THE MOON AND ITS

TIDAL EFFECT
ON PIT VOLUMES
IN DEEP OFFSHORE DRILLING
By
Ukuedojor Kingsley Oghenemeruo

What is Tide?
Tide is the rise and fall of sea levels caused
by the combined effects of the
gravitational forces exerted by the Moon
and the Sun on earth and the rotation of
the earth.
To a much smaller extent, tides also occur in
large lakes, rivers and within the solid crust of
the earth.

4/5/16

Earths Rotation

Causes day and night

Contributes to causes of
tide
Causes earth to bulge at
the equator due to
centrifugal forces
It causes prevailing winds
and ocean currents
Causes deflection of
moving objects clockwise
in the northern
hemisphere and
anticlockwise in the
southern hemisphere
(coriolis effect)
If flight from Nigeria to NY is 6hrs and you
leave Nigeria 8am Monday morning, you
will get to NY 7am same Monday morning
4/5/16

Understanding Coriolis Effect

If you are travelling from the north pole

to the equator (lets say Nigeria) on an
airplane and the pilot maintained its
course or puts the plane on auto-pilot,
by the time you complete your descend,
you would have landed the plane in
Ghana, this is because, the earth
underneath has moved anticlockwise
(from west to east) thereby moving your
target away from your course. By this,
the plane has deflected to the right of
the target or clockwise looking at it
from the north pole and thus any
activity resulting from air pressures such
as hurricane and typhoon will swirl in a
clockwise direction.

Now if you are flying from the south

pole to Nigeria on the same course, you
will also probably land in Ghana The
plane would have been deflected to the
left of the target (anticlockwise) with
respect to the south pole and thus a
typhoon will swirl in an anticlockwise
direction.

To maintain target, the angular velocity must be

calculated with respect to the speed of the earths
rotation. The earths rotation is directly proportional
to the axis of rotation and therefore it rotates faster
at the equator than at the poles.
These have to be known for the pilot to maintain
longitude and also for a launched missile to hit its
target
4/5/16

Some Basic Facts about Earth-Moon

Relationship

The earth rotates and revolves around

the sun in an anticlockwise direction
once every 365 days + 6 hrs. Six hours in
four years makes a full day, thereby
making 366 days in a leap year.
The moon revolves around the earth at
approximately every 28 days (lunar
month). Therefore it takes 13 lunar
months for the earth to circle the sun.
The earth takes one day to cover 360
degrees about its axis. The moon takes
one day to cover approx. 13 degrees
around the earth. It therefore means that
it will take Nigeria 28 times to pass the
moon before the moon complete its orbit.
The pathway for the moons orbital
revolution is not equidistant from the
earths centre and therefore makes the
moon to be either closer to earth with
stronger pull and appear very big or far
from earth with weaker pull and appear
very small.
The moon gravitational pull on earth is
stronger than the suns gravitational pull
on earth.

If you toss an object up, it falls back to

you due to gravitational pull from earth.
You experience this same gravitational
pull on a lighter note (about 16.7% that
of earth) when you go close to the
moons orbit. You therefore need heavy
suits to walk on the moons surface.
But once you are out in space, you are
weightless (only mass with no gravity);
thus when you pour out a glass of water,
it never comes down to you.
4/5/16

Concept of New moon and Full moon

All solar eclipse occur at new moons (the earth,
the moon and the sun are aligned) but not all
new moons are solar eclipse. i.e. if they are not
aligned.
The sun does not rise or set, the earth rotates
on horizontal cardinal planes from east to west
in anticlockwise making those in the east to
see the sun first and as they gradually begin
to go into dark, those in the west gradually
begin to see the sun. This is also true for the
new moon appearance. When the east would
have seen the new moon, the west would
have seen nothing.

During a full moon, if the earth, moon and sun

align such that the earth obscures the moons
vision, a lunar eclipse occurs and gradually
clears away. All lunar eclipse therefore occur at
full moon but not all full moons are lunar eclipse.
4/5/16

Moon Cycle and Calendar

Types of Tides
High tide occur with rising sea water while low tide
occur with falling sea water.
Spring tide: When the moon is full or new, the
gravitational pull of the moon and sun are
combined. At these times, the high tides are very
high and the low tides are very low. They occur
when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a
line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the
Sun both contribute to the tides. No moon will be
seen at night during new moon, however as the
sun rays goes down, you will have a glimpse of the
new moon which gradually fades away as the
earth turns away from the sun.
If this completely aligns in daytime, we will
experience solar eclipse.
Neap tide: During the moon's quarter phases the
sun and moon work at right angles, causing the
bulges to cancel each other. The result is a smaller
difference between high and low tides and is
known as a neap tide. Neap tides are especially
weak tides. They occur when the gravitational
forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular
to one another (with respect to the Earth).
The Proxigean Spring Tide: Rare and unusually
high tide which occurs when the moon is both
unusually close to the earth and in the New Moon
phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the
Earth).

4/5/16

Explanation on Tides

Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are
attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at
anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is
able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the
water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it,
and the moon is able to pull at it.
The gravitational force of the Moon causes the Earth to
accelerate slightly towards the Moon causing the water to
get pulled towards the Moon faster than the solid rock on
the side nearest the Moon. On the far side, the solid Earth
'leaves behind' some of the water which is not as strongly
accelerated towards the Moon as the Earth is. This
produces the bulge on the 'back side' of the Earth. That is
why there are two high tides and two low tides each day.
The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low
tide, and then back to high tide.

Effect of low tide on a harbor

4/5/16

10

How Tide Affects Active Volumes in Drill-ships and Semisubmersible rigs

Decreasing pit volumes (High Tides)
Whenever there is a moon
As the string is being pulled gradually up
pull on the surface of the
from bottom, there will be a gradual drop
ocean, ships and other
in hydrostatic head, fluid will therefore
floating vessels move
gradually move from the trip tank into the
upward with the rising
well to maintain hydrostatic balance.
water. Therefore on a drill
ship and semi submersible
Increasing pit Volumes (Low Tides)
rigs, this upward movement This is like a syringe effect. As the string
tend to cause an upward
gradually goes back to bottom with
pull of the drill string from
decreasing tide, it displaces its volume
the bottom of the hole. This back into the trip tank which causes a
is especially noticeable
gradual increase in trip tank volume.
during in-slips. And more so
Static Pit Volumes (Highest or
if the trip tank or active pit
is continually circulating the Lowest Tidal Peak)
The tide rises to its highest peak and stay
well.
for some time before dropping. Also at
the lowest point, it stays for sometime
before subsequent increase.
4/5/16

11

4/5/16

12

4/5/16

13

4/5/16

14

Conclusion and Recommendation

From the plots, it was
seen that trip tank #1
did not move at all
during this monitoring
process. This is
because it is not in
circulation. Only the
trip tank #2 was used
to circulate the well.
It was also observed
that it takes average of
six hours to go from
high peak to low peak
and another six hours
to go from low peak to
another high peak.
Therefore it takes 12
hours to go from one
high peak to another
high peak.

Mean Tide

Reference Datum

Using a tide calculator software with Port Harcourt,

Bonny river as the reference station, it was easy to
predict when the next high tide will occur and by what
height. The height was then converted to the maximum
volume change expected.
Before concluding that volume increase is as a result of
tide, it is recommended that discussions must be made
with the mud engineer and driller so as to ensure that
the mud pit valves are properly tightened.
4/5/16

15

Thanks
for
Listening
4/5/16

16