Schlumberger Private ESD & ECD Basic Concepts A back to the beginning conceptual approach Why back to the Basic? No one from the field or the supports staff have any question regarding the importance of wellbore hydraulic for the wellbore stability, furthermore most of field Enginners and support staff have a very clear concept about the high importance of monitoring the ECD reading and its direct relation with the mud weight being use in every well None of them is wrong in this point however if you go a little deeper in the concepts some discrepancies start to emerge. This discrepancies are due to a basic misundestanding of the concepts and leads in some cases to the point to belive that “ifthe ECD reading is 1 PPG above the Mud weight is 2 clear indication of the poor hole cleaning of the well” This is a very wrong statement con most of the cases, To minimize the actual discrepancies about ESD and ECD and reduce the misundestanding of the basic concepts here is a small resumen regarding this subject, What is ESD? ESD Stand for Equivalent Static Density, in very basic words the ESD is the mud column pressure reading at a given point with no circulation onthe fluid This reading will defer from the surface MW due to the effects of thermal expansion of the fluid and the fluid compressibility, however in a. shallow well the fluid compressibility canbe ignore therefore the reading should be very close to the surface mud density (most of the VZE wells) For a more graphic approach we will have that the ESD can be expressed as: For this example you will need to use the Pressure expressed in PSI, and the TVD expressed on Ft the value of ESD will be on PPG. What is ECD? ECD Stand for Equivalent circulating Density, and again in very basic words is the mud column pressure reading at a given point including the pressure losses ‘caused by the mud been pumped in and out the well, The differences between ESD and ECD will be due to pressure required to avercome the friction, both from the dill pipe and annulus wall this pressure will be call Annular Pressure Losses (APL). The graphic representation of this concept will be:. APL ECD=ESDt 3525p For the use of this formula you will need to use ESD on PPG, APL on PSI and TVD on ft ECD behavior on a well If we analyze the previous concept we can use it to predict the behavior of the ECD on a well but before doing so, we need to understand the reasons that will cause a change on the reading ‘Annular pressure losses: These are the result of the mud flowing through the well, and the resultant force to be applied to overcome the friction with the pipe and the annular wall, for this particular point you need to take in consideration the pipe hole area ratio or P-HAR in order to determine the correct friction factor to be use. © RPM: This will cause an spiraling effect on the mud in the well therefore the mud path to the surface willbe increase, for this variable we can said the more APM will increase the ECD Reading ‘As an example you can find three graphic below from the same well only changing ‘the RPM Vertical Well, 5000 mts MD 8.5 in Section OoRPM ECD vs Depth sr ee actan nme uot li [Ess Sar = 80 RPM ECD vs Depth cen et EE ene150 RMP ECD vs Depth fii | ECD vs Depth veut 0 om Ta recs seer vencan Se BEY Bl May 31210 Eco mBtronpo Rae ae CRan See = Rai [Eee —Giplme — Seaton iopine Togien —— Wielne ROP: Increase on the ROP will generate an increase on the annular cutting load therefore an increase on the ECD. Well Profile: The well profile will determine the relation between the TVD and the frictions factors this will be the main driver of the ECD reading on most of the cases. To clarify this last point let see some examples regarding well profiles ext Vertical well 5000 ft MD 10 PPG MW, RPM: 0 ROP.O. aoe (md x2 J type well 5000 ft MD 10 PPG MW, RPM: 0 ROP. ECD vs Depth yuenegnt= Oia Weel THO, renee BE ‘Chen sentrange Scanase@NDHyaracee GRAN“ ORM Date Way, 2010, ECOnER tea) odin — Hin WOptin eine, — Gopal GON gain === eangates