A short introduction to Underbalanced Drilling

Marc Sadler Simon Mueller

August 5, 2011

Abstract Underbalanced drilling (UBD) diers from conventional overbalanced drilling by having a lower pressure in the borehole than in the surrounding formations. This makes pore uids like water and hydrocarbons ow into the well already while the drilling is in process. To create this underpressure dierent gases, mist, foam and gasied liquids are used as the circulating drilling uid. In contrast to conventional drilling, UBD has various benets like the reduction of formation damage (what leads to a higher productivity), dierential sticking and lost circulation, advanced formation evaluation, increased rate of penetration and longer bit life. But its usage also has perils like increased wellbore instability, enhanced water inow and increased risk of downhole res and is limited by economical concerns. Because the benets predominate the perils, if proper executed, UBD will probably be applied more frequently in the future.

face where special surface equipments separate the produced hydrocarbons from brine, drilling Underbalanced drilling is a relativly young uid and cuttings. UBD allows the production drilling technique developed to drill more ef- of hydrocarbons while drilling. ciantly and reduce disadvantages of overbalanced drilling. It is a technique where the pres2 Techniques sure of the drill uid is kept slightly lower than the uid pressure of the target formation. Such The drilling uid removes cuttings up to the sura pressure dierence allows the formation-uids face, loobricates the drill string and the drill bit to ow into the borehole while drilling, in con- and cools the drill bit. It typically enters the trast to the uid ow in conventional drilling borehole trough the drill string and ows back where the drill uid is pushed into the formation trough the annulus. (Fig.1). The underbalanced condition is generated by a gaseous, two-phase or liquid drill uid. 2.1 Gas If a permeable reservoir rock is perforated under underbalanced conditions, the hydrocarbons In UBD often a gas is used as the circulating such as gas and oil can ow directly into the uid drilling uid. In these gases the cuttings are backstream of the borehole and up to the sur- transported from the bit to the surface by the 1

Introduction

Figure 1: Formation, drill string and drill bit under underbalanced condition (left) and conventional condition (right). Left: the formation uids enter the borehole (red arrows). Usual drilling uid ow (black arrows). Right: the drill uid penetrates the formation (red arrows) and causes formation damage (black margin). Usual drilling uid ow (black arrows). (changed after: LEA, Introduction to Underbalanced Drilling)

drag force that counteracts gravity. This drag force increases with an increasing ow rate of the circulating gas. The needed value of the force depends on the size of the cuttings to be transported. If it is too low, the rock fragments cannot be uplifted. The cuttings accumulate then at the collar and in the best case fall down under the bit again and are grinded to a smaller transportable size. Or in the worst case the wellbore pressure increases so much because of the weight of the accumulating cuttings that the ow is stalled. So a sucient ow rate must be provided. The simplest and oldest drilling uid in UBD is dry air. Therefore air is packed by a compressor and is circulated in the borehole. The big advantage of air is that it is cheap and everywhere available but it also has its limitations. There is the possibility of downhole re because hydrocarbons and air make a very ammable compound, wellbore instability and water inows. These are described in the section Limitations of UBD. To avoid downhole res often an inert gas like nitrogen is chosen as the drilling uid. Therefore air is stripped o from most of its oxygen or liquid nitrogen transported to the place of action is heated and pumped down the borehole. Its density and lifting properties are similar to air but a mixture of nitrogen and hydrocarbon gasses is not combustible. Already a small percentage mixed to the air is sucient to impede the risk of re. Its principal limitation is of economic nature. It is more expensive than air (up to 35,000$ per day including rental of equipment) and therefore its injection rate and uplifting ability is lower than with air if used most cost eciently. Because of these additional costs it is usually used for drilling horizontally through producing reservoirs and rarely drilling 3

vertically. The risk for water inow and wellbore instability is the same as for dry air. As an alternative for air and nitrogen natural gas is used. Downhole it is also not ammable but it contains the risk of surface res when it is exposed to the oxygen of the atmosphere. It is more challenging to handle than air and nitrogen because it does not behave like an ideal gas, for example it is compressible to twice the density, so it is more complicated to stay in the needed pressure range. The risk for water inow and wellbore instability is not put away. But it avoids downhole res and can be less costly than nitrogen if the drilling rig is near a gas pipeline or a producing gas reservoir is drilled.

2.2

Two-phase

To achieve any desired uid density, it is possible to mix a gaseous and a liquid phase. Such lightened drilling uids are subdivided into mist, foam and aerated liguid. Of these mist has the lowest and aerated liquid the highest density. Mists and foams are generated by injecting a liquid, usually water, into the gas ow at the surface before entering the drill string. Aerated liquids are formed by adding a gas, such as air, nitrogen or natural gas, to the owing mud. They can be created by injecting the gas directly into the drill string at surface, reducing the density of the entire circulating uid system or downhole through a parasite string located in the annular wellbore, reducing the density of the upstreaming uid. Both cases eect a decrease of the wellbore pressure.

