2021/11/03 by Rami Albattat, Albattat, Rami, Marwa Alsinan +6
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Drilling and Well Engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis #Oil and Gas Production Techniques #Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods #physics.geo-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2111.02050
arxiv created 2021/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2021/11/03 · arxiv updated 2021/11/04 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Drilling is a requisite operation for many industries to reach a targeted subsurface zone. Loss of circulation is a common problem that often causes interruptions to the drilling process and a reduction in efficiency. In this work, a semi-analytical solution and mud type-curves (MTC) are proposed to offer a quick and accurate diagnostic model to assess the lost-circulation of Herschel-Bulkley fluids in fractured media. Based on the observed transient pressure and mud-loss trends, the model can estimate the effective fracture conductivity, the time-dependent cumulative mud-loss volume, and the leakage period. The behavior of lost-circulation into fractured formation can be quickly evaluated, at the drilling site, to perform useful diagnostics, such as the rate of fluid leakage, and the associated effective fracture hydraulic properties. Further, novel derivative-based mud-type-curves (DMTC) are developed to quantify the leakage of drilling fluid flow into fractures. The developed model is applied for non-Newtonian fluids exhibiting yield-power-law, including shear thickening and thinning, and Bingham plastic fluids. Proposing new dimensionless groups generates the dual type-curves, MTC and DMTC, which offer superior predictivity compared to traditional methods. Both type-curve sets are used in a dual trend matching, which significantly reduces the non-uniqueness issue that is typically encountered in type-curves. Data for lost circulation from several field cases are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. The semi-analytical solver, combined with Monte Carlo simulations, is then applied to assess the sensitivity and uncertainty of various fluid and subsurface parameters. The proposed can serve as a quick diagnostic tool to evaluate lost-circulation in drilling operations.