Chapter (4) Drilling Methods and Type of Rigs
Chapter (4) Drilling Methods and Type of Rigs
Chapter (4) Drilling Methods and Type of Rigs
25 4.1 Introduction
Drilling and production methods really cannot be separated into two categories. Perhaps more than any other two functions in oil well technology, drilling and production are inseparable. Because of this, lets take a quick look at some of the basic fundamentals of drilling before we investigate how a formation is evaluated. 4.2 Types of Rigs
The most common type of land drilling rig is the cantilevered mast. This is assembled on the ground and then is raised to the vertical position using power from rigs draw works hoisting system. Sometimes this is called jackknife derrick rig. When assembling this rig, the outside structure, made of prefabricated sections, is joined together with large pins. The engine and derrick sections are into position and pinned together by drilling crew. Next, the draw-works and engine are into place. Finally the derrick sections are laid out horizontally and raised as a unit by the hoisting line, traveling block and draw-works. Offshore rigs perform the same function, but their design is more complex. In shallow water or swamps, a barge is used. A barge is shallow-draft, flat-bottomed vessel equipped with a jackknife derrick. A jackup rig operates in water as deep as 350 feet. These rigs are very stable because they rest on the sea floor. The rig jacket is slowly towed to the location during calm seas. Then, the legs are lowered by jacks until they rest on the sea floor below the deck. The legs continue to lower until the deck is lifted off the surface of the water (sometimes 60ft) and the deck is level. Fixed-platform rigs, yet one more of many kinds of offshore vessels are pinned to the sea floor by long steel pilings. These platforms are very stable but are considered permanent and virtually immobile. (The jackup, on the other hand, can be moved from location to location.) Semi submersible rigs can also operate in water from 200-500 meters deep and they are equally stable, but they are not fixed. These rectangular floating rigs carry a number of vertical stabilizing columns and support a deck fitted with a derrick and related equipment. But the rig that offers the greatest mobility and that can operate in almost any water depth is the drillship, a ship specially constructed or converted for deepwater drilling. Dynamic positioning equipment keeps the ship above the wellbore using a thruster with controllable pitch propellers.
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Whether drilling on land or offshore, a successful drilling system must provide (1) a means of fracturing or abrading the rocky formations that must be penetrated to reach the oil gas; (2) a means of excavating the loosened material from the well as drilling proceeds; and (3) a means of preventing the walls of the well from caving in as well as a way of sealing off water and gas. In addition generally the wells need to remain as close to vertical as possible, the well must be deep enough to reach the reservoir, and the diameter must be large enough to permit lowering tools into the hole. Today, the two most widely used drilling methods are cable-tool and rotary drilling. Although rotary drilling is used more frequently, the earliest method used was cable-tool drilling.
27 4.3.1 Cable-Tool Drilling In the cable-tool method, drilling is accomplished by lowering a wire line or cable into the hole. On the end of the line is a heavy chisel-shaped piece of steel called the drilling bit. An up-and down motion is applied to the line at the surface. This churning action chips small pieces of rock from the formations. The bit, which weights several hundred pounds, is continuously dropped until a few feet of hole have been drilled. At this time, the line is raised by a drum at the surface and the bit is removed. Then a bailer, a metal pipe with a one way flapper valve on the lower end is lowered into the hole on another line called the sand line. The chips cut by the drilling bit are picked up in the bailer and removed from the hole so drilling can resume. In cable tool drilling, no significant amount of fluid is circulated in the hole. A small amount of water is desirable, however; if no water comes from the formations, a few gallons are dumped downhole. Often a cable-tool rig drills only one-tenth as fast as a rotary rig in comparable formations. However, the cost of a cable-tool rig is substantially less than a rotary rig. This tends to compensate for its slower drilling rate. A distinct disadvantage of the cable-tool method is that when high-pressure oil and gas formations are encountered, there is no fluid in the hole to control them. The result is frequent blowouts. When a blowout occurs, the oil and gas from the subsurface formation rush to the surface and flow uncontrolled. A blowout may spray the oil and gas several hundred feet into the air, and there is always great danger of a fire. Because of its slow penetration rate and the hazard of blowouts, the cable-tool method is seldom used on wells deeper than 3.000ft. Even on shallower wells, this method has largely been replaced by the rotary method.
