Chapter 7: BASIC NOTIONS OF WELL CONTROL

The Macondo incident. Golf of Mexico 22nd April 2010 on

Deep Water Horizon.

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1- WELL CONTROL PRINCIPLES
1.1. Definitions
The function of Well Control can be subdivided into 3 main categories:
Primary Well Control (HMud > Pf): is the maintenance of sufficient
hydrostatic head of fluid in wellbore (HMud) to balance the pressure
exerted by the fluids in the geological formations drilled. (Pf= Formation
Pressure).
Secondary Well Control (HMud > Pf) : When primary well control is lost,
BOPs are closed and a kick control method (using a kill mud weight) is
implemented to kill the well..
Tertiary Well Control:
• Relying on the formations’ strength below surface to contain the
wellbore fluids
• (Gunk) plugs, barite plugs, cement plugs may be used, and ultimately
well capping and / or a relief well
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1.2. Well Barriers

When drilling is in progress, the following barriers are implemented :

• A primary barrier consisting of a homogenous mud column with a

hydrostatic overbalance on the pore pressure. This consist of using
drilling or completion Fluids.

• A secondary barrier consisting of a cemented casing, wellhead, pipe

ram or annular preventer and drill string with kelly valve or check
valve.
• During testing, completion, workover and P&A operations (Plugging
and Abandonment), the principle of a double barrier remains
similarly applicable. In this case, they use Christmas Tree, String
Valves and small BOPs.

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 1.3. Pressures
A pressure is a force divided by the surface upon which this force
applies.

Pressure Pascal = Force Newton / Surface m2

The official pressure unit is the Pascal

It is a very small unit: 1 Pascal = 1 Newton/m2
1 bar = 105 Pascal
1 atm = 1,013 *105 Pascal
A practical unit on the rig is the kgf/cm2:
1 kgf/cm2 = 0.981 bar
In API, the unit is the pound per square inch (psi): Convert the following values to
1 bar = 14.4988 psi the requested units:

25 kgf/cm2 = 24.53 bars

15 Bars = psi
1 kgf/cm2 = 0.981 bar 1 bar = 14.4988 psi 217.48

155 Psi = 10.69 bars

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1.3.1 Hydrostatic pressure:
Pressure exerted by a vertical column of fluid at a given depth.

Metric units: API units:

Ph = H*d Ph = 0.052*H*d
10
Where: Where:
Ph= hydrostatic pressure (bar or kg/cm2) Ph = hydrostatic pressure (psi)
d = Fluid specific gravity (kg/l) d = Fluid density (ppg)
H = Vertical height of fluid (m) H = Vertical height of fluid (ft)
NB : the term 10 is approximate; for precision, 0,052 is a conversion factor derived from
you should use 10.2 with pressure in bars
and 9.6 for pressure in kg/cm2 1 Cubic foot contains 7.48 U.S. gallons.
A fluid weighing 1 ppg would weight 7.48 pounds per
cubic foot.
The pressure exerted by that one foot height of fluid over
the area of the base would be:

7.48 lbs/144 inches²= 0.0519 lbs/inches² (psi)

12’
12’
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1.3.2 Formation or pore pressure:
The formation fluid pressure or pore pressure is the pressure exerted by the fluids
within the formations pores.

1.3.3 Dynamic circulating Pressure:

It is the pressure provided by rig pumps from the pump through the surface lines, the
Drill string, the jet nozzles and up annulus to the surface.

From the circulation pressure, we can derive the Equivalent Mud Weight as well as
the ECD.
. Equivalent Mud Weight (EMW
Equivalent Mud Weight is the pressure of the fluid column at a given depth,
converted to a mud weight.

Metric:
EMW = (Ph kg/cm2 X 10) / Depth in m
API:
EMW = (Ph psi / Depth in ft) / .052
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 . Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD)

ECD is the effective density of the circulating fluid when pressure

drop in the annulus is considered. APL=Annular Pressure Loss.
Metric: ECD = [(Ph + APL, kg/cm ) X 10] / Depth, m
2

API: ECD = [(Ph + APL, psi ) / Depth, ft] / .052

1.3.4. Bottom Hole Pressure (BHP):

Bottom hole pressure is the sum of the hydrostatic pressures exerted by
the fluids in the well at a “static” condition. At bit, the BHP= HP