2.3

Liquid

If the formation pore uid pressure exceeds the hydrostatic pressure of fresh or saline water at

the same depth, it is possible to generate under- tions. balanced conditions using a conventional liquid drilling uid. 3.2 Formation Evaluation

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3.1

Advantages of UBD
Formation damage

If the permeability of a reservoir rock is reduced while drilling, completing, stimulating or producing the well, it is called formation damage. This mainly occurs due to penetration of drilling mud, ltrations or solids into the formation. Because of the interaction between mud ltrates and pore uids, permeability reducing sludges or emulsions can be formed. Invading solids clog the pore spaces of the formation which leads to reduced uid ow from the formation to the borehole. By drilling with a lower pressure in the drilling uid than the formation pressure, the physical driving force for such a penetration into the formation is removed. Reducing formation damage leads to a higher permeability of the reservoir rocks which in turn leads to a higher borehole productivity. Furthermore without formation damage costly repair and stimulation treatments, such as hydraulic fracturing, can be reduced to a minimum. 3.1.1 Lost Circulation

The term formation evaluation describes the measurement and analysis of the formation and the formation uids while drilling. It is mostly used to determine an indication of productivity of a well. Under underbalanced conditions, formation uids ow into the well whenever a permeable zone is penetrated. When the formation uids are seperated at the surface from any liquid component of the drilling uid, liquid rates can be determined by recording tank levels. Volumetric gas ow rates from the well are measured with a critical ow prover or an oroce plate. It is even possible to pull o the bit and stop the drill uid injection to perform an openhole production test. Furthermore gas-oil contacts and water producing zones can be identied.

3.3

Increased Rate of Penetration

Lost circulation means the loss of drilling uids due to ow from the borehole into the formation along highly permeable zones, open fractures or vugs. Lost circulation can be very costly if expensive mud systems are used. A uid ow from the borehole into the formation is only possible if the pressure in the borehole is higher than the pressure in the formation. Therefore lost circulation is eliminated under underbalanced condi4

By switching from a conventional to an underbalanced drilling method the penetration rate is nearly always enhanced. In conventional overbalanced methods the positive pressure dierence between the formation and the borehole leads to an increase of the eective conning stress on the rock adjacent to the bit. In most permeable rocks like sandstones and carbonates this again leads to an increased shear strength that impedes the cracking of the rock. Also already from the formation loosened rocks are recrushed by the bit because they are pressed against the formation by the positive pressure dierence. This so-called chip hold-down force makes the work of the bit less eective resulting in a lower penetration rate. The higher the positive pressure dierence between the formation

and the borehole the lower is the penetration rate. In UBD are both the eective conning stress and the chip hold-down force, because of the uid ow from the pores to the borehole, missing resulting in faster drilling.

also due to equipment loss and additional wellbores that must be drilled. UBD erases that risk of dierential sticking but there are other causes that can lead to a stuck pipe as described in the following section.

3.4

Bit Life

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4.1

Limitations of UBD
Wellbore Instability

Bit life can be dened as the hours a bit is active drilling or as the range drilled by one bit. UBD methods show a slightly lower life in hours because of higher vibrations in low density drilling uids but the distance drilled per bit is higher what makes them more eective. The lower the borehole pressure the lower is the mechanical work needed to grind the formation at the workfront of the bit and the higher is the penetration rate and the life span of the bit. And of course the lower is the rig time and thereby the expense. Also denser drilling uids of conventional drilling methods contain more solids that enforce the abrasion of the drill bit. So slightly lower active drilling hours per bit are opposed by a higher footage being drilled.

3.5

Dierential Sticking

Dierential sticking is one of the main causes of a stuck drillstring. It occurs in conventional drilling along permeable zones when the overbalance pressure pushes uids of the drilling mud into the formations while along the borehole wall a mudcake is formed by the residual solids. The thickness of this mudcake depends of the amount of uids that are own into the formation and of the solids in the drilling mud. The drillstring can be embedded in this mudcake, unable to move 4.2 Water Inows because of the positive pressure dierential and is now dierentially stuck. This leads to high While drilling underbalanced with gas, formaadditional costs not only by the lost rig time but tion water can enter the borehole and wet the 5

