Best Practice in Understanding and

Managing Lost Circulation Challenges

Hong (Max) Wang, SPE, Ronald Sweatman, SPE, Bob Engelman, SPE, Halliburton; Wolfgang Deeg (formerly
Halliburton), SPE; Don Whitfill, SPE, Mohamed Soliman, SPE, Halliburton; and Brian F. Towler, SPE, University of Wyoming

Summary
Lost circulation has been one of the major challenges that cause
much nonproductive rig time each year. With recent advances,
curing lost circulation has migrated from plugging a hole to
borehole strengthening that involves more rock mechanics and
engineering. These advances have improved the industrys understanding of mechanisms that can eventually be translated into better solutions and higher success rates. This paper provides a review
of the current status of the approaches and a further understanding
on some controversial points.
There are two general approaches to lost circulation solutions:
proactive and corrective, based on whether lost circulation has
occurred or not at the time of the application. This paper provides
a review of both approaches and discusses the pros and cons related to different methodsfrom an understanding of rock mechanics and operational challenges.
Introduction
Lost circulation (LC) is defined as the loss of whole mud (e.g.,
solids and liquids) into the formation (Messenger 1981). There are
two distinguishable categories of losses derived from its leakoff
flowpath: Natural and Artificial. Natural lost circulation occurs
when drilling operations penetrate formations with large pores,
vugs, leaky faults, natural fractures, etc. Artificial lost circulation
occurs when pressure exerted at the wellbore exceeds the maximum the wellbore can contain. In this case, hydraulic fractures are
generally created.
During the last century, lost circulation presented great challenges to the petroleum industry, causing significant expenditure
of cash and time in fighting the problem. Trouble costs have continued into this century for mud losses, wasted rig time, and ineffective remediation materials and techniques. In worst cases, these
losses can also include costs for lost holes, sidetracks, bypassed
reserves, abandoned wells, relief wells, and lost petroleum reserves. The risk of drilling wells in areas known to contain these
problematic formations is a key factor in decisions to approve or
cancel exploration and development projects.
Background literature (Messenger 1981) on the subject describes many methods and materials used to remedy lost circulation. Many of these methods worked in some wells but not in
others. Trial and error applications almost always resulted in a
costly learning curve.
A field practices study (API 1991) of cementing wells, published by the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 1991, compiled drilling and production surveys and trade journal data for 339
fields worldwide between 1980 and 1989. The number of fields in
each area is presented for general information and may not represent all wells or fields in that specific area. The North American
fields include fields in Canada, Mexico, and the USA. Listed
among the many types of data sourced in this study is LC information in relevant fields. This LC data was analyzed for this paper
to obtain the LC event frequencies of occurrence presented in
Table 1. The LC data analysis indicates that up to 45% of all wells

Copyright 2008 Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper (SPE 95895) was first presented at the 2005 SPE Annual Technical Conference
and Exhibition, Dallas, 912 October, and revised for publication. Original manuscript received for review 6 October 2006. Revised manuscript received 11 September 2007. Paper
peer approved 10 November 2007.

