Applied Drilling Circulation Systems - Hydraulics, Calculations, and Models

307 Pages·2011·4.985 MB·English

by  Guo, Boyun, Liu, Gefei

APPLIED DRILLING
CIRCULATION SYSTEMS
, ,
HYDRAULICS CALCULATIONS
AND MODELS
BOYUN GUO, Ph.D.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
GEFEI LIU
Pegasus Vertex, Inc.
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Guo,Boyun.
Applieddrillingcirculationsystems:hydraulics,calculations,andmodels/BoyunGuo,GefeiLiu.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-12-381957-4(hardback)
1.Mudpumps.2.Oil-welldrilling.3.Gaswelldrilling.I.Liu,Gefei.II.Title.
TN871.27.G862011
622’.3381–dc22 2010043249
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PREFACE
Drilling circulation systems in the oil and gas industry have advanced
significantlyinthelastdecade.Themajorchangesresultedfromthemerging
of air and gas drilling and underbalanced drilling with traditional liquid
drilling systems. During the several years of teaching drilling engineering
courses in both academia and industry, the authors realized the need for a
book that covers modern drilling practices. The books that are currently
availablefailtoprovideadequateinformationabouthowengineeringprinci-
ples are applied to solving problems that are frequently encountered in
drillingcirculationsystems.Thisfactmotivatedtheauthorstowritethisbook.
This book is written primarily for well drilling engineers and college
students of both senior and graduate levels. It is not the authors’ intention
to simply duplicate general information that can be found in other books.
This book gathers the authors’ experiences gained through years of teach-
ing courses on drilling hydraulics, air and gas drilling, and underbalanced
drilling engineering in the oil and gas industry and in universities. The
mission of this book is to provide drilling engineers with handy guide-
lines for designing, analyzing, and operating drilling circulation systems.
This book covers the full scope of drilling circulation systems. Follow-
ing the sequence of technology development, it contains ten chapters
presented in three parts.
PartI contains fourchaptersthatcoverliquiddrilling fundamentalsas the
first course for entry-level drilling engineers and undergraduate students.
Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the equipment used in mud drilling
systems.Chapter2documentsmudhydraulicsfundamentalsthatareessential
for selecting and optimizing mud pumps and mud hydraulics programs.
Chapter3coversindetailtheprocedureforselectingmudpumps.Chapter4
presentstechniquesusedtooptimizemudhydraulicsprograms.
Part II includes three chapters that present the principles and rules of
designing and operating gas drilling systems. Chapter 5 introduces the
equipment used in gas drilling systems. Chapter 6 covers in detail the
procedure for selecting gas compressors. Chapter 7 provides guidelines for
operating gas drilling systems.
Part III consists of three chapters that cover underbalanced drilling
systems. Chapter 8 presents an introduction to the equipment used in
underbalanced drilling systems. Chapter 9 describes the procedure for
ix
x Preface
selecting gas and liquid flow rates. Chapter 10 provides guidelines for
underbalanced drilling operations.
Since the substance of this book is virtually boundless in depth,
knowing what to omit was the greatest challenge. The authors believe
that it requires many books to describe the foundation of knowledge in
drilling circulation systems. To counter any deficiency that might arise
from space limitations, this book provides a reference list of books and
papers at the end of each chapter so readers can consult other sources of
information about the topics discussed.
As for presentation, this book focuses on providing and illustrating
engineering principles used for designing and optimizing drilling circula-
tion systems, rather than on discussion of in-depth theories. Derivation of
mathematical models is beyond the scope of this book. Applications of the
principles are illustrated by solving example problems. While the solutions
to some simple problems that do not involve iterative procedures are
demonstrated with stepwise calculations, complicated problems are solved
with computer spreadsheet programs, some of which can be downloaded
from the publisher’s website. The combination of the book and the
computer programs creates the perfect tool kit for drilling engineers for
performance of their daily work in the most efficient manner. All of the
computer programs were written in the form of spreadsheets in MS Excel
that are available in most computer platforms in the oil and gas industry.
These spreadsheets are accurate and very easy to use. While both U.S. field
units and SI units are used in the book, the option of using U.S. field units
or SI units is provided in the spreadsheet programs.
This book is based on numerous documents, including reports and
papers accumulated through years of work at the University of Louisiana
at Lafayette and at Pegasus Vertex, Inc. The authors are grateful to the
university and the company for permission to use these materials. Special
thanks go to Chevron USA for providing professorships in petroleum
engineering throughout the editing of this book. Our thanks also go to
Mr. Guoqiang Yin of Shell USA, who contributed a thorough review
and edit of this book. On the basis of the collective experiences of the
authors and of reviewers, we expect this book to be of great value to
drilling engineers in the oil and gas industry.
Dr. Boyun Guo
Chevron Endowed Professor in Petroleum Engineering
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Part One Liquid Drilling Systems 1
1. Equipment in Mud Circulating Systems 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 MudPumps 3
1.3 Drill Strings 6
1.4 Contaminant-Removal Equipment 11
Summary 18
2. Mud Hydraulics Fundamentals 19
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 Characterization ofDrillingMud 19
