University of Zakho

College of Engineering
Petroleum Department

LECTURE TWO ON KICKS AND INFLUX – Part 2

Drilling Engineering – 4th Stage

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 List Content
Part 1 Part 2
 Kick Labels
 Causes Of Kicks
o Insufficient Mud Weight.
 Introduction o Improper Hole Fill-up During Trips.
o Swabbing And Surging
 Primary Well Control- How It Is Affected o Cut Mud.
 The Mud Weight Fall During Operations o Lost Circulation
o Mud Weight Reduction o Abnormal Pressured Formations
o Shallow Gas Sands
o Mud Column Height Reduction
 Warning Signs Of A Kick
 o Primary Signs Of Kick
The Hole Must Be Kept Full At All Times
o Secondary Signs
 Mud Logging
 Kick Indicators
 Positive Kick Signs
 Recognising A Kick While Drilling
 Recognising A Kick While Tripping
 Situations That Can Mask A Kick:-
 Kick Behaviour In Drilling Fluids
 Kill Methods General
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Kick labels

A kick can be labelled in several ways, including one that depends on the type of formation fluid that entered
the borehole. Known kick fluids include:

 Gas
 Oil
 Salt water
 Magnesium chloride water
 Hydrogen sulfide (sour) gas
 Carbon dioxide

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Causes of kicks

Kicks occur as a result of formation pressure being greater than mud hydrostatic pressure, which causes fluids
to flow from the formation into the wellbore. In almost all drilling operations, the operator attempts to maintain
a hydrostatic pressure greater than formation pressure and, thus, prevent kicks; however, on occasion the
formation will exceed the mud pressure and a kick will occur. Reasons for this imbalance explain the key
causes of kicks:

 Insufficient mud weight.

 Improper hole fill-up during trips.
 Swabbing and surging
 Cut mud.
 Lost circulation
 Abnormal pressured formations
 Shallow gas sands
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Insufficient mud weight
Insufficient mud weight is the predominant cause of kicks. A permeable zone is drilled while using a mud
weight that exerts less pressure than the formation pressure within the zone. Because the formation pressure
exceeds the wellbore pressure, fluids begin to flow from the formation into the wellbore and the kick occurs.

Improper hole fill-up during trips

Improperly filling up of the hole during trips is another prominent cause of kicks. As the drill pipe is pulled out
of the hole, the mud level falls because the pipe steel no longer displaces the mud. As the overall mud level
decreases, the hole must be periodically filled up with mud to avoid reducing the hydrostatic pressure and,
thereby, allowing a kick to occur

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SWABBING AND SURGING

Swabbing is when bottom hole pressure is reduced below formation pressure due to the effects of pulling the
drill string, which allows an influx of formation fluids into the wellbore.

When pulling the string there will always be some variation to bottom hole pressure. A pressure loss is caused
by friction, the friction between the mud and the drill string being pulled. Swabbing can also be caused by the
full gauge down hole tools (bits, stabilisers, reamers, core barrels, etc.) being balled up. This can create a piston
like effect when they are pulled through mud. This type of swabbing can have drastic effects on bottom hole
pressure.

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Swabbing is a recognised hazard whether it is
“low" volume swabbing or “high” volume
swabbing. A small influx volume may be
swabbed into the open hole section. The net
decrease in hydrostatics due to this low
density fluid will also be small. If the influx
fluid is gas it can of course migrate and
expand. The expansion may occur when there
is little or no pipe left in the hole. The
consequences of running pipe into the hole
and into swabbed gas must also be considered.

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The factors affecting swabbing and surging are:

 Pulling speed of pipe.

 Mud properties.
 Viscosity.
 Hole geometry.
 The effect of balled equipment

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If the well is flowing during the flow check, then the following actions should be taken:

 Install a non-return valve

 Shut the well in
 Prepare for stripping
 Strip the string to the bottom
 Circulate the well, and check mud for contamination

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Surging

Surging is when the bottom hole pressure is increased due to the effects of running the drill string too fast in
the hole. Down hole mud losses may occur if care is not taken and fracture pressure is exceeded while RIH.
Proper monitoring of the displacement volume with the trip tank is required at all times.

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Cut mud

Gas-contaminated mud will occasionally cause a kick, although this is rare. The mud density reduction is
usually caused by fluids from the core volume being cut and released into the mud system. As the gas is
circulated to the surface, it expands and may reduce the overall hydrostatic pressure sufficient enough to allow
a kick to occur.
Although the mud weight is cut severely at the surface, the hydrostatic pressure is not reduced significantly
because most gas expansion occurs near the surface and not at the hole bottom.

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Loss of Circulation

Lost circulation is the phenomenon of losing mud into the formation. Mud losses can be caused by many
processes. Fracture pressure can be exceeded by drilling through the formation using a high mud weight that
can exert high hydrostatic pressure. Surging the formation is also another process which can lead to exceeding
the fracture pressure of the drilled formation and losing mud in it. Lost circulation can lead to other drilling
problems like stuck pipe, well control situation or even damaging the production zone. Curing the losses
quickly and effectively is very important to carry on drilling operations. 

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Abnormal pressured formations

A further cause of kicks from drilling accidentally into abnormally pressured permeable zones. This is because
we had ignored the warning signals that occur, these help us detect abnormal pressures. Some of these warning
signals are: an increased penetration rate, an increase in background gas or gas cutting of the mud, a decrease in
shale density, an increase in cutting size, or an increase in ow-line temperature, etc.

