CHAPTER ONE

Introduction
Contents
1.1 Wellbore Hydraulics 1
1.2 Hole Cleaning 2
1.3 Organization of the Book 2
1.4 Rate of Penetration 3
1.5 Pressure Losses 3
1.6 Rheology 4
1.7 Downhole Properties 4
1.8 Pumps 4
1.9 Operators, Drilling Contractors, and Service Company Partners 5

In today’s competitive oil and gas-drilling environment, all available skills

should be utilized by rigsite and office personnel to maximize efficiencies
in constructing the wellbore. A thorough understanding of wellbore
hydraulics and its close associate, hole cleaning, are two of those critical
skills. An engineer’s job is, in part, to predict the future. Operations per-
sonnel make that future happen. Wellbore hydraulics and hole cleaning
enable both to control that future with respect to drilling a well.

1.1 WELLBORE HYDRAULICS

As the title of this book suggests, there are two broad overarching
and connected technologies covered. The first, and perhaps the most mis-
understood, is that of wellbore and bit hydraulics. Understanding and
properly utilizing the various levers of adjustment around wellbore
hydraulics can literally make the difference in drilling ahead or not, but
more commonly it is a matter of how efficiently the drilling is progres-
sing. Significantly, the ability to drill longer laterals can also be a function
of proper wellbore hydraulics. Last, but always of great importance to
drillers, tool pushers, and drilling engineers alike, rate of penetration can
be greatly enhanced through the proper use of wellbore hydraulics.

Practical Wellbore Hydraulics and Hole Cleaning. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817088-5.00001-0 All rights reserved. 1
2 Practical Wellbore Hydraulics and Hole Cleaning

While not the only critical component of a well-designed and exe-

cuted drilling project, the optimum selection of flow rates, pipe sizes
(where this is an option), and nozzle sizes can truly make-or-break the
economics of a well.

1.2 HOLE CLEANING

An older operations superintendent in this author’s early engineering
days advised that “it is not how much hole you make, it is how much hole
you keep!” He wisely recognized that there were ways to improve rate of
penetration short term that could lead to longer term problems or even com-
plete loss of a well. A key component of “keeping” the hole is to have a con-
sistent and reliable approach to removing cuttings from both under the bit
and from the wellbore itself—transporting them out of the hole at the surface.
There is an enormous variety, some might say endless variety of well
designs today. Directionally, these designs range from more-or-less vertical
to fully horizontal (or higher angle). Plan views (or birds-eye top-down
views) of wells range from a straight line to a curved line to a full 180
degree or more “hook.”
Due in part to this variety, there are numerous difficulties in both
transporting cuttings from the wellbore to the surface where they can be
removed from the mud system.

1.3 ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

Wellbore hydraulics and hole cleaning are the title topics of this
book, and the following two chapters address them.
Within those chapters, the solution to the problem is presented in sev-
eral ways. Typically, a quick and usable solution is given for those situa-
tions when extensive analysis is neither warranted nor practical due to
limited time constraints. When you come upon an accident victim need-
ing assistance, stop the bleeding first.
After the quick-but-usable solution is presented, more detailed discus-
sions and more elegant technical approaches are examined. Where time is
Introduction 3

available or well criticality requires it—for example, when drilling through

an extremely narrow pore-pressure/frac-pressure window—the more
detailed approach may be preferred.
In this manner, the book may be effectively used as a quick reference
tool to solve immediate and pressing problems and yet also serves the
inquisitive to bore deeper into the issues.

1.4 RATE OF PENETRATION

The chapter after those two ties the wellbore hydraulics, bit hydrau-
lics, and hole cleaning together in the interest of drilling faster, near and
dear to all drillers’ hearts.
After these cardinal chapters, the remaining chapters in the book
address tightly related subjects in sufficient details with suitable equations
to permit modeling of pressure losses.
The overall approach is that some pressure losses are required by the
drilling operation and cannot nor should not be minimized. Mud motor
losses come to mind as these (and the associated torque and rpm they
impart to the bit) can be extremely important to drilling rate. However, if
the rig pumping capability is sufficient, any extra pressure that is available
should be spent across the bit nozzles, rather than being wasted as friction
loss in pumping drilling fluid through the drill string and up the annulus.

1.5 PRESSURE LOSSES

To the uninitiated, pressure losses seem simple to calculate, espe-
cially if the reader has a background or coursework in calculating pressure
losses in Newtonian liquids flowing through pipes. However, for the case
of a drill well, the liquid is not Newtonian, the flow regime is never fully
laminar nor fully turbulent (the two cases simplest to model), and the
flow is in a nonuniform series of conduits, some of which change sizes
along their length and others are moving!
The result is that it is extraordinarily difficult to accurately model pres-
sure losses accurately downhole. Hence, an entire chapter is devoted to
these pressure loss issues in a manner not found in any extant text.
4 Practical Wellbore Hydraulics and Hole Cleaning

1.6 RHEOLOGY
“Panta rhei”—everything flows. The study of rheology is next. In
order to deal with pressure losses and modeling, an understanding of rhe-
ology is important, so a chapter on this subject is next. Everything that
flows exhibits some resistance to flow. That resistance, in the case of dril-
ling fluids or muds, takes the form typically as a “shear-thinning” liquid.
In such liquids, the viscosity is fairly high when the fluid is shearing (parti-
cle or streamline to particle or streamline) slowly. Conversely, the viscos-
ity actually decreases as the shearing (or shear rate) is increased, much in
the same way that ketchup from a plastic bottle is higher viscosity while
in the bottle than while going through the cone-shaped nozzle as the bot-
tle is squeezed.

1.7 DOWNHOLE PROPERTIES

Next to last in this first edition is a chapter discussion on the vari-
ability of fluid properties as the fluid is transported down the drill pipe,
through the nozzles, and back up the annulus in a wellbore. Increased
pressure increases density and viscosity. Increased temperature decreases
density and viscosity. Pressure and temperature can affect the effect of
chemicals in the mud on their properties. Low shear rate values may be
affected in a different manner than high shear rate ones. Chemical addi-
tives to accomplish other functions, such as protect the formation from
damage, may interact with the rheology differently downhole than on the
surface.

1.8 PUMPS
Last, a brief discussion on rig pumping equipment is provided.
These include both kinetic (or centrifugal) pumps and positive displace-
ment types generally used to store energy (as pressure as the mud com-
presses) for use downhole.
Introduction 5

1.9 OPERATORS, DRILLING CONTRACTORS, AND

SERVICE COMPANY PARTNERS
In an industry where many of the players may have differing eco-
nomic interests in various parts of drilling a well, wellbore hydraulics and
hole cleaning can benefit all of the companies. A good understanding of
how energy is used in a wellbore—usually measured as pressure losses—
can greatly improve the drilling performance for the operator who is pay-
ing for the operation. For the drilling contractor and service companies
involved, that efficiency plays out as significantly improved life of capital-
intensive equipment.
It is the author’s desire that this book’s readers reap economic benefits
far in excess of the monetary cost and time to read and understand it on
the very first well it is used on. Though equipment and measuring techni-
ques improve with time, its concepts are timeless and can be used on all
wells thereafter.
Enjoy your read.