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4.3.2 Rotary Drilling In Rotary drilling, a bit used to cut the formation is attached to steel pipe called drillpipe. The bit is lowered to the bottom of the hole. The pipe is rotated form the surface by means of a rotary table, through which is inserted a square or hexagonal piece called a kelly. The kelly, connected to the drillpipe at the surface, passes through the rotary table. The turning action oft the rotary table is applied to the Kelly, which is turn rotate, the drillpipe and the drilling bit. Routine drilling consists of continuously drilling increments the length of one joint of pipe, making connections or adding to the drillstring another single joint of pipe, generally 30 or 45 ft long. This drilling continues until the drill bit must be changed. Changing the bit is also called making a trip. Three principal types of bits are used in a rotary drilling operation: (1) drag of fish-tail bits, (2) rolling cutter bits more commonly called rock bits, and (3) diamond bits. Most drilling bits are rock bits. A drilling rig consists of many components. These components are (1) mast, (2) the drawworks, (3) engines, (4) the mud system, and (50 the drillstring. The mast or derrick is the structure placed overt he well to help remove the pipe from and lower equipment into the hole. The drawworks is the hoisting equipment. The engines drive the mud pumps and drawworks and provide power electricity. The mud system is comprised of the mud pumps, the mud tanks, the mudflow lines, and the circulating hose. The drilling is the entire rotating assembly and consists of the kelly, drillpipe, drill collars, and drill bit. At the bottom of the hole, the cuttings, or pieces of formation cut loose by the drilling bit, are removed form the hole continuously through the circulation of drilling mud or fluid.
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30 5.1 Introduction
Very often in completions, casing must be run to seal the wellbore from encroaching fluids. In order to attach the casing firmly to the wellbore wall and stabilize the hole, cement is pumped downhole. 5.2 Casing
Casing must be run into a well if commercial indications of hydrocarbon are observed casing normally is run through the low interval then it is cemented in place. Casing has several functions: It contains formation pressures and prevents fracturing of the upper and weaker zone. t keeps the hole from caving in . It confines production to the wellbore. It provides an anchor for surface equipment It provides an anchor for artificial lift equipment It separates the formations behind the pipe and limits the pipe and limits production to the zones selected by the engineer. Because casing has several different functions. It is usually necessary to install more than one strain of casing or pipe. These kinds of casing are divided into five classifications: Conductor pipe, Surface casing Intermediate casing Liner string Production casing
31 5.2.1 Conductor pipe Conductor pipe is the conduit that also raises drilling fluid high enough above ground level to return the fluid to the mud pit. And it prevents washing out around the rigs base. Conductor pipe is set after the well location has been graded and prepared for the rig. Then the pipe is lowered into the hole and concrete is poured around it to fill the surrounding space. In swamps and offshore locations, the pipe is driven in with a pile driver. Offshore, the diameter of the pipe can range from 30-42 in., while onshore diameters are usually smaller 16 20 in. 5.2.2 Surface casing The next casing to be set is surface casing, which protects fresh waster sands from contamination by oil, gas or salt water from the deeper producing formations . Since freshwater formations normally occur at shallow depths; no more than 2, 000 ft of surface casing are usually required. An important auxiliary function of the surface casing is to provide a place to attach the blowout preventers. Once the well is completed a production manifold or Christmas tree replaces the BOP. The outside diameter of the sur4face st4infg is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the conductor pipe. The surface casing is lowered inside the conductor pipe .The minimum depth is usually 10% of the expected total depth (TD) of the well or 500 ft,. When the expected depth is reached, this string of casing is cemented to the surrounding conductor pipe. 5.2.3 Intermediate Casing An intermediate casing, through not always run, protects the hole against loss of circulation in shallow formation In shallow formations. When drilling in areas that have abnormal formation pressure, heaving shales, or lost-circulation zones, a string of casing may need to be run to minimize hazards before drilling to greater depths Intermediate casing strings are suspended and sealed at the surface with a casing hanger. The lower portion is cemented by circulating cement down and out around the bottom of the pipe and up across the intervals where cement is needed. 5.2.4 Liner Strings Unlike casing that is run from the surface to a given depth and overlaps the previous casing, a liner is run only from the bottom of the previous string to the bottom of the open hole. Liners are suspended from a previous string with a hanger. They are often cemented in place but may be suspended in the well without cementing. Once advantages of using a liner is that it is not necessary to run the string back to the surface. Sometimes liners are set in a hole as a protective string, serving the same function as an intermediate string.
32 5.2.5 Production Casing Production Casing is sometimes known as the oil string or the long string. It isolates the oil and /or gas from undesirable fluids in the production formation and from other zones penetrated by the wellbore. This casing also serves as the protection housing for the tubing and other equipment used in a well. The oil string is the last string of casing run in the well. It is a continuous length of pipe from the well surface to the producing formations.
