Session: 11-02-03-Well Drilling Fluids and Hydraulics-3

Paper Number: 101694

101694 - Cuttings-Bed Erosion in Horizontal Wells: Effect of Biopolymers and Its Rheological Impact 

Drilled-cuttings deposition and bed formation are a common challenge during horizontal wellbore drilling operations, as there is larger area for cuttings to be deposited, which could cause several problems such as drill-pipe sticking, increased torque and drag, lower Rate of Penetration among others. Effective removal of the deposited cuttings-bed is mainly controlled by flow rate, flow rheological properties and drill pipe rotation.  Nevertheless, in cases where it is not possible to have drill-pipe rotation the challenge should be accomplished by modifying the fluid viscosity to achieve turbulent flow within the maximum flow rate possible. As a common practice water-based drilling fluids are formulated with viscosity modifiers such as such as xanthan gum and poly anionic cellulose (PAC) to control the drilling fluid viscosity. The viscosity profile that each of these biopolymers imparts is very different as xanthan gum produces a shear thinning effect, the PAC produces a behaviour more as a Newtonian fluid.

This paper shows how the different flow behavior of the fluids can influence the cuttings-bed erosion in a bench-scale lab setup. The simulated cuttings-bed is a 75cm long deposited sand-bed in a horizontal section, in addition two different types of biopolymer-based fluids with similar viscosities at a specific shear rate range are being used to compare how non-Newtonian fluids and fluids being more Newtonian like, interact with the deposited cuttings for cleaning efficiency.

Presenting Author: Camilo Pedrosa NTNU

Presenting Author Biography: Chemical Engineering PhD candidate from NTNU, with 9 years of industry experience in cementing and drilling fluids.

Authors:

Camilo Pedrosa NTNU
Mohsen Baynabaj NTNU
Kristofer Paso NTNU
Arild Saasen University of Stavanger