1.3.5. Bottom Hole Circulating Pressure (BHCP):

Is the sum of Hydrostatic pressure plus any circulating friction loss
(e.g. Annular Pressure Loss), plus any surface applied back pressures,
where appropriate.
API BHCP, psi = SIDPP, psi + (MW, ppg x 0.052 x TVD, ft)
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 1.3.5 Formation fracture pressure (PFrac)
Formation fracture pressure, or formation breakdown pressure is the
pressure required to rupture a formation, so that whole mud can flow into it.
The symbol PFrac is usually used to denote this pressure.
To obtain this, we usually use the FIT (Formation Integrity Test) or LOT
(Leak_Off Test)

PFRAC = PLOT + PHMud (Mud Hydrostatic Pressure in the well)

Then determine MEMW:

Metric:
MEMW = (PFrac, kg/cm X 10) / Depth, m
2

API:
MEMW = (Pfrac, psi / Depth, ft) / .052
MEMW: Maximum Equivalent Mud Weight.
The LOT is performed at 5-10m after casing shoe because it is considered to be the weakest point of
the well after drilling an uncased (without casing) new formation.
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 1.3.6 Other pressure expressions.

• Pump Pressure/Pump Stroke Relationship

New circulating = present circulating X (new pump rate, spm : old pump rate, spm)2
pressure, psi pressure, psi

• Kill Well expressions and Formulas

1. Strokes = drill string capacity, bbl/ft x measured depth to TD, ft x pump
output, bbl/stk

2. Kill weight mud: KWM = SIDPP ÷ 0.052 ÷ TVD + OMW

3. Initial circulating pressure: ICP = SIDPP + KRP (Slow Circulation Rate pressure)

4. Final circulating pressure: FCP = KWM x KRP ÷ 0MW

OMW = Original MW in use to drill the well; SIDPP= Shut In Drill Pipe Pressure ; KRP = Kill Rate Pressure

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 2. GENERAL CAUSES OF KICKS
If primary well control is lost, a Kick (unwanted intrusion of fluids into the
wellbore) may occur. A kick can turn into an uncontrolled blowout (Secondary WC
is therefore applied).

 Increase in Drilling Rate

 Increase in Torque and Drag 3. MAIN CAUSES OF KICKS
 Change in D - Exponent  Failing to fill the hole properly when
 Change in Cutting size and shape
tripping
 Chloride Trends
 Swabbing in a kick while tripping out
 Decrease in Shale Density
 Insufficient mud weight
 Temperature Measurements
 Abnormal formation pressure
 Gas Cut Mud
 Connection Gas  Lost circulation
 Shallow gas sands
 Excessive drilling rate in gas bearing
sands
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 4. BLOWOUT
A Blowout is an uncontrolled flow of well fluids and/or formation fluids from the
wellbore to the surface.
An Underground blowout is when the fluids and gas flows into a lower pressured
subsurface zones or fractured layers in the earth.

Oil industry has recorded Major blowouts. The most important and those which
brought changes in Well control specifications are:
1- Texas O&G, Marshal Well, Texas, US in 1985;
2- Pipe Alpha Disaster in North Sea, 06th July 1988 (167 deaths)
3- Macondo on Deep Water Horizon in GOM, 22nd April 2010 (7 deaths)

In an unexpected change in Well condition, the driller should immediately follow

below instructions:
1- Stop drilling and tripping operations.
2- Flow check the Well as per procedure on Trip Tank;
3- Close the annular preventers and upper rams
4- Open the upper choke Valve on BOPs
5- Check that the well is shut-in and the Flow has stopped.
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 5. WELL CONTROL METHODS
Once the well is shut-in, the Influx has to be removed from the Well to regain the
primary well control statuses. Three basic well control methods are recomanded:

1- The Driller’s Method

2- Wait and weight Method
3- The Volumetric method ( required in special situations)

Amongst those, the Driller’s Method is most used in oil field as it has many advantages
compared to the second (Wait and Weight method). Below the comparison.

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6. WELL CONTROL EQUIPMENTS
Fig. 1: Surface BOP stack Type (For Jackups and onshore rigs)

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Fig.2 Subsea stack BOP Type (for Floating Rigs)

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  Summary of well control Equipment

1. BOP (Blow Out Preventers)

2. Diverters
3. Mud Gas separator (Poor boy degasser)
4. Flanged and Ring Gasket
5. Hydraulic BOP closing unit
6. Accumulators
7. Subsea control system (christmas Tree, String Valve)

CONCLUSION:

The objective of this chapter was to help the student to have an idea on Well control
applications. The primary well control is always applied while drilling and when it fails, the
secondary well control is applied. It comes to the tertiairy WC when all is lost. We have
reviewed in details some pressure concepts and formulas applied to well control, followed
by the causes of kicks and finally some of well control equipments. More are to be learnt on
IWCF (International Well Control Forum) for those intending to be drilling engineers.
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