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Lecture #06

NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY


Drilling

Lecturer
Kashif Iqbal
wah engineer College
university of wah
Drilling fluids (mud)
The key to making the rotary drilling system work is the ability to
circulate a fluid continuously down through the drill pipe, out through
the bit nozzles and back to the surface.
The drilling fluid can be air, foam (a combination of air and liquid or a
liquid.
Liquid drilling fluids are commonly called drilling mud.
All drilling fluids, especially drilling mud, can have a wide range of
chemical and physical properties. These properties are specifically
designed for drilling conditions and the special problems that must be
handled in drilling a well.
Purpose of Drilling Fluids
Cooling and lubrication. As the bit drills into the rock formation, the friction caused by the rotating bit against the rock
generate heat. The heat is dissipated by the circulating drilling fluid. The fluid also lubricates the bit.

Cuttings removal. An important function of the drilling fluid is to carry rock cuttings removed by the bit to the surface.
The drilling flows through treating equipment where the cuttings are removed and the clean fluid is again pumped down
through the drill pipe string.

Suspend cuttings. There are times when circulation has to be stopped. The drilling fluid must have that gelling
characteristics that will prevent drill cuttings from settling down at the bit. This may caused the drill pipe to be stuck.
Pressure control. The drilling mud can be the first line of defense against a blowout or loss of well control caused by
formation pressures.
Data source. The cuttings that the drilling mud brings to the surface can tell the geologist the type of formation being
drilled
To wall the hole with impermeable filter cake. This will give a temporary support to the wall of the borehole from
collapsing during drilling.
Types of drilling fluids

Water-base mud
This fluid is the mud in which water is the continuous phase. This is the most common
drilling mud used in oil drilling.

Oil-based mud
This drilling mud is made up of oil as the continuous phase. Diesel oil is widely used to
provide the oil phase. This type of mud is commonly used in swelling shale formation.
With water-based mud the shale will absorb the water and it swells that may cause stuck
pipe.
Air and foam
There are drilling conditions under which a liquid drilling fluid is not most desirable
circulating medium. Air or foam is used in drilling some wells when these special
conditions exist.
Drilling Fluid treating and monitoring equipment

In addition to the main mud pumps, several items of mud treating equipment are found on most rigs. Much of this
equipment is aimed at solids removal, including shale shakers, desanders, desilters and centrifuges.

Shale shakers remove larger particles from the mud stream as it returns from the bottom of the hole. Shakers are
equipped with screens of various sizes, depending on the type of solids to be removed.

Finer particles in the mud stream are removed with desanders, desilters and centrifuges. Each of these items of
solids-control equipment is applicable only over a certain range of particle sizes.

In addition to removing solids, mud handling equipment may also include a mud degasser to remove entrained gas
from the mud stream. Degassing the drilling fluid is sometimes necessary when small volumes of gas flow into the
well bore during drilling.

Additional equipment include mixers to agitate mud in the tanks, smaller pumps to various duties and equipment for
adding chemicals and solid materials to the mud system.
The drilling stages
Wells are normally drilled in stages, starting with a surface hole drilled to
reach a depth anywhere from 60 to 400 meters, depending on final well depth
and area conditions. The crew then pulls out the drill string and inserts steel
pipe, called surface casing, which is cemented in place, to keep the wall from
caving in. It controls the return flow of mud and other fluids encountered
during drilling and also prevents contamination of groundwater. The
beginning of the actual drilling, which takes place after the surface hole is
drilled.
After setting surface casing and installing the blowout preventers (BOPs), the
crew resumes drilling. A probe for shallow gas or heavy oil in eastern Alberta
may require only two or three days to drill 450 metres through soft shales and
sandstone to the target depth. However, a rig may work eight months or longer
to penetrate 4,500 meters or more through hard, complex rocks in the foothills
of the Rockies.
The drilling stages
When the bit needs to be replaced because of wear or changing rock strata, the
crew has to pull out the entire string, unscrewing sections of pipe in single,
double or triple sections, depending on the height of the derrick, and stacking
them upright in the derrick.
Then they have to put the whole string back into the hole again, with the new
bit in place. This process, which can be very laborious and time-consuming for a
deep hole, is called tripping. Major improvements in the durability of bits and
the formulation of drilling fluids since the 1980s have greatly reduced the
number of trips required to drill a well. Many shallow wells today are drilled
without a bit change.
If the string breaks or gets stuck in a hole, a specialist is called in to help the
crew go fishing with special tools. No one wants to lose an expensive bit and
bottom-hole assembly, but the blocked hole is the real problem. As a last resort,
the crew drills a curved section called a sidetrack to bypass the debris.
Under ground rock layers on drilling site
This illustration is a simplified cross-section
of the surface and underground rock strata
where gas well drilling generally occurs.