Oilwell cementing is the process of mixing and displacing cement slurry down the casing and up the annular space behind the pipe. A bond between the pipe and the formations is made after the cement sets. Cement serves several purposes: Bonds the pipe to the rock formations Protects the pipe and the producing formations Seal off troublesome formations before drilling deeper Helps keep high-pressure zones from blowing out Provides support fort he casing Prevents pipe corrosion Forms a seal in the event of a kick (sudden pressure increase) during further drilling Cementing is classified as primary or secondary. Primary cementing is done immediately after the casing is run into the well. The objective is to effectively seal and separate each zone and to protect the pipe. Secondary cementing is performed after the primary cement job. Usually it is part 01 a repair or remedial job.
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Figure 5-3 How cement is run through the casing and annulus
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Table 5-1 API Cement Classifications API Mixing Class Water gal/sack 5.2 A 5.2 B 6.3 C 4.3 D E F G H 4.3 4.3 5.0 4.3 Slurry Weight, Lb/gal 15.6 15.6 14.8 16.4 16.4 16.4 15.8 16.4 Well Depth, ft 0-6,000 0-6,000 0-6,000 6-10,000 6-14,000 1016,000 0-8,000 0-8,000 Static Temperature F 80-170 80-170 80-170 170-230 170-290 230-320 80-200 80-200 Conditions of Use
When high early strength required Moderate high temperature and pressure High temperature and pressure Extra high temperature and pressure Basic cement or with retarder Retarder, wide application
5.3
Cement Additives
Most cementing jobs are performed using bulk systems rather than handling sacks manually. Bulk systems let workers prepare and supply compositions tailored to suit the requirements of any well condition. This is accomplished by using additives are retarders; some are accelerators that alter cement setting times. Various additives can provide the following functions: Reduce slurry density Increase slurry volume Increase thickening time and related setting Reduce writing on-cement (WOC) time and cr4ease early strength Reduce Water loss Help prevent premature dehydration Increase slurry density to restrain pressure
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6.1
Introduction
The selection of equipment used to produce a well is based on: 1. The flow rates of oil gas and water. 2. Whether fluids will flow to the surface or whether they must be pumped to the surface. 3. The methods of handling, processing, and transporting produced fluids. 6.2 Classification of Wells by Type of Lift
Production wells are normally classified by the type of mechanism used to get the produced fluids from the bottom of the well into the flow line. This mechanism may be natural flow or some type of artificial lift. Gas wells are produced by natural flow. Oil wells may flow naturally due to inherent energy during the early stage of their productive life, but eventually they require energy from an external source to maintain productivity. When a well is opened to production, the oil enters the wellbore by virtue of the difference in pressure between the wellbore and the reservoir. As the pressure is reduced, the solution gas begins to vaporize, forming bubbles within the oil. As the oil flows up the tubing string, the pressure further diminishes. These gas bubbles expand, lightening the fluid column, the combination of reservoir pressure and the reduced weight of the fluid column in the tubing string permits the well to flow naturally. During the course of production, gas bubbles are also forming within the reservoir itself. The bubbles continue to expand, forcing more oil into the wellbore. Eventually, however, the expanding gas bubbles interconnect, formation continuous channels of gas through the reservoir. As this happens, gas begins to flow into the wellbore, leaving much of the heavier oil behind. These phenomena continue until the reservoir pressure is too low to force the remaining, heavier oil to the surfaces. At this point, artificial lift is required.
6.3
Artificial Lift
There are four major types of artificial lift methods: gas lift, sucker rod pumping, sub surface electrical pumping, and subsurface hydraulic pumping.
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Figure 6-1 Typical gas lift installations In wells that have too little reservoir pressure or solution gas to support natural flow, an artificial method called gas lift may be used to induce fluid flow fig, 10-1). There are many variations in the design of a gas lift system, but the basic concept is to take gas from an external source and inject it into the produced fluids within the tubing string. This decreasing the weight of the fluid column and permits the well to flow.0 In operation, gas under pressure is injected into the space between the casing and the tubing and enters the tubing through and open gas lift value. The liquid in the tubing above the valve is displaced and or lightened when the gas mixes with it, and it can rise to the surface along with the expanding gas. Once the gas and liquid reaches the surface, the gas is separated from the oil. Then it is compressed one again to a high pressure and reinjected into the casing tubing annulus to begin the cycle again. A special type of gas lift is the plunger lift system for wells producing small amounts of fluids. An accumulator chamber for well fluids is installed at the lower end of the tubing. When enough fluid has accumulated, a plunger pushed these fluids to the surface. Power for forcing the plunger to the surface is supplied by highpressure gas. When the plunger reaches the surface, the high-pressure gas below the
38 plunger is released, and the plunger drops back to the bottom of the tubing until its next trip to the surface. Gas lift is widely used as an artificial lift technique in offshore operations. Continuous flow gas lift is the preferred me0thod of gas lifting offshore wells since the high-and low-pressure piping systems are usually of limited capacity. There are many onshore gas lift installations as well.
