SPE DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIES

is funded principally
through a grant of the

SPE FOUNDATION
The Society gratefully acknowledges
those companies that support the program
by allowing their professionals
to participate as Lecturers.
 Selecting the Right
Drilling Fluid
Dr. Mark Aston
Drilling Fluids Specialist
BP Exploration, UK

Telephone: 44 1932 739506

Email: astonms@bp.com
 Outline

• Introduction to drilling fluids

• Technical challenges
• The bigger picture – selecting the
right fluid
 Requirements of a Drilling Fluid (Mud)

Prevent hole
collapse
Seal rocks to
prevent loss of
fluid Prevent rock
dispersion

Prevent the flow Remove

of oil and gas drill cuttings
while drilling

Avoid damage
to the
production
Lubricate
zone
the drill string

GQS37586_11
Other Important Requirements

• Not too expensive $$

• Easy to use
• Environmentally friendly
Water Based and Oil Based
Muds

WBM OBM

They look similar but are very different…

 Water Based Mud (WBM)

• Simple WBM contains 3 components:

– Water
– Barite (BaSO4) dense powder for mud weight
– Clay as a thickener

• Many variations:
– Salts and other chemicals for shale inhibition
– Polymeric viscosifiers (xanthan)
– Starch and polymers for reducing fluid loss
– Bridging solids like calcium carbonate
– Lubricants
– Thinners
– High temperature systems
– Dense brines to replace barite
 Oil Based Mud (OBM)
• Oil mud is an emulsion system
– Oil
– Water phase containing salt (CaCl2)
– Emulsifier
– Barite powder for density
– Wetting agent
– Thickener (organoclay)

• Variations:
– Oil type: diesel, mineral oil, synthetic oil
– Bridging solids and chemicals for reducing fluid loss
– Barite-free muds
– Flat rheology muds for deepwater
WBM and OBM are Opposites…
WBM OBM
Good Technically
Environmental Very Good
Profile
Easy
Low cost Maintenance
Easy to select a
system

Technical
Health and
Limitations
Environment is
High a Challenge
Maintenance
High Cost
Hard to select
the right system
 To Summarise

• Drilling muds can be complex

• There are many different formulations
available
• We need to design the mud to suit the
application
 Technical Challenges
3 technical areas:

• Shale Stability - improving the performance

of water based muds
• Wellbore Sealing
• Wellbore Strengthening

Bigger picture
 Shale Stability

Up to 80% of the rocks we

drill are shales (clay-rich
rocks)
Shale exposed to oil and water

Oil Water

We can predict what will happen in the field:

 Drilling a Short Vertical Section
Poor hole
condition –
Mud weight but this may
must be not be a
high enough problem
to prevent
tight hole Mud weight
is less
important!

OBM Simple WBM

We can use a simple water based mud such as a gel mud

 Drilling Deviated Hole

difficult to steer
poor hole cleaning
hard to run casing
poor cement job

OBM Simple WBM

In this application we need a WBM that stabilises the shale

Measuring Shale Dispersion
 Shale Dispersion Results
100
90
80
A: Gel mud
% shale recovered

70 B: NaCl/polymer mud
60
C: KCl/polymer mud
50
40 D: KCl/glycol mud
30 E: KCl/silicate mud
20
F: Oil mud
10
0
A B C D E F

The best water based muds contain salt – a problem for land based drilling?
Land-Based Drilling - WBMs

Mud Disposal

Contamination of
freshwater aquifers
Shale Dispersion in Salt-Free WBMs

90
80
70
60
% Shale 50
Recovered 40
30
20
10
0

ew
el

l
er

co
G

N
ly
ly

G
Po
 Wellbore Sealing

For water based or oil based muds

Shale dispersion Wellbore strengthening Bigger Picture

 Sealing Permeable
Formations

“We should seal permeable

formations such as sandstones to
avoid: mud losses, differential
sticking, damage to the production
zone, and to preserve core quality
when coring”
Bridging Particles can Help to Seal
Permeable Formations

mechanical sealing
by calcium carbonate particles
 What size particles do we need?
Consolidated Unconsolidated
Shales Silts
Sands Sands

Permeability:
10-9 Darcy 10-6 Darcy 10-3 Darcy Darcy

Pore Size:
10’s - 100’s millimetres
nanometers < microns
microns
Mud Sealants:

Polymers/clay fines Barite

‘special case’ Forgotten?

Typical mud particle size distribution
(barite oil mud)

too small for

some
applications?