168

in the 339 fields require intermediate casing or drilling liner strings

to isolate LC zones and prevent LC while drilling deeper to total
depth (TD). Even after using these extra pipe strings, LC events
still occurred in 18 to 26% of all the hole sections drilled in
relevant fields. Some fields had higher occurrences of LC events
ranging from 40 to 80% of wells. In recent years, these percentages
likely increased as the number of shallow, easy-to-find reservoirs
steadily declined and industry operators intensified their search for
deeper reservoirs and drilled through depleted or partially depleted
formations. Conventional lost-circulation materials (LCM), including pills, squeezes, pretreatments, and drilling procedures often reach their limit in effectiveness and become unsuccessful in
the deeper hole conditions where some formations are depleted,
structurally weak, or naturally fractured and faulted.
To address these issues, new LC solutions and concepts, such
as borehole strengthening or wellbore pressure containment
(WPC), evolved (Alberty and Mclean 2004; Aziz et al. 1994; Fuh
et al. 1992). The mechanisms behind various means proposed and
used to enhance WPC are still debated and are not fully understood. Proposed mechanisms include sealing incipient fractures at
the wellbore wall; propping open multiple short fractures at the
wellbore wall, thus increasing compressive stresses around the
wellbore; and sealing fractures with various materials using a hesitation-squeeze technique.
Based on the ongoing debate of these emerging new technologies for controlling lost circulation, this paper intends to
provide a comprehensive review and analysis for a better understanding of both proactive and corrective borehole strengthening technologies.
Proactive Borehole Strengthening
Success and Issues. Muds have been pretreated with particulates
having a broad size-distribution spectrum for years, yielding some
clear benefits (Ali et al. 1991; Fuh et al. 1992; Aston et al. 2004).
Based on systematic lab studies, this approach was originally assumed to work by tip screenout, isolating the fracture tip from
the wellbore pressure, thus stopping fracture propagation (Fuh
et al. 1992). The pressure containment improvement realized by
this approach depends strongly on the actual fracture length and
decreases rapidly with increasing fracture length (Deeg and Wang
2004). To help improve the pressure containment using this approach, the fracture should be bridged or sealed as quickly as
possible before it has a chance to extend a significant distance into
the formation.
Recent improvements in this technology, which include use of
particulate-treated mud as weak zones are penetrated, have shown
significant success in substantially increasing WPC (Alberty and
Mclean 2004; Aston et al. 2004). These successes are supported by
strong evidence from pre- and post-treatment pressure tests. Because of their capability to strengthen during drilling, the use of
these special muds offers an excellent approach for drilling depleted formations and has achieved substantial success in the field.
Its theory, often referred to as stress caging, states that the
borehole is strengthened by creating microfractures, then plugging
and propping them open with particulates, increasing the hoop
stress. The size distribution of the particulates to be added to the
mud is determined by using the basic hydraulic-fracturing theory
and an assumed fixed-fracture length of 6 inches (in.).
The theory that explains this mechanism is not totally accepted,
because finite element fracture simulations show (Abousleimen
June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

et al. 2005) that a stable microfracture that could be plugged by

particulates in the described manner (Alberty et al. 2004) is
not present. Further, it was found that two published boreholestrengthening data points are still within the Kirsch hoopstress range for an impermeable circular wellbore-boundary
condition (Abousleimen et al. 2005). The Kirsch hoop-stress equation defines the upper bound of fracture-initiation pressure for a
perfectly circular wellbore in impermeable rock. It is therefore
possible that the special mud actually satisfied the boundary condition of impermeability, sealing pore throats, and keeping fluid
from leaking off into the formation. The assumed 6-in. fracture
length also lacks support and could easily be exceeded during
fracture initiation.
Sealing Short Fractures. It is widely accepted that the formation
breakdown pressure can be much greater if the wellbore can be
treated as an impermeable boundary in depleted formations (Gidley et al. 1989). Todays drilling fluids used for drilling depleted
formations frequently provide good fluid-loss control, but we have
not seen a particular conventional drill fluid that alone can prevent LC.
Although plugging rock-matrix pore throats can create a necessary condition, treating short fractures may also be important. In
tectonically active areas, Sh can be much smaller than SH. Under
certain conditions, fractures can initiate regardless of wellbore
pressure. Joints created by tectonic activities may be open and
ready to take fluids.
Depletion can also result in fractures and faults. When a reservoir is depleted, the pore pressure is decreased and the effective
stress increases accordingly. Depletion can cause subsidence in
high-porosity, weak formations. It is possible that damage to the
rock matrix resulting from compaction could lead to the creation of
fractures throughout the formation. When these fractures are open
and can conduct fluid, any wellbore pressure in excess of the least
principal stress within the formation can likely cause these fractures to extend, resulting in LC events. The presence of these
fractures, in effect, negates the hoop-stress concentration at the
borehole wall required for pressure containment. This has been
confirmed by Onyia (1994), who noted in the laboratory that when
notched or prefractured, wellbores have breakdown pressures
substantially lower than predicted for intact, unfractured wellbores. Similar results, especially with oil-based mud, have been
observed by Morita et al. (1996), who explained that the oil-based
mud does not form a thick cake, resulting in premature fluid leakoff into the pre-existing fractures.
Because of the complexity of sedimentary rocks and drilling
practice, borehole breakdown is affected by many factors. These
factors include Youngs modulus, borehole size, fluid properties
(Morita et al. 1996), pre-existing notches or fractures (Onyia
1994), borehole orientation relative to the in-situ stresses, and the
rocks strength to resist fracture extension, as measured by the
critical stress-intensity factor.
Dupriest (2005) also observed that leakoff test data suggest that
the increased hoop-stress contribution in most sedimentary formations is relatively small, usually 0 to 200 pounds per square inch (psi).
June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

