Rudarsko-geološko-naftni Zbornik (Dec 2004)
THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT RHEOLOGICAL MODELS IN ACCURACY OF PRESSURE LOSS PREDICTION
Abstract
Hydraulics play an important function in many oil field operations including drilling, completion, fracturing, acidizing, workover and production. The standard API methods for drilling fluid hydraulics assume either power law or Bingham plastic rheological model. These models and corresponding hydraulic calculations do provide a simple way for fair estimates of hydraulics for conventional vertical wells using simple drilling fluids, such as bentonite fluids. However, nowdays with many wells drilled deep, slim or horizontal using complex muds with unusual behaviour (such as tested MMH mud), it is necessary to use appropriate rheological model for mathematical modelling of fluid behaviour. Oil and gas reservoirs in Croatia have been under production for quite a while and the probability to discover new deposits of hydrocarbons is rather small. Therefore attempts have been made to maintain the gas and oil exploitation at the present level. One of possible ways to meet this target is re-entry wells drilling. The diameter of such wells in reservoir is smaller than 0,1524 m (6 in). Accurate modelling of annular pressure losses becomes therefore an important issue, particularly in cases where a small safety margin exists between optimal drilling parameters and wellbore stability, what is the case in re-entry wells. The objective of the paper is to show the influence of well geometry and accuracy of fluid rheological properties modelling to the distribution of pressure losses in a slimhole well.