6.3.2 Rod Pumping This is probably the most well-known and widely used artificial lift technique. It consists of a subsurface pump at the bottom of the tubing, which is connected to the surface-pumping unit by a string of sucker rods. These rods are run inside the producing tubing. The pump consists of an outer cylinder, pump barrel, and an inner piston, or pump plunger, each fitted with a specially designed check valve. The pump barrel can be run into the well as part of the tubing string, or it can be run in with rods and latched to the tubing.
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Figure 6-3 The surface equipment of a sucker rod pumping installation On the surface, a beam-type, (conventional) pumping unit consists of a motor or engine, a gear reducer, and a crank-and beam mechanism. This unit imparts an up- and down motion to the sucker-rod-string, which is attached to the subsurface pump. Either the rank or beam is fitted with counterbalance weights to offset the weight of the rod string (Fig 6-3). The pumping cycle begins with an upstroke of the rods, which strokes the plunger upward in the barrel. The traveling valve closes, the standing valve opens and fluids enters the barrel from the well. On the downstroke of the rods and plunger, the standing valve close, the traveling valve opens, and the fluid is forced from the barrel through the plunger and out into the tubing. Fluid is lifted toward the surface with each upstroke. In multiple completions more than one string of tubing may be run in the well. 6.3.3 Subsurface Electrical Pumping A subsurface electrical pump is a specially designed centrifugal pump with a shaft that is directly connected to an electric motor Fig 6-4. The whole unit is sized so it may be lowered into the well with an insulated cable extending from the surface through which electricity is supplied to the motor. The operation is controlled by a surface controlled by a surface control box. Pump capacity may vary from 200 to 26, 000 b/d depending up on the depth form which the fluid is lifted and the size of casing.
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Figure 6-4 Typical standard complete pumping systems 6.3.4 Subsurface Hydraulic pumping Subsurface Hydraulic pumping is a method of pumping oil wells using a bottom hole producing unit consisting of a hydraulic engine and a direct coupled positive displacement pump. The hydraulic power required is supplied from a pump at the surface. This system uses two strings of tubing alongside the other, to the small string may be installed inside the larger tubing. Clean crude oil (power oil) from the highpressure pump sis pumped down the larger size tubing to the hydraulic engine, which in turn causes the power piston to stroke (Fig, 6-5). This strokes the direct-coupled production piston in the bottom-hole pump. Fluid from the well and the exhausted power oil become mixed and return to the surface settle tank and piped to the pump for recirculta6ion. In some instances, clean water is used as the power fluid. It is possible, by using this pumping system, to pump several wells using a central source. Another type of hydraulic pumping well system is the casing free pump. It requires only one string of tubing set on a casing packer with power oil going down the tubing string and power oil and production fluids being returned in the tubing casing annulus.
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6.3.5 Other Lift Methods Where higher producing rates are required, subsurface tubing pumping may be used. Producing rates of several thousand barrels per day can achieved with electrically driven turbine pumps. Another type of pumping system, which may be used, where producing rates of more than 500 bbl/ days but less than 2,500 bbl/day are required, is power oil pumping. In the power oil system, high-pressure oil is pumped from the surface through an independent line to the bottom of the hole, where is energy is used to lift the well fluids. One recent development in subsurface pumping is sonic pumping. Sonic energy is employed to activate a pump at the bottom of the hole. This technique is said to have certain advantages over conventional subsurface pumps, particularly where sand is being produced with the well fluids. 6.4 Flowing-Well Production Equipment
When the pressure in a reservoir is high enough to push fluids to the wellbore and to the surface, little subsurface production equipment is required. Figure 6-7 shows one method of equipping a flowing well. A production packer is used to isolate the tubing-casing annulus while reservoir fluids are allowed to flow up the tubing. A production packer, similar to the packers used for isolating zones during stimulations, may utilize packing elements that are inflated by well fluids or that are mechanically expanded against the casing.
