrywasina
recessionanddrillingoperationsarealwaysthefirstbudgetitemtobecutbackin
slow market times. With those cut backs comes a slowdown in innovations in
existingtechnologies and their associated operations.
However, shallow drilling operations for large diameter construction holes,
pipeline directional drilling of near horizontal boreholes, and cable lying (not
countingaugerborings)utilizecloseto50%airdrillingtechnologieswithcom-
pressorpressurized air flow forremoving drill bit cuttings.
This manual shows the engineer or engineering technician how to use the
included equations in each chapter to create calculation programs that can be
usedtopredicttheair(orgas)pressuresatspecificpositionsinsidethedrillstring
andintheannulusaroundthedrillstringintheflowloop.Thiswillgiveanaccu-
rate estimate of the injection pressure required from the selected compressor
package.Foradirectcirculationoperation, theloopcalculation sequencemust
beinitiatedwiththeonlyknownpressureintheloop.Thatistheexitpressureat
the exit end of the blooey line with the entrained drill bit cuttings (and any
injected or formation liquids) being lifted from the bottom of the borehole. If
the operation is using a “solid-gas buster” or a device to separate the solids or
dustfromthereturnflowfromthebottomoftheborehole,thentheknownpres-
surewillbeattheexitofthegasfromthesolid-gasseparator.Forareversecir-
culationoperationusingadual-walleddrillstring,theinitiatingpressurewillbe
attheexitfromtheblooeylinethatisconnectedtothetopoftheinsidepipeflow
space ofthe dual wall drill pipe.Thecalculation will proceedin reverse, down
flow space of the inside pipe, through the drill bit nozzles and up the annulus
spaceinthedualwalldrillpipetothecompressorinjectionpressure.Hereagain,
ifasolid-gasseparatorisbeingused,theinitiationpressureattheseparatorexit
will be used, which is also atmospheric.
1.3 Terminology 3
1.2 CALCULATION PROGRAMMING
Engineers and drilling supervisory personnel need to make predictive calcula-
tions in order to make their drilling operations efficient and cost-effective. The
prediction calculations for air and gas drilling technology are complicated and
will require the creation of calculation computer programs. There are sophisti-
catedairandgasprogramsavailablecommercially.Butinthetraditionofmost
engineeringfields,oncethebasicoutlineoftheprogramhasbeenoutlined,we
tendtohandthe“careandfeeding”oftheprogramovertothecomputerscience
department.TheauthorshavechosentouseMathCadasourprimarytooltocom-
municateto thereaders thedetails ofhowair and gasdrillingpredictive calcu-
lationsaremade.TheseMathCadsolutionsareverytransparentandarewritten
inasequencethatanengineerorengineeringtechnicianwoulddoiftheywereto
dothecalculationbyhand.Intheevent,theconsultancyorcompanyrequiresthe
use of engineering programming languages like FORTRAN, MATLAB, Pascal,
Basic, Visual Basic, Java, C, and C++. The reader can easily copy our sequence
into the other programming languages.
ThedetailedMathCadsolutionsaregivenintheappendicesandtheresultsare
summarizedfromthosecalculationsineachassociatedchaptertext,table,andfig-
ure.ThesolutionsarepresentedinbothUSCSunitsandSIunits.Itisassumedthat
newcomerstothistechnologywilleventuallymakethechoiceofwhethertousean
existingcommercialprogramortodeveloptheirowncompanyinternalprogram.
1.3 TERMINOLOGY
Theobjectiveofthisprofessionaltextistofamiliarizethereaderswiththebasic
terminologyandoperationalapplicationsofthisnewfieldofairandgasdrilling
technology. The use of this technology is limited to land drilling operations.
There are three subcategories of this technology: (1) airand gas fluids drilling,
(2) aerated fluids drilling, and (3) stable foam fluids drilling. This technology
isutilized by industryto fulfilltwo specific drilling objectives.
Performancedrilling:Thistypeofdrillingtakesadvantageofthelowannu-
lusbottomholepressuresthataccompanytheuseofthistechnology.Lowannu-
lusbottomholepressuresusuallyresultinhigherratesofpenetrations.Thistype
of drilling operation is applied in the upper portions of a well bore above the
potential producing reservoir formation. The specific objective of this type of
drillingistodrillmorerapidlythroughtheupperformationsabovethereservoir
and to ultimately reduce the cost ofa drilling operation.
Underbalanceddrilling:Hereagain,thistypeofdrillingagaintakesadvan-
tage of the low annulus bottom hole pressure characteristic of the technology.
Underbalanced drilling uses various bottom hole pressure capabilities of air
and gas, and aerated and stable foam drilling fluids to drill into potential
4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction, Calculation Programming, and Unit Systems
producingreservoirrockformationswithannulusbottomholepressureslower
thanthestaticreservoirpressure.Inthismanner,thereservoirfluidsflowtothe
wellboreasthedrillbitisadvancedthroughthereservoir.Underbalanceddril-
lingoperationsattempttoavoiddamagetothereservoirrockformationsothat
the reservoir will produceeffectively through its life.
1.4 UNIT SYSTEMS
Modernengineeringpracticescanbetracedbacktotheearly8thcenturyADwith
thetraditionofthe“masterbuilder.”Thiswasthetimeofthecreationofthemea-
sureknownastheCharlemagnefoot.Fromthe8thcenturyintothe17thcentury,
a variety of weights and measures were used throughout the world. It was not
untiltheWeightsandMeasuresActof1824thatacompleteBritishImperialSys-
tem(BIS)wascodifiedwithintheBritishIsles,BritishCommonwealthcountries,
andinsomeoftheformercoloniesoftheBritish.TheUnitedStates(US)actually
did not accept the full British Imperial System. The United States made use of
some of the major units within the system and some of the older units that
had evolved through the years of colonialism before 1824. This evolution of
usage within the United States ultimately became the United States Customary
System (USCS) units that is still in commonusetoday.
Thedevelopmentofsomeofthebasicunitsthatultimatelybecamepartofthe
present-day System International d’Unites probably began around the time of
Louis XIV of France. This system is known today as simply SI units (or metric
units). This system became codified by international treaty in France in 1875.
Most unit systems today, including the British Imperial System and the USCS,
arereferencedtotheactualexistingweights(mass)andmeasuresoftheSIunits.
These reference weights and measures are kept in Paris, France for all nations
andotherentitiestoutilize.Since1875,theSIunitshavegainedrapidandwide-
spreadusethroughouttheworld.Thissystem ischaracterizedbyitsconsistent
setofunitsandsimplicityofuse.TheSIunitsarebasedonmultiplesofdecades
orunitsof10s.AllbasicweightsandmeasurementunitswithinSIareinincreas-
ingmagnitudesofmultiplesof10,100,1000,etc.Nearlyallotherunitsystemsin
useininternationaltradeandcommercearoundtheworldtodaymustberefer-
encedagainsttheSIstandardunitsbeforetheyareconsideredlegitimateforlegal
matters orfor internationalcommercial trade.
1.4.1 Physical Mechanics
Thereareimportantfundamentaldefinitionsofunitsthatmustbeusedtodefine
any units system. These are:
- Forceistheactionofonebodyonanother,whichwillcauseaccelerationof
thesecondbodyunlessactedonbyanequalandoppositeactioncountering
the effect of thefirst body.