It does not show all of the scores of


horizontal layers of rock (rock strata) that
lie beneath the surface like you see when a
road is cut through a mountain. It shows
those that are most important for gas well
drilling, and even those are simplified.

There may be several separate strata bearing


good and bad groundwater, coal and gas.
Some strata hold groundwater we would call good
groundwater. Water wells are drilled to the good
groundwater in these strata. These are sometimes
called freshwater rock strata. Other water strata hold
water that contains sulphur, salt etc. bad
groundwater.
mostly the good groundwater is usually closer to the
surface than the bad groundwater (not the case
everywhere) so it can be accessed by relatively
shallow water wells.

The gas bearing rock strata is porous/permeable. This


has allowed the gas migrating upward over the eons to
collect in the microscopic spaces in the rock. The gas
cannot migrate higher because the next rock strata up
is not porous/permeable. That next layer forms a seal,
like the rock between the good and bad groundwater
strata, that keeps the gas from migrating higher and
causes a pool of gas in the gas bearing strata.
First, the driller drills through all of the surface water
strata. (This first drilling is several hundreds of feet down.
The well will be thousands of feet deep after all of the
drillings are done that will create this one gas well.)
As the bit turns and grinds its way into the ground it creates
cuttings of drilled-out rock. In order to get the cuttings
out of the way, compressed air or mud is blown down the
hollow drill pipe in the center of the hole and out through
the drill bit working at the bottom. The air then blows the
cuttings up from the bottom and out of the hole.
The upward moving air also mixes with whatever good or
bad water is leaking or flowing into the un-cased hole. At
the surface, the cuttings-filled air is put through a water
bath. The water bath washes the cuttings into a drilling pit
that is full of the water used in the water bath, plus the water
that leaked into the hole (and rain water). The cuttings settle
out into the bottom of the pit.
Sometimes the air and water are not dense enough to lift the
cuttings. So soap agents are added to the compressed air
to help lift the cuttings up to the surface, and it ends up in
the drilling pit.
After the driller has gone as deep as
he has planned for this first drilling,
the drill bit is pulled out. What
remains at this point there is a bare
hole into the ground that goes
through the good and bad ground
water strata.
One of the most common problems affecting
surface owners water wells occurs during the
drilling of this open hole and now that the drill is
pulled out. With nothing to stop it, the water pours
into the gas well hole the same way in pours into
the hole at the bottom of the surface owners water
well. So much water can pour out of the good
groundwater-bearing strata and into the much
deeper gas well open hole, that it can deplete the
groundwater aquifer where the surface owners
water well is.
There is not much a driller can do to prevent this if
the groundwater strata conditions set the stage for it
to happen. Fortunately this generally is temporary.
Once the metal casing and cement is put in as
explained in the next slides, the leaking should
stop. In most cases the volume of water in the good
groundwater strata will be recharged from rain or
water flowing from yet further away.
Another thing can go wrong as
the compressed air, soap, the bad
groundwater, etc. gets mixed up in the hole
while lifting the cuttings out. All of this stuff
can get forced or work its way into the good
groundwater strata and pollute it.

