Drilling Engineering

Drilling engineering: is the application of science and art to drill a well or making a
hole in the ground to a certain depth economically and safely for some purposes.

The purposes are many and they include:

 Oil and gas production

Petroleum drilling engineering: is the application of science and art to drill a well or
making a hole to reach the underground oil pay zones economically and safely.

Oil wells: holes that are made in the ground so that oil can be taken out of it.

The operation of drilling a well into a potential reservoir interval is the only way to prove the
presence of hydrocarbon. Drilling is a very complex operation and it has a lot of tools and
equipment. In general there are two main methods of drilling: cable tool (also called churn
or percussion) drilling and rotary drilling.

Cable tool drilling

The first oil well in the United States was drilled with cable tool in 1859 to a depth of 65
feet. This was historic Drake well. The cable tool drilling method, however, did not
originated in this country, but it is believed to have been employed first by the early Chinese
in the drilling of brine wells. In this method, drilling is achieved by the pounding action of a
steel bit which is alternately raised by a steel cable and allowed to fall, delivering sharp,
successive blows to the bottom of the hole. This principle is the same as that employed in
drilling through concrete with a hammer, or in driving a nail through a board.

The original apparatus consisted of a spring pole anchored into the ground at an angle, with
bit suspended from the free end by a rope. To impart the necessary reciprocating action to

1
the bit, the Chinese employed a number of men who alternately jumped on and off the
spring pole beam from a ramp.

Rotary drilling.

In 1863, a French civil engineer named Leschot became the first person to use rotary
drilling to drill a water well. A rotary drilling rig turns, or rotates a bit on the bottom,
which drills and creates the hole. A series of pipes are added to lower the bit to the
bottom. When the bit is at the bottom, the driller starts rotating it using a rotating
machine called the rotary table. As the bit’s teeth, or cutters, rotate over the formation,
they gouge or scrape the rock away. This method of drilling was introduced in the oil fields
of Spindletop at 1901, Texas, marking the beginning of the modern petroleum industry.
Rotary drilling rig consists of five systems; circulation system, hoisting system, power

2
system, blowout prevention system (BOP) and rotating system. Each of these systems also
consists of many other tools with various purposes. However, the figure below shows a
typical rotary drilling rig components.

Drilling Fluid.

A drilling fluid is any fluid which is used in drilling operations, which is pumped from the
mud pit on the surface through drill string into the well and returns back through annulus
to the surface equipment (shale shaker, desander, desilter etc.).

3
Composition of common drilling fluids.

Water or oil are satisfactory drilling fluids in some instances. In general, however, the
functions to be performed require mud properties which cannot be obtained from ordinary
liquids. Consequently, a typical mud consists of:

1) A continuous phase (liquid phase).

Types of drilling fluids

Drilling fluids can be classified into three groups, pneumatic, oil based and water based as
shown in figure. There are many factors to be considered during selecting drilling
fluid such as reservoir properties, data transition, temperature, formation lithology,
corrosion concern, surface separators, Compatibility, HSE impact s and availability of
fluid sources.

1. Oil based fluids.

Oil based muds (OBM) are drilling muds in which oil is the continuous phase. The main
advantages of oil based mud systems over water based mud systems are:

4
 1. It is good for drilling into shale formation because it does not react with formation
clay causing shale instability.

2. It typically creates thin mud cake. This is really good because you can reduce risk for
pipe stuck situation.

3. Increased protection of water-sensitive oil formations.

4. Oil base as external phase is good lubricant so it greatly reduce drilling torque.

5. Vast improvement of scaling and corrosion problems.

The two main problems with using this type are cost and environmental concerns.

2. Water based fluids

These are the most used mud and they consist of water with clays. They are
subclassified into:

A. Non inhibitive fluids.

Means that the fluid contains no additives to inhibit hole problems.

B. Inhibitive fluids.

Means that the fluid contains inhibiting ions such as chloride, potassium or calcium which
suppresses the breakdown of the clays.
C. Polymer fluids.

These types could be non-inhibitive or inhibitive depending upon cations are used or
not. They have wide applications, for example, polymers are used to control filtration
properties and viscosity fluids. However, they have limitations and the main problem of
these types is the solids contents.

5
3. Pneumatic fluids.
Air/gas is used as a base of these fluid types. They are mainly used in underbalanced drilling
and they have several advantages. The main advantages of these fluids are
minimizing formation damage and increasing penetration rates.

Basic functions of the drilling fluid are:

1. To cool and lubricate the bit and the drill string.

2. To remove and transport cutting from the bottom of the hole to surface.

3. To suspend cuttings during times when circulation is stopped

4. To control encountered subsurface pressure.

5. To wall the hole with an impermeable filter cake.

6
Drilling mud density calculations.

The most common mud engineering calculations are those concerned with the changes of
mud volume and density caused by the addition of various solids or liquids to the system.
The first step is to compute the system volume.

For the purpose of mud calculations, these two assumptions should be made:

1. The volumes of each material are additive.

2. The weights of each material are additive.

The above two assumptions can be expressed mathematically as:

Where: = volume of solid

From equation (1):

Substitute equation (3) in equation (2):

7
If in Ib/gal then V in gal. as field units.

If in gm/cc then V in cc. as laboratory units.

Equation (4) is not particularly useful as it stands, since the net volume of a solid is not
readily measurable. However, the corresponding weight to add is:

As a petroleum engineer you have to know that:

Density
Materials
gm/cc Kg/m3 ppg
Water 1 1000 8.33
Bentonite 2.5 2500 20.8
Barite 4.3 4300 35.8

Example 1:

A 9.5 Ib/gal mud contains clay (sp.gr. = 2.5) and fresh water. Compute a) the volume %
solids and b) the weight % clay in this mud.

Solution:

a) Volume % solids =

⁄ .

8
b) Weight % solids =

Example 2:
For laboratory purpose, it is desired to mix one liter of bentonite – fresh water mud having a
viscosity of 30 cp.

a) What will be the resulting mud density?

b) How much of each material should be used?

Solution:
a) From yield curves for typical clays figure, at µ=30 cp., the solid content = 3.0% by volume.

9
 ⁄
To convert gm/cc to Ib/gal, divide by 0.1198 = 1.045 gm/cc = 8.7 Ib/gal.

b)

Example 3:
a) How much weighting material (BaSO4 , the mineral barite , sp.gr.=4.3) should be added to
the mud of the previous example to increase its density to 10 Ib/gal?

b) What will be the resulting volume be?

Solution:

a)

BaSO4 should be added to the mud

b)

10