Wellbore stability problems can occur in underbalanced drilling as well as in conventional drilling. But particulary in UBD they are a concern, especially in poor consolidated or highly depleted formations. Wellbore instability is mainly caused mechanically and results in the drillstring being stuck in the borehole. While in conventional drilling methods the overpressure in the borehole rms up the borehole wall, UBD lacks this support resulting in two ways constraining the drilling process. Large fragments of the wall can fall down the well and cannot be hoisted by the drilling uid. They accumulate and stick the drillstring. Also the drilled formations can bulge and creep into the borehole by what the interspace between the wall and the drillstring is reduced until it is stuck. The greater the pressure dierence between the pore uid and the drilling uid the greater is the chance for wellbore instability. That sets a lower limit to the borehole pressure and also constricts the choice of the drilling uid. So can dry air only be used without instability problems in hard and well compacted formations while less hard formations demand denser drilling uids.

downfallen rock pieces. They stuck together on the wall or the drillstring, most likely on the top of the drill collar. The so formed mud ring grows until the drillstring is stuck. One way to avoid the development of these mud rings is paradoxically to saturate the cuttings by adding water to the drilling uid, so they cannot accumulate. Also when water inow occurs gas drilling should be converted into mist, foam or an aerated uid technique because the lower pressure dierence to the formation can limit the water inow.

Costs

4.3

Downhole Fires

Downhole res or explosions occur when hydrocarbons from a reservoir mix with air used as a drilling uid to a ammable composition. It is emblazed for example by a sparking caused by a contact of the drillstring with hard minerals. To avoid a re, a non-ammable gas as nitrogen can be used as the drilling uid. Also foam is used, that embeds the air and the hydrocarbons into bubbles so they are harder to combust.

Supercially, UBD may seem more expensive than conventional drilling methods because of expenses for additional equipment. But the higher rate of penetration leads to savings in the most important cost factor in drilling, the rig time. Also completion costs like the repair of formation damage and stimulation treatments are strongly reduced or obsolete. Supplementary the increased equipment costs are more than compensated by the increased productivity of the well. Nevertheless there are situations where underbalanced drilling is not the best choice economically. This is the case if a large water ow from formations into the borehole leads to high disposal costs or a good productivity and penetration rate of the well with conventional overbalanced methods make UBD not necessary. Also the acquisition of the additional equipment can be too intricate and expensive in remote locations. If only a short interval is to be drilled the costs for the equipment do not justify UBD economically, too.

4.4

Pressure Concern

Safety

The most important concern in drilling underbalanced is to keep constantly a controled underbalanced condition. Because there is no formation of a lter cake, which has a protective ability as a barrier to uid and solid invasion, the formation damage of a short overbalanced period in UBD could be worse than the formation damage in a properly designed overbalanced system. Such overbalanced periods can occur for example if a new pipe is connected to the rotary drill rig and the gas-injection has to be interupted for a short time. Also the completion of the borehole must process under underbalanced conditions. 6

Some of the safety concerns in UBD, such as high combustible oil and gas, extremely poisonous hydrogen sulde gas (H2 S) and aring gas, are the same as in conventional drilling. The ammable and explosive hydrocarbons must be properly disposed or stored. H2 S can be present in liquid hydrocarbon vapours or as a free gas phase. It attacks the olfaction and can kill at very low concentrations. Furthermore it attacks metals and makes them brittle and fail. Drilling in H2 S rich areas requires H2 S sensors, warning alarms, wind direction socks, H2 S concentration measuring de-

vices, air breathing respirators and H2 S-resistant materials. Because of the high productivity of underbalanced wells the gas volumes produced to the surface are very high. Which require properly positioned and adequately sized are lines. When normal air is used as density decreasing gas, it may cause corrosion of the equipment or re when contacted with hydrocarbons.To avoid ammable mixtures, extreme caution must be exercised by adding conventional air to the drill uid.

[2] Bennion D.B. et al., 1996, Underbalanced Drilling, Praises and Perils.- Society of Petroleum Engineers [3] Garrouch A.A., Lababidi H.M.S., 2001, Development of an expert system for underbalanced drilling using fuzzy logic.- Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, volume 31, p.23-39 [4] Gas Research Institute, 1997, Underbalanced Drilling Manual [5] Lyons W.C., Plisga G.J., 2004, Standard Handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering.- Second Edition

Conclusions

This paper gave a short introduction in the different techniques of UBD and listed its main advantages and disadvantages in which, in opinion of the authors, the advantages overbalance. It showed that UBD is more complex compared to conventional methods. UBD requires gas injection, surface separation of drilling and formation uids and special equipment as well as a well trained and experienced team. Yet it is an advancement of traditional drilling and a relatively young method that is still developed further to reduce its limitations. UBD blurs the boundaries between drilling and production and its use will grow steadily in the future.

References
[1] Bennion D.B., Thomas F.B., 1994, Underbalanced Drilling of Horizontal Wells: Does It Really Eliminate Formation Damage.Society of Petroleum Engineers 7