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Shallow gas sands

Kicks from shallow sands (gas and water) whilst drilling in the top hole section
with short casing strings can be very hazardous, as documented by many case histories. Some of the kicks from
shallow sands are caused by charged formations: poor cement jobs, casing leaks, injection operations, improper
abandonments, and previous underground blowouts can produce charged formations.

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Warning Signs of a Kick

When a kick occurs, many warning signs can be noticed at the surface that indicate that the formation fluids
have been flowed into the wellbore. These signs have to be analysed properly in order to avoid any uncontrolled
situation.

The warning signs or indicators are divided into two categories:

 Primary Signs of Kick

 Secondary Signs

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Primary Signs of Kick

 Pit volume increase

 Flow rate increase
 Flowing well with shut off pumps
 Improper filling up during tripping

Secondary Signs

 Drilling break
 Pump pressure changes

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KICK INDICATORS
EARLY WARNING SIGNS

 Increase in drilling rate of penetration.

 Increase torque and drag.
 Decrease in shale density.
 Mud property changes.
 Increase in cutting size and shape.
 Increase in trip, connection and/or background gas.

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Gas can enter the mud for one or more of the following reasons:
 Drilling a formation that contains gas even with a suitable overbalance.

 Temporary reduction in hydrostatic pressure caused by swabbing as pipe is moved in the hole.

 Pore pressure in a formation being greater than the hydrostatic pressure of the mud column.

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Gas due to one or a combination of the above, can be classified as one of the following
groups:

 Drilled Gas
 Connection Gas
 Trip Gas

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Drilled Gas :
When porous formations containing gas are drilled, a certain quantity of the gas contained in the cuttings will
enter the mud.

Connection Gas
Connection gases are measured at surface as a distinct increase above background gas as bottoms up occurs
after a connection.

Trip Gas
Trip gas is any gas that enters the mud while tripping the pipe with the hole appearing static. Trip gas will be
detected in the mud when circulating bottoms up occurs after a round trip.

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Positive kick signs

A kick occurs when the hydrostatic pressure of the mud column in the well is less than the formation pressure
provided that the formation has the ability to produce. A kick is a positive indicator that formation fluid is
entering the wellbore and Secondary Well Control must be initiated.

Recognising a Kick While Drilling

Flow into the wellbore causes two changes to occur in the mud circulating system:

 Increase of active mud system volume.

 The mud return ow rate exceeds the mud ow rate into the well.

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Recognising a Kick While Tripping

Flow into the wellbore will cause improper hole fill up, if this is seen a flow check should be performed.

 If the flow check is positive then the well should be shut in.

 If the flow check is negative the drill string should be run back to bottom to circulate bottoms up
(stripping may have to be used here).

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Situations that can mask a kick:-

1. Mud weight adjustments while drilling.

2. Mud transfers while drilling.
3. Partial lost circulation.
4. Solids control equipment and degassing mud.
5. Spills and leaks in surface equipment.
6. Drain back.
7. Pump start up and shut down.

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Kick Behaviour in Drilling Fluids

If the drilling fluid is an oil based system and under the well bore conditions, a small gas kick can become a
serious well control situation. The gas can become dissolved and miscible. The reason behind this behaviour is
that the gas remains in solution until it reaches its bubble point.

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Kill methods general

The objective of the various kill methods is to circulate out any invading fluid and circulate a satisfactory weight
of kill mud into the well without allowing further fluid into the hole. Ideally this should be done with the
minimum of damage to the well.

If this can be done, then once the kill mud has been fully circulated around the well, it is possible to open up the
well and restart normal operations. Generally, a kill mud which just provides hydrostatic balance for formation
pressure is circulated.

This allows approximately constant bottom hole pressure which is slightly greater than formation pressure to be
maintained as the kill circulation proceeds because of the additional small circulating friction pressure loss.

After circulation, the well is opened up again and the mud weight may be further increased to provide a safety
or trip margin.

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These two techniques are very similar in principle, and differ only in respect of when
kill mud is pumped down.

 In the Driller’s Method, the kill is split into two circulations. During the first, the kick fluid is circulated
without changing the mud weight; once the kick is out, the mud is weighted up and pumped around the well
on the second circulation.

 The Wait & Weight method achieves both of these operations simultaneously. Kill mud is prepared before
starting the kill, and the kick fluid is circulated out while this mud is circulated into the well.

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To summarise:

FIRST CIRCULATION: Pump the kick out of the well, using existing mud weight.
SECOND CIRCULATION: Pump kill weight mud around the well.

Advantages of Driller’s Method:

 Minimum Arithmetic
 Minimum Waiting Around Time - can start kill at once
 Minimum Information Required

Disadvantages of Driller’s Method:

 Highest Annular Pressure Produced
 Maximum Well Under Pressure Time
 Longest ‘On-choke’ Time

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Advantages of the Wait and Weight Method

 Lowest wellbore pressures, and lowest surface pressures - this means less equipment stress.
 Minimum ‘on-choke’ circulating time - less chance of washing out the choke.

Disadvantages of the Wait and Weight Method

 Considerable waiting time (while weighting up) - gas migration.

 If large increases in mud weight required, this is difficult to do uniformly in one stage.

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