This is not uncommon. A careful driller


should be able to prevent or limit this effect
by being careful with the pressures being
used to blow cuttings out of the hole, etc.
The movement of these contaminants into the
groundwater is temporary.
However it can take a long, long time
for pollutants that do get into a good
groundwater strata to wash out.
Next the driller lowers a large metal
pipe called a casing down into the hole
almost as far as he has drilled.
This casing alone will not protect the
groundwater. Pollution can still occur by
mixing of good and bad ground water etc.
between the outside of the metal casing and
the inside of the hole.
This space between the outside of the
casing and the inside of the hole is called
the annular space.
The driller tries to calculate the volume of the empty annular space between the outside
of the casing and the inside of the hole.
The driller then has a company pump that same volume of cement down the inside of
the casing. (You will regularly see these special cement trucks on the highways. They
are usually gray and have huge covered funnel shaped tanks on the back holding the
cement.)
To separate this cement from the water that is going to force it into the empty annular
space, the driller inserts a pig (orange here). Then water pressureis applied down on
the pig, and . . . The cement is forced down the inside of the casing, around the bottom
of the casing, and then up the outside of the casing and into the annular space.
For the cement job to be good the cement has to return to the surface. That is, the
cement has to be pushed all the way up the annular space so it comes back level to the
surface and completely fills the annular space.
Sometimes there can be voids (think of caves) in
the ground. In that case the cement instead of filling
up the annular space, fills up the void, and does not
make it to the surface. The annular space is not filled
with cement. This is not uncommon. And it can
cause problems to occur.
If the driller has to pass through a mined out coal
seam while drilling down to the gas bearing
formation there will be a huge "void" problem. It is
probably larger than a naturally occurring void, but
the driller should know about it in advance. The
solution is not all that relaible. A larger hole is
drilled down through the void. A larger metal
casing is fitted into that larger hole. However it is
not possible to insert cement between the outside of
the casing and the inside of by hole (the "annular
space") by pushing it down the center of the casing
and then back up into the annular space from the
bottom up to the surface ("circulating"), as is usually
done. That is because the cement will get as high as
the void and then flow into the void instead of on up
the annular space to cement in the surface ground
water formations.
Instead of "circulating" the cement through the groundwater formations, the driller
places a "basket" on the larger casing at a depth above the mined out coal seam. The
driller then squirts cement down into the annular space from the top using a hose or
"tube". Hopefully the cement will drop all the way to the basket and completely fill
up the annular space from the basket to the surface. However, this method relies on
gravity which is less than the pumping pressure of circulating cement from the
bottom. In addition there is no good way to confirm that the cement filled the
annular space through all of the groundwater strata before it hardened. This is called
"grouting".
If a cave is the problem, the driller might know there is a cave as they drill down
through and the drill bit suddenly drops a few feet instead of drilling steadily down
(if they notice). If they notice they should put the larger metal casing mentioned
above (sometimes called a sleeve). But if they do not notice, the cement can
disappear into the cave instead of cementing the pipe the rest of the way to the
surface. The driller will have to try the unreliable grouting process. This is a
particular problem in Karst formations where there are many caves, small and large.
Shape of well after conductor casing
This is how the drill hole looks after the first,
fresh water casing is set and cemented in.
This is designed to cement and seal the casing in
the hole. The purpose of the casing is to keep
anything from leaking out of the inside of the
casing and into the groundwater or other strata.
The purpose of the cement is to hold the casing
in place and to prevent movement water or other
substances (communication) between the good
and bad groundwater strata, the surface etc.
And usually it does. As explained previously
there can be some problems that occur before
this casing and cementing is done.
If the cement is not correctly formulated, or
if there is unexpected water pressure from
good or badground water strata, water can
force its way into the cement and
honeycomb the cement.
This leaves passages for the bad ground
water to migrate up to the good groundwater
(as shown). In addition, it is possible for
surface or shallow subsurface pollutants to
migrate down as shown in the previous slide
into the good groundwater.
There is another important way that the
cementing of the metal casing can be
compromised.
After the cement is forced into the annular
space, the driller is supposed to wait 8 hours
before continuing to drill on down the hole.
This is to allow the cement to harden sufficiently
to do its job. But it costs the driller bunch of
money for the drilling rig to sit there idle for 8
hours. We regularly get complaints that drillers
do not wait the 8 hours before they start drilling.
If the driller does not wait, the new drilling
activity can cause cracks and spaces up and
down the cementing of the casing.