The preceding discussion indicates that the process of only

sealing pores is not enough to avoid LC if hydraulically conductive
fractures exist in the formation and intersect the wellbore.
The Global Petroleum Research Institute (GPRI) 2000 project
(Dudley et al. 2001) focused on fracture-reopening pressure. In
this project, fracture sealing with different particulates in mud
was investigated on 4-in. diameter core samples (Fig. 1). In these
tests, it was observed that borehole communicating with confining pressure occurred as soon as the fracture reopened.
Therefore, the increase in confining pressure can be used to identify the fracture reopening pressure. With base mud, the fracturereopening pressure is essentially equal to the confining pressure
(Fig. 2). However, when resilient graphite particulates were added
to the base mud, the fracture-reopening pressure improved substantially. Fig. 3 is a test result with mud treated with resilient
graphite particulates.
Fracture Stability. So far, the stress cage approach analysis
is based on the hydraulic-fracturing theory, and all results are
related to hydraulic fractures, including the finite element analysis
of fracture stability (Abousleimen et al. 2005). These fractures are
fully inflated and therefore normally have a stress-intensity factor
much larger than its fracture toughness; which causes the fracture
to propagate. However, if the fractures are not fully inflated or
relaxing, the fluid front may not extend to the fracture tip, resulting
in less stress intensity at the fracture tip. Propping these mechanical fractures open away from the tip should not always damage
the systems stability and therefore locally improve the stress beyond the Kirsch hoop-stress range.
In examining the fracture initiation process, one can find that at
the onset of fracture initiation it takes some time for mud to flow
into the fracture. In other words, fracture initiation is not caused by
fluid invasion. If the fracture is totally plugged or the fracture
mouth sealed at the wellbore, before fluid penetrates into the fracture past the wellbore, the fracture can still be relaxed and stable.
Other lab tests (Morita et al. 1996, 1990) indicate that fracture
growth becomes suddenly unstable only when the fracture aperture
exceeds a critical width to allow drilling fluid to penetrate past the
wellbore into the fracture. The borehole breakdown does not occur, even if an initiated fracture propagates as much as 0.3 to 3 in.
The fracture-extension pressure initially increases with fracture
length before fluid starts penetrating into the fracture, which means
fractures should be sealed and propped when initiated. After becoming inflated and ready to propagate, it is too late for plugging
with particulates.
Again, examine the GPRI results in Fig. 3. The fracturereopening pressure with the treated mud that achieved proper fracture sealing is greater than 1,600 psi, higher than twice the confining pressure of 500 psi, given the pore pressure of less than 100
psi. This indicates that the WPC has improved to a point higher
than defined by the Kirsch hoop-stress.
These tests not only indicate that particulates play a major role
in borehole strengthening but also that WPC can be improved well
beyond that defined by the Kirsch hoop-stress.
169

Fig. 1A 4 in.-diameter core sample for GPRI tests.

