The purpose of this collection of papers is to introduce the subject of underbalanced drilling (UBD) to

engineers interested in gaining a basic overview of the technology and its applications. It is not intended
to offer a comprehensive look at the topic, but, rather, to provide the reader with enough knowledge to
enable advanced study or field work.

Foreword

This volume assembles key papers that give a state-of-the-industry perspective on how far the UBD
technology has evolved and which areas have been most predominant in adopting the technology.
Selections made for this document were based on input from UBD service providers around the globe.

Some of the first UBD papers were presented in 1995 at the First International Underbalanced Drilling
Conference, held in The Hague. This conference was the impetus for the formation of the International
Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), Underbalanced Operations (UBO) Committee, and the
subsequent SPE/IADC conferences on UBD.

Since 2003, managed pressure drilling (MPD) has become a recognized technique and fewer technical
papers have focused on UBD. However, UBD is still an important enabling technology, and advances in
drilling techniques have made UBD an ideal drilling method for depleted reservoirs. A significant number
of subjects are relevant to UBD technology ranging from safety to operations and reservoir performance.
This collection provides the reader with the basic knowledge base for understanding UBD planning,
operations, and completions.

UBD Background and Overview

Underbalanced reservoir drilling is defined by the IADC UBO committee as drilling with the hydrostatic
head of the drilling fluid intentionally designed to be lower than the pressure of the formations being
drilled. The hydrostatic head of the fluid might naturally be less than the formation pressure or be induced
to a state by adding natural gas, nitrogen, or air to the liquid phase of the drilling fluid. Whether the
underbalanced status is natural or induced, the result can be an influx of formation fluids, which must be
circulated from the well and controlled at the surface.

The well is still controlled by managing the wellbore pressure, which is maintained to be always less than
the formation pressure. Primary well control is no longer an overbalanced barrier of a column of fluid.
Instead, flow control is combined with hydrostatic pressure, friction pressure, and surface choke pressure.
The blowout preventer (BOP) stack and the rig choke manifold system remain unchanged as the
secondary well-control barrier. The recommended practices for UBD are now published by API (API RP
92U). Further safety information on UBD, such as the UBD classification system, can be found on the
IADC UBO committee website (www.iadc.org). A number of general papers on the subject are available
(Bennion et al. 1998; Ramalho 2007).

Candidate Selection and Reservoir Issues

Copyright © 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers. All rights reserved.

Selecting the right candidate for well and reservoir is one of the important planning considerations for
UBD. The majority of underbalanced wells are drilled to prevent reservoir damage or to enhance
production. Understanding the formation damage from a reservoir is critical in the selection process for
UBD. Bennion et al. (1996) in “Formation Damage and Horizontal Wells—A Productivity Killer?” describes
formation damage. Many papers have been presented on the reservoir damage effects and the
improvement in reservoir production from UBD (van der Werken et al. 2005; Bennion et al. 1998; Bennion
1999; McLellan and Hawkes 1999).

Flow Modeling
Flow modeling of multiphase fluids is a challenging aspect of planning and executing UBD wells. The
number of available models has decreased since the late 1990s, with only a few software models
remaining as commercial packages. The modeling techniques have changed little and generally offer a
good standardized approach for designing UBD operations. Saponja (1998) in “Challenges with Jointed

Underbalanced Drilling, edited by Steve Nas, and Deepak M. Gala, Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/biblitesm/detail.action?docID=3405000.
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 Pipe Underbalanced Operations” set out some guiding principles in flow modeling that were supported in
multiple studies (Smith et al. 1998; Graham and Culen 2004; Zhou 2006; Gil and Shayegi 2003).

Operational Aspects
A number of published case studies address the operational aspects of UBD (Hannegan and Wanzer
2003; Pinkstone et al. 2004; Moore et al. 2004; Safar et al. 2007; Robinson et al. 2000; Al-Saadi et al.
2006; Chitty 1998).

Safety
The safety aspects of drilling and flowing reservoir fluids to the surface are extremely important, and the
IADC UBO subcommittee has done significant work on the management of the safety aspects of UBD
operations. Knight et al. (2004), Park et al. (2001), and Jansen et al. (2001) highlighted safety issues
related to offshore UBD operations.