2.3 Hydraulics Models 26
Summary 57
3. Mud Pumps 61
3.1 Introduction 61
3.2 MudFlow RateRequirements 61
3.3 Pressure Requirements 66
3.4 Horsepower Requirements 72
3.5 Capacities ofMudPumps 74
Summary 78
4. Mud Hydraulics Optimization 81
4.1 Introduction 81
4.2 TheCriteria ofHydraulics Optimization 81
4.3 TheOptimumDesign ofa Hydraulics Program 86
Summary 104
Part Two Gas Drilling Systems 107
5. Equipment in Gas Drilling Systems 109
5.1 Introduction 109
5.2 SurfaceEquipment 109
5.3 DownholeEquipment 114
Summary 117
vii
viii Contents
6. Gas Compressors 119
6.1 Introduction 119
6.2 Gas Flow Mechanics 119
6.3 Gas InjectionRateRequirements 128
6.4 Gas InjectionPressure Requirements 138
6.5 Horsepower Requirements 142
Summary 144
7. Gas Drilling Operations 147
7.1 Introduction 147
7.2 Gas DrillingProcedures 147
7.3 Problems andSolutions 150
Summary 163
Part Three Underbalanced Drilling Systems 165
8. Equipment in Underbalanced Drilling Systems 167
8.1 Introduction 167
8.2 Surface Equipment 167
8.3 Downhole Equipment 170
Summary 171
9. Gas and Liquid Injection Rates 173
9.1 Introduction 173
9.2 Multiphase Flowsin UBD Systems 173
9.3 TheGas-Liquid Flow RateWindow 194
Summary 209
10.Underbalanced Drilling Operations 213
10.1 Introduction 213
10.2 AeratedLiquid Drilling 213
10.3 FoamDrilling 223
Summary 230
Appendix A UnitConversion Factors 231
Appendix B Minimum GasFlow Rates Required forLifting Solids
andWater inAirDrilling 233
Appendix C APIDrillCollar Weight(lb/ft) 241
Appendix D APIDrill PipeDimensional Data 243
Appendix E APICasing DimensionalData 245
Index 255
PART ONE
Liquid Drilling Systems
Liquid is widely used as a circulating fluid to drill oil and gas wells, water
wells, geotechnical boreholes, and mining boreholes. This type of drilling
fluid is most commonly suspensions of clay and other materials in water
and is thus called drilling mud. Since it usually has a density ranging from
8.33 to 18.33 ppg (1.0–2.2 S.G.), drilling mud is used for drilling rock
formations with normal to abnormal fluid pressure gradients (>0.433 psi/ft
or 0.01 MPa/m). Because the bottomhole pressure is greater than the for-
mation pore pressure, mud drilling is an overbalanced drilling operation.
Compared to gas drilling and two-phase drilling (see Parts II and III), mud
can be used to drill various types of formation rocks with better control of
formation fluids and borehole stability.
PartIprovidesdrillingengineerswithbasicknowledgeaboutmudcircu-
lating systems and techniques that are usedfor optimizing drilling hydraulics
to achieve the maximum drilling rate. Materials are presented in the first
fourchapters:
Chapter 1: Equipment in Mud Circulating Systems
Chapter 2: Mud Hydraulics Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Mud Pumps
Chapter 4: Mud Hydraulics Optimization
1
CHAPTER ONE
Equipment in Mud Circulating
Systems
Contents
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 MudPumps 3
1.3 Drill Strings 6
1.4 Contaminant-Removal Equipment 11
Summary 18
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Figure 1.1 shows a typical mud circulating system (Lyons et al.,
2009). The drilling mud travels (1) from the steel tanks to the mud
pump; (2) from the pump through the standpipe and the kelly to the
drill string, which consists of drill pipes and the bottomhole assembly
(BHA), with a major length of drill collars; (3) through the drill string to
the bit; (4) through the nozzles of the bit and up the annular space
between the drill string and the borehole (open hole and cased hole sec-
tions) to the surface; and (5) through the contaminant-removal equip-
ment back to the suction tank. The contaminant-removal equipment can
include shale shakers, degassers, hydrocyclones (desanders and desilters),
and centrifuges. An integrated unit of desanders and desilters is called a
mud cleaner. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the equipment
that controls the circulating pressure of the system.
1.2 MUD PUMPS
Mud pumps serve as the heart of the mud circulating system.
Reciprocating piston pumps (also called slush pumps or power pumps) are
widely used for drilling oil and gas wells. The advantages of the reciprocat-
ing positive-displacement pump include the ability to move high-solids-
content fluids laden with abrasives, the ability to pump large particles, ease
AppliedDrillingCirculationSystems.DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-381957-4.00001-2
©2011ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved. 3
4 PartI LiquidDrillingSystems
Rotary Hose
Standpipe
Swivel
Mud Pump
Kelly
Mud Line
Mud Tanks
Drill Pipe
Shale Shaker
Drill Collar
(BHA)
Drill Bit
Figure1.1 Atypical mudcirculating system.
Figure1.2 Aduplex pump.(Courtesy ofGreat American.)
of operation and maintenance, reliability, and the ability to operate over a
wide range of pressures and flow rates by changing the diameters of the
compression cylinders (pump liners) and pistons.
The two types of piston strokes are the single-action piston stroke and
the double-action piston stroke. A pump that has double-action strokes in
two cylinders is called a duplex pump (Figure 1.2). A pump that has single-
action strokes in three cylinders is called a triplex pump (Figure 1.3). Triplex
pumps are lighter and more compact than duplex pumps, their output
EquipmentinMudCirculatingSystems 5
Figure 1.3 Atriplex pump.(Courtesy of TSC.)
Figure 1.4 Pumpliners. (Courtesyof TSC.)
pressure pulsations are not as great, and they are cheaper to operate. For
these reasons, the majority of new pumps being placed into operation are
of the triplex design. Normally, duplex pumps can handle higher flow
rates, and triplex pumps can provide higher working pressure. However,
for a given pump of fixed horsepower, the flow rate and working pressure
can be adjusted by changing the sizes of the liners inside the pump. Some
types of pump liners are shown in Figure 1.4. Changing the speed of the
prime mover can also affect the mud flow rate in a certain range.