New Fracture Size Calculation for Incipient Fractures. The

design of special particulates to plug incipient fractures before they
become critical and extend a significant distance from the wellbore
requires estimating the fractures width at the wellbore wall. After
this width has been established, properly sized particulates can be
selected to seal the crack. Using fracture mechanics, both the
length and width of these incipient fractures can be estimated.
Fracture mechanics indicates that after a fracture has initiated, it
continues to extend as long as the stress-intensity factor at the tip
of the crack exceeds the critical stress-intensity factor or fracture
toughness of the rock.
The fracture stress-intensity factor and fracture-width equations
for a crack with three distinct symmetrical pressurized regions are
discussed elsewhere (Deeg and Wang 2004). The same equations
can be slightly modified for calculating the stress-intensity factor
and fracture width with only two pressurized regions as follows:
As a starting point for these predictions, assume the pressure
within the borehole equals the formation breakdown pressure. For
a well perpendicular to two of the three principal in-situ stresses,

the breakdown pressure for a nonpenetrating fluid is given by

the following:
Pb = 3S2 S1 Po + tensile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
To estimate the length and width of the incipient crack, we
consider only the crack, neglecting the effects of the wellbore. If
no wellbore fluids are allowed to penetrate into the portion of the
crack extending past the wellbore wall, the pressure distribution
within the crack is as follows:
Pb or Pw if Pw Pb for x R
Pcrack =
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2)
Po for R x c
The fracture length created by this pressure distribution is calculated by comparing the stress-intensity factor KI for the incipient
crack to the critical stress-intensity factor KIC for the formation of
interest. The stress-intensity factor for the previous chosen pressure distribution is given by the following:

KI = c Po S2 + 2

R
c
P Po arcsin . . . . . . . . . (3)
w
c

Fig. 2Background synthetic mud shows no increase of fracture reopening pressure.

170

June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

Fig. 3Addition of synthetic graphite particulates substantially increased the fracture reopening pressure.

Having calculated the equilibrium crack length, the crack width at

the wellbore can be determined for the assumed crack openingpressure distribution. It is given by the following:

w=

81 2c
E
2

R
c

Po S2 + Pw Po

R
c

arcsin

R
1
c

R
+
c

n=1

sin 2n arcsin

R
c

R
R sin 2n arcsin
R
c
cos 2n arcsin
+
c
cn
2n 12n + 1

(4)

Four sets of fracture width and length are calculated and displayed
in Figs. 4a and 4b to show their relationships. Fracture width tends
to be larger with a longer fracture length.
Corrective Borehole Strengthening
Hookes law states that stress is proportional to strain. When the
fracture width increases, additional stress higher than Sh is induced
locally along the propped fracture. The increase in stress observed
in the near-wellbore region depends directly on fracture width. The
fluid pressure within the fracture (including the pressure distribution throughout the fracture), length of the fracture, formation
elastic modulus, and Poissons ratio determine the fracture width.
Dupriest (2005) pointed out that mud losses are either cured or
borehole pressure integrity is increased by improving formation
closure stress (FCS). Widening the fracture results in an increased
compressive stress at the fracture face. This fracture face stress is
the sum of the net stress increase caused by the fracture-widening
effect and the least principal stress, Sh. Deeg and Wang (2004)
used a hydraulic-fracturing approach to study the stresses induced
by opening a slit-like hydraulic fracture, finding that the stress
perpendicular to and parallel to the fracture directions (Sh and SH)
becomes more compressive with increased fracture width. It is the
net stress increase higher than Sh that results in higher pressure
required to reopen the fracture filled with sealant.
Fracture width is created by propping the fracture open. To
keep fluid pressure away from the fracture tip, the propping material must remain immobile, and no drilling fluid should bypass or
penetrate it at the highest wellbore pressure expected. It can be
June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