After the 8 hours have passed, the driller
then drills through the cement at the bottom
and continues on down through other strata
and the coal seam.
Again, for a short period of time the hole is
not protected by a metal casing and
cement. If the surface casing and
cementing is not right, then pollution can
occur at this later time, though this is less
common than the problems that occur
before or during the setting and cementing
of this first string of casing.
Again the driller lowers metal
casing into the drill hole. This
time it goes from the surface all
the way through the coal seam
and other strata.
Shape of well after intermediate casing
Again the driller pumps cement down
the casing and up the annular space to
the surface and waits 8 hours for it to
dry.
The primary purpose of this casing is
to protect the coal seam from pollution
from fluids or from the gas.
Note that it is common for
the freshwater and for the coal seam to
be drilled, cased and cemented all at
once,in one stop. We do not know if
that makes for extra dangers.
So far the drilling has only been
hundreds of feet down. Now the
driller drills on down thousands
of feet until he reaches the
gas bearing strata, and a
little bit past.
When gas is hit, the driller tries
to use muds etc. to prevent the
gas from blowing up the hole.
Now the driller lowers thousands
of feet of metal production pipe
down all the way to the bottom,
and a little bit past.
Again the driller cements the metal pipe into hole, this
time at the level of the gas bearing strata.
Note however that the cement does not go all the way
to the surface this time, the way the cement returns to
the surface for the previous casings. It just goes to
some distance above the top of the gas bearing strata.
The annular space between the production pipe and
the outside of the hole above that is left open.
This open annulus is thousands of feet in vertical
distance between the bottom of the cement job near
the surface and the top of the cement job down at the
gas bearing formation. There was not enough vertical
space in the image to the right to show this distance
so \\'s indicate where these thousands of un-cemented
feet of open annulus would be in relation to the
cemented casing.
final inside view of well
The driller had to case and cement the drill pipe into the gas
bearing zone in order to keep the gas etc. from getting into and
coming up the annular space and escaping into other strata
Next in order to make it possible for the gas to flow into the
production pipe, the driller lowers a small controlled
explosive to the gas bearing strata and sets it off. It
burns/explodes holes through the production pipe and cement
and into the gas producing strata.
So now the gas should flow out of the gas bearing strata, into
the production pipe and up and out to market. And it will, but
too slowly for the drillers purposes.
In order to make the gas flow more quickly out of the gas
producing strata, the driller wants there to be cracks
or fractures into the gas producing strata. The gas can flow
more quickly out of the gas bearing strata to the production
pipe if there are fractures in the gas bearing strata.
So . . .
The driller pumps compressed air, or water or nitrogen (sometimes
mixed with sand) down the production pipe, out through the holes
at the bottom and into the gas bearing formation. He uses enough
pressure to actually crack the rock in the gas bearing strata!
Enough pressure to lift all of the rock above it to make the cracks!
IF, the metal casing and cementing were done properly, and IF the
fracture job is done deep enough in the ground. If it is done deep
in the ground, then the fractures (that may spread beyond the gas
bearing strata) do not reach up into strata that could affect the
surface owner and the surface owners good groundwater.
Having the fractures extend up that far would be rare in most
conventional gas wells that are thousands of feet in the ground. A
fracture would be very unlikely to reach up to where it would
bother the surface owner.
However, if there is an old orphaned unplugged well nearby that
penetrates the same gas bearing strata, and if the fracing pressure
reaches it somehow, that could cause communication up the old
unplugged gas well. The pressure or gas or fluids could rise up the
orphaned, unplugged well into shallower strata and cause
problems.
Also, if the well being drilled is a coal bed methane well into one
of the much shallower coal seams, then any errant fractures will be
close enough to the surface that they could cause problems.
Sometimes the flow of gas up through the
production casing would not be fast enough
to lift particles out of the well that could clog
production. Or it may be that the particles
would erode the vital well casing. In either
case, or for other reasons, an additional metal
"tubing" is lowered down the well inside the
production casing.
It is shown as orange in the image at the
right. The gas escapes to the surface and then
to market only through the tubing. The
narrower tubing increases the velocity of the
gas flowing out of the well to lift the
troublesome particles, and it protects the
casing. There is still pressure between the
inside of the casing and the outside of the
tubing even though the gas there is not
moving.
So here is the finished down hole
product. If done right problems can
happen, at least temporarily, but
usually do not. An unskillful job,
or malfeasance such as failing to
wait the 8 hours for the cement to
dry, can cause serious and long
lasting problems. A surface owner
who is knowledgeably paying
attention and letting the driller know
it by checking cement tickets etc.,
will certainly help deter problems
The End

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