Coiled Tubing
Coiled-tubing drilling and jointed pipe operations are used for UBD operations. One major advantage of
using coiled tubing for UBD is that the flow of gas and drilling fluid does not need to be interrupted for
connections, which helps prevent pressure spikes and make coiled tubing an ideal drilling method for
UBD operations (Suryanarayana et al. 2006; Nas 1999).

Well Control
The well-control aspects of UBD should be reviewed along with equipment requirements and
specifications and flow modeling. The conventional BOP stack used for drilling should not be
compromised and should not be used for routine UBD operations. This rule ensures that the BOP
remains the secondary well-control system. A distinction should be made between well kill and well
control in UBD operations. In UBD, a well kill is performed only if safety of equipment or personnel is
compromised, when operational controls have strayed outside a predetermined safe and acceptable
operating envelope, or where equipment failure requires the well to be killed to control the well
(Hannegan and Wanzer 2003; Ramalho and Davidson 2006).

Well Completions
Early wells drilled underbalanced could not be completed as underbalanced. The majority of the early
UBD wells were displaced to an overbalanced kill fluid before running the liner or completion. Depending
on the completion fluid type, some formation damage would occur. Completion techniques for
underbalanced drilled wells have been established (Cutherberson et al. 2002).

About the Editors

Steve Nas is the VP for Global Well Engineering for the SPT Group and in Kuala Lumpur. He has more
than 33 years of oilfield experience, including 30 years as a drilling engineer. Nas began his oilfield career
in 1977 as a mud logger before progressing into wellsite drilling engineering in 1980. He worked 15 years
Copyright © 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers. All rights reserved.

as a wellsite drilling engineer, including 6 years with Shell in the Southern North Sea as operations
engineer. Nas got involved in underbalanced drilling (UBD) operations in 1995 with Smedvig-Northland
and was actively involved with a number of the first international underbalanced operations. In the late
1990s, Nas was actively involved in drilling the first underbalanced coiled-tubing drilled wells from a
floating rig. In 2000, he was a Distinguished Lecturer for SPE on underbalanced drilling, and in 2004, he
joined Weatherford in Asia Pacific as the engineering manager for UBD and managed-pressure drilling
(MPD) and was involved in numerous MPD and UBD operations, including the first deepwater MPD
operations from a drillship. In 2011, Nas joined the SPT Group, where he is now heading their global well
engineering group, growing the dynamic well control and flow modeling technology and working on the
first dual gradient drilling systems and online MPD systems. He is a recognized UBD/MPD industry expert
and has authored and presented numerous papers on UBD, coiled tubing drilling, and MPD. Nas holds an
MS in drilling engineering from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

Underbalanced Drilling, edited by Steve Nas, and Deepak M. Gala, Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/biblitesm/detail.action?docID=3405000.
Created from biblitesm on 2022-06-08 15:34:39.
 Deepak M. Gala is the US Commercial Manager at Weatherford in Houston. He has more than 8 years of
experience in the oil and gas industry in the US and spent 1 year in the chemical industry in India. Gala’s
oilfield career began in 2004 as a field engineer; he then transitioned to the position of well-control
engineer for Cudd Well Control, where he gained industry experience in well-control engineering, blowout
contingency plans, rig inspections, snubbing, and coiled-tubing operations. Gala joined Weatherford in
2006; his responsibilities have included air drilling, UBD, and MPD operations; supporting the drilling
hazard mitigation business unit, and serving as North America Operational Excellence Manager. He
recently transitioned into a technical-commercial role, where he heads the US tender response team and
acts as the point-man for multiple product line tenders. Gala holds a BS degree in chemical engineering
from Mumbai University, a Master’s degree in natural gas engineering from Texas A&M University-
Kingsville, and a Master’s degree in finance from Tulane University. Gala is the coauthor of more than 15
technical publications and is an instructor of “Introduction to Underbalanced Drilling” and “Introduction to
Managed Pressure Drilling” at SPE conferences. He co-wrote a chapter on underbalanced drilling in
SPE’s Advanced Drilling & Well Technology book. Gala was named a 2008 Outstanding Technical Editor
for SPE Drilling & Completion; he also received the 2010 Young Member Outstanding International
Service Award and the 2011 Regional Young Engineer of the Year Award.
Copyright © 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers. All rights reserved.

Underbalanced Drilling, edited by Steve Nas, and Deepak M. Gala, Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/biblitesm/detail.action?docID=3405000.
Created from biblitesm on 2022-06-08 15:34:39.