shown using basic fracture mechanics calculations that, as the

centroid of the pressure distribution within the crack or fracture
moves away from the tip and toward the center of the fracture, the
pressure required to propagate the fracture increases (Deeg 1999).
Lost circulation through induced fractures is a typical Mode-I
tensile failure. Increase in the tensile strength of rock can help to
improve WPC. In permeable formations, treatments that can increase the rock tensile strength and fracture toughness can also
cure lost circulation.
High Fluid-Loss and High Solid-Content Squeeze Pills. For
high solid-content, high fluid-loss particulate pills to work, the
carrying fluid must leak off so the seal can form. Fluid leakoff
requires formation permeability and a pressure differential; therefore this treatment would hardly work in impermeable shale. When
nonaqueous drilling fluid is used, because of its superior fluid-loss
control characteristics and relative permeability effect, such a pill
may not work well even in permeable formations, such as sandstones, because the permeability may be damaged by the drilling
fluid. This type of treatment typically works well in depleted,
highly permeable formations with water-based drilling fluid. When
conditions are different from this typical condition, treatment performance may not meet expectations.
Deformable, Viscous, and Cohesive Systems. When the seal
body is formed by a deformable, viscous, and cohesive (DVC)
sealant, fracture width is obtained by squeeze pressure and retained
by its high gel strength. Further, these materials can deform under
pressure or stress. When fracture width increases with wellbore
pressure, the seal body can still maintain the seal by deforming
itself. It, therefore, can allow fracture width to change according to
the wellbore pressure as long as the body still remains in place,
isolating the wellbore pressure. The high gel strength of the sealant
requires a high-pressure differential to dislodge the seal body,
keeping it immobile. The cohesiveness of the materials can help
ensure an impermeable seal body that would not allow mud to
pass through.
One of the advantages of the DVC system is that this treatment
does not depend on formation permeability to form the seal. Because of the excellent fluid-loss control of oil-based mud (OBM)
and synthetic-based mud (SBM), even permeable formations can
behave as if they had lower permeability in this mud environment.
LC control in impermeable zones or interlayers would be difficult
for a high fluid-loss and high solid-content squeeze pill. It is sometimes very difficult to know whether the loss formation is permeable before a treatment is applied. With DVC systems, there is no
need to define whether the formation is permeable.
171

Fig. 4(a) Incipient crack length for several in-situ stresspore pressure combinations (S1,S2,Po in kpsi). Wellbore pressures in
each series are as follows: Pb,1.1Pb,1.2Pb,1.3Pb,1.4Pb,1.5Pb. (b) Incipient crack width for several in-situ stresspore pressure
combinations (S1,S2,Po in kpsi). Wellbore pressures in each series are as follows: Pb,1.1Pb,1.2Pb,1.3Pb,1.4Pb,1.5Pb.

The challenge for this system occurs when (1) a large volume
of sealant must travel a long distance along the wellbore to reach
the weak zone, and (2) the squeeze pressure is limited by another
weak formation (e.g., around the casing shoe). In this case, the
material may not reach the zone before the pressure limitation
dictates. If this is the case, a treatment can be staged into a treatment train, separating the treatment into discontinuous, smaller
subtreatments. Although this method has been used effectively in
the field, it is often unclear when a stage treatment should be used.
Attempts during the last few decades to develop reliable DVC
systems (e.g., gunk squeezes) have had mixed resultsworking
in some cases and not in others. New DVC systems developed in
the last decade (Sweatman et al. 1997, 2001; Webb et al. 2001)
have performed much better than the gunk-type systems, as evidenced by many treatment applications in which gunk squeezes
failed to seal, followed by successful DVC system applications.
172

Current DVC systems have improved results in these remedial LC

applications with success rates averaging approximately 70%.
DVC systems have sealing limitations and may not seal very large
leakoff flow paths into formations. For example, DVC success
rates in cavernous formations, such as vugular carbonates, are
typically less than 70%. Higher success rates (up to 90%) may be
seen in well applications to seal fractures or faults in competent
sands and shales.
Of the several thousand DVC applications performed during
the last nine years to reduce or halt losses, a limited number of the
treatments were applied to strengthen boreholes. The study of
these borehole-strengthening applications in 28 wells included
only those attempted in hole sections in which DVC limitations
were not expected to be exceeded. The success rate was found to
be 89% (25 of 28 wells). However, more than one treatment was
often required in these wells to achieve the desired WPC. For
June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