Clay fines Barite

To Design the Mud for Bridging
• Estimate the maximum pore size in the rock
– Pore size ~ sq root (permeability in mD)
• Ensure the mud contains particles of this size, plus a
range of smaller ones.
• Ground marble is effective and acidisable, avoid soft
solids like chalk
• Run large shaker screens if required to keep the
solids in the mud
• Replace the large solids during drilling as they grind
down.
• Maintain a low API fluid loss
 Particle size Definitions!
• The industry uses terms like ‘fine’, ‘medium’, ‘coarse’,
and ‘extra coarse’
• These terms are not defined and can be misleading.
• Always check the actual size distribution
• Be aware that fibres and carbonates have different
‘definitions’ of fine, medium and coarse.
 Sealing Shales
Pore sizes are very small (nanometre size)

OBM – does not WBM – can

penetrate, pressure penetrate, pressure
support is maintained support is lost
Shales are Difficult to Seal using
WBMs - Research Continues

Polymers or
glycol droplets? “Bridging solids like fine
calcium carbonates or
clays are not effective”
Insoluble gel
2+
Ca2+ Na+
Mg 2+
SiO3

special salts like silicate can work

Wellbore Strengthening

For Depleted Reservoirs

Shale dispersion Wellbore sealing Bigger Picture

Depletion Weakens the Rock
Formations
Fracture
Pore
Gradient
Pressure

ECD Range

Overburden

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.3

Pore Pressure Poisson’s Ratio

1.80 s.g. 0.30

 How can we Strengthen the
Formations?
• Pump cement or resin treatments
– Slow, expensive, have to drill the section first, only
works for short sections

• Design muds that can strengthen

formations as you drill
– Can it be done?
Concept to Strengthen Rocks

Hoop Stress Increase

(stress cage)

P
t

Wellbore

Bridging Particles

Designer Mud Concept

 Designer Mud Trial
ELoT - Designer Mud Trial

2600
2400 Designer
mud
2200 breakdown
2000
Surface Pressure (psi)

Initial
1800
formation
838 PSI
1600 beakdown
5 ppg
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00
time/mins
 The Bigger Picture

Selecting the right fluid

 Things To Consider
Are mud losses
Do you want to be first to try expected?
something new?
Cost of Fluid
Formation damage
Waste disposal options
Lubrication
Local regulations Shale inhibition
Company policy
Completion design Mud weight
What has worked before?
Who has the fluids contract?

Who needs to be Temperature and

Rheology involved? pressure
 Fluids Design Process
Well design Assess
and objectives available technology

Environmental Perform
issues Risk assessment

Review offset
Mud Program
well experiences
This process needs the involvement of many
people – a team approach
 Example

• Offshore Gas Development (10 wells)

• 300ft water depth
• Deviated wells (80 deg), 7000ft MD
• BHT 200 F, Max mud wt. 12 ppg
• Open Hole (OHGP) Completion
 Well Design
ft
24”
limestone
17 1/2” hole

13 3/8”

12 1/4” hole

9 5/8”
5 1/2”
8 1/2” hole

ft
 Environmental
Many things to consider, e.g.
– Seabed surveys (e.g. presence of corals)
– Environmental regulations
– Can we achieve low oil on cuttings levels?
– Cuttings re-injection
– Onshore disposal
– Technical requirements (e.g. formation damage)

Use water based muds Use oil based muds

 Offset Experiences
Lithology Mud Issues

Soft
Sediment Driven
500 ft 30” cond.
17 ½” Shale & Lost 200bbls,
SW/Gel
limestone sticky shale
2000 ft 13 3/8” casing
Shale & KCl
Mud Rings,
12 1/4” sandstone mud
tight trips
stringers 9.3ppg
3500 ft 9 5/8” casing
KCl
Sandstone & Pack-off
mud
8 1/2” Interbedded cavings
9.3 –
shale backreaming
9.6ppg
4400 ft 8 ½” hole
 Risk Matrix – 17 ½”
Risk Outcome Probability Action
(Mitigation)

Losses Lost time, lost mud, Medium Prepare losses

well control? decision tree
Shale Balling, cannot Medium Use inhibitive
Inhibition steer, poor hole KCl/polymer mud,
cleaning monitor cuttings
condition whilst
drilling
Cannot Reputation Low Run LC50 toxicity
Discharge tests
WBM Waste
 Risk Matrix – 8 ½”
Risk Outcome Probability Action
(Mitigation)

Mud not Impacts production High Use a water based mud

compatible with for open hole gravel
completion pack
design
Mud weight too Tight Hole, Cavings, loss Medium Perform wellbore
low of well stability study Use at
least 10ppg mud weight
Formation Impacts production High Low solids mud, correct
damage bridging particles. Run
lab tests
Torque & Drag Cannot get WOB, High Perform T&D study, test
cannot get completion to lubricants in lab
bottom
Shale Inhibition Impacts drilling and Medium, have Use inhibitive mud, test
production interbedded shales in lab if possible
 After the Risk Matrix…

• Work on the actions

• Produce the mud program
• Decide how to measure performance in
the field and record the lessons learned
(measure non-productive time and well
productivity)
• Apply learning to the next well
 Conclusion
• Technical challenges
– Shale stability
– Wellbore sealing
– Wellbore Strengthening
• Selecting the right fluid
– follow a careful planning process
– produce a risk table with actions
– measure the performance of the fluid to identify
areas for improvement