Figure 6-7 A packer may be used to isolate a zone from which fluids are to flow
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Figure 6-8 By equipping a well without a packer, gas and liquid may be produced separately Figure 6-8 pictures a completion method in which reservoir liquids flow up the tubing while gas is allowed to flow up the annulus. This method of equipping a well is often employed when the conversion to a different type of production operation is anticipated for the near future and when there is a need to control the gas and liquid flow rates independently.
Figure 6-9 A packer may also be used to produce two zones using the same wellbore Figure 6-9 shows another method of equipping a flowing well to maintain separate fluid flow streams from different zones. Environmental regulations sometimes require that wells be equipped as such. To explore a number of formations, wells are occasionally drilled deeper than necessary to expose the productive zones. After a well has been stimulated and tested, it is often necessary to permanently isolate the lower formations before the well is produced. Bridge plugs are used for such isolation as shown in Figure 6-10.
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Figure 6-10 Packers and bridge plugs are used to isolate several zones and the bottom of a wellbore 6.5 Artificial lift production equipment
The pressure in a reservoir is usually high enough to push fluids into the wellbore but not high enough to lift them to the surface. In this situation it is necessary to provide a means of lifting fluids with energy from a manmade source on the surface. the equipment used for such a situation is called artificial lift equipment.
Figure 6-11 Gas lift utilizes gas lift valves to inject gas into a tubing string with produced fluids Another commonly used artificial lift system is a sucker rod pumping system The well is equipped with tubing and a subsurface reciprocating pump is at the bottom of this tubing. A string of steel rods (sucker rods) is placed inside the tubing and attached to the subsurface pump. The rod string is attached to a pumping unit at the surface, which alternately raises and lowers the rod string a few feet, causing the subsurface pump ot lift fluids entering the tubing to the surface. In many cases reservoir liquids are allowed to enter the tubing while gas is forced to flow up the annulus.
Once fluids have been brought to the surface in well, a number of other operations are required before the petroleum is ready for refining or consumption. the petroleum gases must be separated from the liquids, and water must be transported to refineries or gasoline plants while the water must be disposed of or injected into the reservoir for secondary recovery purposes. When wells are part of a single project producing one reservoir, the produced fluids from several neighboring wells can be accommodated by a single surface production facility. the fluids from each well are transported to a common production facility by means of surface pipelines called flowlines. If a well is not near other production wells, it must have its own production facility. Surface production facilities usually provide for separation fo liquid and gas through devices called separators. Separators allow dissolved gas to separate form liquids and join any free gas. Gas flows from the separator by a different route than that of the liquids. Water is removed from oil by heat, chemicals, and mechanical action. Treaters are devices that allow heating and addition of chemical to the liquids. By several mechanical, chemical, and other physical processes, water separates form oil and can be removed from the treater by one path while oil is removed by another. Production facilities often provide fort he storage of oil and water in tanks. Several tanks may be required to provide adequate storage volume. In every surface production system some method must be provided to keep track of the volumes of crude oil, gas, and water produced from wells. These volumes can be determined by measuring the volumes in storage tanks on a periodic basis. A number of meters are available which can measure the rate at which produced fluids are processed. Meters are available to measure gas, crude oil, water, or oil-water mixtures. 6.7 Water Injection and Disposal
Water is almost always associated with petroleum production. Great care is exercised to minimize the amount of water production. When water reaches the surface, however, it must be handled. Because most produced water is brackish, disposal is an important consideration. Water disposal is normally handled by evaporation or reinjection. The water may be drained into open pits to evaporate. To assure that brackish water and residual petroleum products do not percolate into the earth, the bottom of such a pit must be well sealed. Because of the hazards to humans, plants and animals, open water pits are seldom used. Most often, produced water is stored in surface tanks. Highpressure pumps are used to inject the water into deep, saltwater aquifers. Water can be effectively disposed of with petroleum reservoir production operations. Water injection is one particularly effective method of secondary recovery. Water is pumped into a petroleum reservoir under carefully controlled conditions. Since injection pressure is normally high in the tubing of injection wells, packers are used to isolate the casing from this pressure. Water causes corrosion problems in steel products, particularly when it is mixed with gases such as carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide. The tubing used in water injection or disposal wells is usually coated internally with plastic. The tubing/casing annulus is usually filled with water
46 to which powerful corrosion inhibitors have been added. Coating and corrosion inhibitor s provide protection have been added. Coating and corrosion inhibitors provide protection allowing steel tubular goods to be left unattended for years.