example, holes were deepened, exposing additional weak zones, or

too many weak zones were present in the original hole. Fig. 5
provides an example pressure-test comparison in which two DVC
treatments are needed to achieve the desired increase in WPC
(Traugott et al. 2007).
The borehole-strengthening study resulted in the development
of improved methods and materials reported in this paper. The
recently developed methods include numerical and laboratory
models and materials, such as DVC-2, to increase WPC in wells
with a wider range of hole conditions and/or to higher WPC values
above the least principal stress. Fig. 6 includes pictures for demonstrating the forming of a DVC sealant with DVC-2 and a waterbased mud.
Cement Systems. Cement has been used as an effective lost circulation material for long time. However, it is not a cure-all. There
are many different cement systems. Cement slurries, in general, are
thin fluids that create little pressure resistence when pumped into
fractures. This low-pressure resistence would not widen the fracture much and therefore would incur little additional stress.
However, it should be a good material for sealing vugs or open
natural fractures.
Table 2 provides a summary for the previously discussed three
approaches that aim at improving FCS.
Strength-Enhancing Chemical Systems. In-situ polymerization
of certain chemicals, such as resin, can greatly enhance permeable
rock tensile and compressive strengths. This enhancement has
been proven both in the lab and the field (van Oort et al. 2003,
Eoff et al. 2001). This method differs from other boreholestrengthening methods, because the strengthening effect comes
from strength improvement rather than stress.
Because the formed polymer would have an ultra-low permeability, formation fluid pressure and wellbore can be isolated. This
isolation can prevent filtration through the treated zone and prevent pressure differential sticking. Because of the consolidation
effect, the borehole should be much more stable than before treating. This method is suitable and effective for treating depleted
sands and unconsolidated formations.

Permeability variation is another concern. This could cause

most of the treating fluid flowing into a higher-permeability layer
and leaving the rest untreated. However, if mud cake is present, it
can serve as a diverter and control a fairly even invasion of the
treatment fluid around the wellbore circumference.
It has been a concern that if the leftover chemical inside the
borehole sets hard with a high compressive strength, then sidetrack
may happen while drilling out the plug.
Controlling the setting time and avoiding contamination is also
important to prevent it from setting inside drill strings and casing.
This method can also be applied proactively.
Synergy of Proactive and Corrective Approach
Combination
With the understanding of the mechanisms to increase hoop stress
with particulate-treated mud, a proactive mud program can be
designed to drill through anticipated weak zones, such as depleted
formations. The approach to improve the fracture-reopening pressure with DVC systems can form a corrective backup for drilling
through uncertain formations in case of lost circulation. An important improvement is that both approaches can now be customized with computer programs relying on rock-based data analysis.
It is also interesting that the same rock-based analysis can lay the
foundation for a proactive, corrective, borehole-strengthening job
design and wellbore-stability analysis.
Conclusions
Analysis with rock mechanics theory and laboratory results
shows that borehole strengthening by improving hoop stress can
go well beyond the WPC defined by Kirsch hoop-stress.
Sealing existing fractures in addition to plugging pore throats is
the key to restoring the Kirsch hoop-stress.
For improving hoop stress with particulates, propping and plugging mechanical fractures rather than hydraulic fractures is
key to preventing fractures from becoming unstable and growing
too long.
For improving hoop stress with particulates, initial fracture
length and therefore the critical width at initiation can be deter-

Fig. 5Treatment results from a DVC system.

June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

173

S1
S2
Sh
SH
w
x

larger principal total stress

smaller principal total stress
least horizontal principal total stress
maximum horizontal principal total stress
crack width
distance of a point inside the crack from the center of
the wellbore
Biots coefficient
Poissons ratio
tensile rocks tensile strength
References

Fig. 6The DVC-2 system reacts with a water-based mud to

form a DVC sealant.

mined by rock elastic properties, fracture toughness, in-situ

stresses, and borehole pressure.
It has been proven in the field that DVC systems can improve
WPC by creating a net stress higher than the existing leastprincipal stress in the near-wellbore region. DVC systems are
designed to work in formations regardless of permeability.
Combining both proactive and corrective approaches would create a beneficial synergy for borehole strengthening. Similar data
analysis can lay the design foundation for both approaches as
well as wellbore-stability analysis.
Nomenclature
c equivalent crack length
E Youngs modulus
KI stress-intensity factor
KIC critical stress-intensity factor
Pb borehole breakdown pressure
Pcrack pressure inside the crack
Po pore pressure
Pw wellbore pressure
R wellbore radius
174

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Sweatman, R.E., Kessler, C.W., and Hillier, J.M. 1997. New Solutions To
Remedy Lost Circulation, Crossflows, and Underground Blowouts. Paper SPE 37671 presented at the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, 46 March. DOI: 10.2118/37671-MS.
Traugott, D., Sweatman, R., and Vincent, R. 2007. Increasing the Wellbore
Pressure Containment in Gulf of Mexico HP/HT Wells. SPEDC 22 (1):
1625. SPE-96420-PA. DOI: 10.2118/96420-PA.
van Oort, E. et al. 2003. Accessing Deep Reservoirs by Drilling Severely
Depleted Formations. Paper SPE 79861 presented at the SPE/IADC
Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, 1921 February. DOI: 10.2118/
79861-MS.
Webb, S., Anderson, T., Sweatman, R., and Vargo, R. 2001. New Treatments Substantially Increase LOT/FIT Pressures To Solve Deep HTHP
Drilling Challenges. Paper SPE 71390 presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, 30 September3
October. DOI: 10.2118/71390-MS.
Worldwide Cementing Practices, first edition. 1991. Washington, DC:
API. Appendix C, 229439.
Hong (Max) Wang is a Global Technical Advisor for Baroid Fluid
Services at Halliburton. Max has acquired extensive land and
offshore experience ranging from the early days of checking
mud and mixing cement in the field to his current development on fluid solutions to lost circulation and wellbore instability, with more than 20 papers on the subject published. He is a
professional petroleum engineer. He holds a PhD degree in
petroleum engineering from the University of Wyoming and an
MS degree in chemical engineering from South China University of Technology. He is an active member of SPE, DEA, and
AADE. Ron Sweatman is Chief Technical Professional in Halliburtons Global Business and Technical Solutions group in Houston, specializing in cementing, wellbore stability/integrity, and
CO2 injection technologies. Ron has served on many industry
and SPE committees, published many technical articles and
SPE papers, received five major industry awards, and has over
25 patents. He holds degrees in chemistry from Louisiana State
University and petroleum engineering from the University of
South Louisiana. Bob Engelman is Pressure Testing and Sam-

June 2008 SPE Drilling & Completion

pling Product Manager with Halliburton Wireline & Perforating

Services. Bob holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering
degree from the University of Colorado. He has served on SPE
committees and has published many SPE papers and technical articles. Wolfgang Deeg is currently a Staff Production
Technologist in Shell Oils Unconventional Oil group, exploring
technologies to commercialize Colorados oil shale. Prior to
returning to Shell in 2005, he spent 9 years with Halliburton working in stimulation, cementing, and rock mechanics R&D. Since
joining the oil industry in 1980, he has worked on projects as
diverse as hydraulic fracture treatment design, simulation, and
analysis; designing well completions; developing models for
wellbore stability analyses; implementing a waterflood and
steam drive pilot; laser perforating; and evaluating the integrity of a wells cement sheath throughout the wells lifefrom
placement, through curing, and to well abandonment. He has
also performed root-cause analyses of power generation and
transmission equipment for an electrical utility. He holds a PhD
degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford
University and a BS degree in mechanical engineering from
the University of Connecticut. Donald L. Whitfill is a Global
Technical Advisor for Baroid Fluid Services. He holds a PhD degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. His past SPE
service and awards include Distinguished Lecturer, 2005 and
1987; Board of Directors, 198992; Senior Member, 2003; and
Distinguished Member, 2006. Mohamed Soliman is Chief Reservoir Engineer with Halliburton Energy Services at its Houston
center. Soliman has written over 100 technical papers in areas
of well-test analysis, fracturing, conformance, and numerical
simulation. He also holds 13 US patents. Soliman holds a BS
degree in petroleum engineering from Cairo University, as well
as MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University. Brian Towler is
a Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming and College of Engineering and Applied
Sciences Fellow for Hydrocarbon Energy Resources. He was
previously Department Head of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from 20042008. He is a registered Professional Petroleum Engineer in the State of Wyoming. He holds BE and PhD
degrees in chemical engineering from the University of
Queensland in Australia. He was instrumental in setting up the
Queensland section of the SPE in 1985 and was chairman of
the section in 1988.

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