Lecture #06

NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY

Drilling
 Drilling fluids (mud)
• The key to making the rotary drilling system work is the ability to
circulate a fluid continuously down through the drill pipe, out through
the bit nozzles and back to the surface.
• The drilling fluid can be air, foam (a combination of air and liquid or a
liquid.
• Liquid drilling fluids are commonly called drilling mud.
• All drilling fluids, especially drilling mud, can have a wide range of
chemical and physical properties. These properties are specifically
designed for drilling conditions and the special problems that must be
handled in drilling a well.
 Purpose of Drilling Fluids
• Cooling and lubrication. As the bit drills into the rock formation, the friction caused by the rotating bit
against the rock generate heat. The heat is dissipated by the circulating drilling fluid. The fluid also
lubricates the bit.

• Cuttings removal. An important function of the drilling fluid is to carry rock cuttings removed by the bit
to the surface. The drilling flows through treating equipment where the cuttings are removed and the
clean fluid is again pumped down through the drill pipe string.

• Suspend cuttings. There are times when circulation has to be stopped. The drilling fluid must have that
gelling characteristics that will prevent drill cuttings from settling down at the bit. This may caused the
drill pipe to be stuck.
• Pressure control. The drilling mud can be the first line of defense against a blowout or loss of well
control caused by formation pressures.
• Data source. The cuttings that the drilling mud brings to the surface can tell the geologist the type of
formation being drilled
• To wall the hole with impermeable filter cake. This will give a temporary support to the wall of the
borehole from collapsing during drilling.
 Types of drilling fluids
Water-base mud
This fluid is the mud in which water is the continuous phase. This is the most
common drilling mud used in oil drilling.

Oil-based mud
This drilling mud is made up of oil as the continuous phase. Diesel oil is
widely used to provide the oil phase. This type of mud is commonly used in
swelling shale formation. With water-based mud the shale will absorb the
water and it swells that may cause stuck pipe.
Air and foam
There are drilling conditions under which a liquid drilling fluid is not most
desirable circulating medium. Air or foam is used in drilling some wells when
these special conditions exist.
 Drilling Fluid treating and monitoring equipment
• In addition to the main mud pumps, several items of mud treating equipment are found on most rigs.
Much of this equipment is aimed at solids removal, including shale shakers, desanders, desilters and
centrifuges.

• Shale shakers remove larger particles from the mud stream as it returns from the bottom of the hole.
Shakers are equipped with screens of various sizes, depending on the type of solids to be removed.

• Finer particles in the mud stream are removed with desanders, desilters and centrifuges. Each of these
items of solids-control equipment is applicable only over a certain range of particle sizes.

• In addition to removing solids, mud handling equipment may also include a mud degasser to remove
entrained gas from the mud stream. Degassing the drilling fluid is sometimes necessary when small
volumes of gas flow into the well bore during drilling.

• Additional equipment include mixers to agitate mud in the tanks, smaller pumps to various duties and
equipment for adding chemicals and solid materials to the mud system.
 The drilling stages
• Wells are normally drilled in stages, starting with a surface hole drilled to
reach a depth anywhere from 60 to 400 meters, depending on final well
depth and area conditions. The crew then pulls out the drill string and inserts
steel pipe, called surface casing, which is cemented in place, to keep the wall
from caving in. It controls the return flow of mud and other fluids
encountered during drilling and also prevents contamination of groundwater.
The beginning of the actual drilling, which takes place after the surface hole
is drilled.
• After setting surface casing and installing the blowout preventers (BOPs),
the crew resumes drilling. A probe for shallow gas or heavy oil in eastern
Alberta may require only two or three days to drill 450 metres through soft
shales and sandstone to the target depth. However, a rig may work eight
months or longer to penetrate 4,500 meters or more through hard, complex
rocks in the foothills of the Rockies.
 The drilling stages
• When the bit needs to be replaced because of wear or changing rock strata, the
crew has to pull out the entire string, unscrewing sections of pipe in single,
double or triple sections, depending on the height of the derrick, and stacking
them upright in the derrick.
• Then they have to put the whole string back into the hole again, with the new
bit in place. This process, which can be very laborious and time-consuming for a
deep hole, is called tripping. Major improvements in the durability of bits and the
formulation of drilling fluids since the 1980s have greatly reduced the number of
trips required to drill a well. Many shallow wells today are drilled without a bit
change.
• If the string breaks or gets stuck in a hole, a specialist is called in to help the
crew go fishing with special tools. No one wants to lose an expensive bit and
bottom-hole assembly, but the blocked hole is the real problem. As a last resort,
the crew drills a curved section called a sidetrack to bypass the debris.
 Under ground rock layers on drilling site
• This illustration is a simplified cross-section
of the surface and underground rock strata
where gas well drilling generally occurs.

• It does not show all of the scores of

horizontal layers of rock (“rock strata”) that
lie beneath the surface – like you see when a
road is cut through a mountain. It shows
those that are most important for gas well
drilling, and even those are simplified.

• There may be several separate strata bearing

good and bad groundwater, coal and gas.
• Some strata hold groundwater we would call
good groundwater. Water wells are drilled to the
good groundwater in these strata. These are
sometimes called “freshwater” rock strata. Other
water strata hold water that contains sulphur, salt
etc. – bad groundwater.
• mostly the good groundwater is usually closer to
the surface than the bad groundwater (not the case
everywhere) so it can be accessed by relatively
shallow water wells.

• The gas bearing rock strata is

porous/permeable. This has allowed the
gas migrating upward over the eons to collect in
the microscopic spaces in the rock. The gas
cannot migrate higher because the next rock strata
up is not porous/permeable. That next layer
forms a seal, like the rock between the good and
bad groundwater strata, that keeps the gas from
migrating higher and causes a pool of gas in the
gas bearing strata.
• First, the driller drills through all of the surface water
strata. (This first drilling is several hundreds of feet
down. The well will be thousands of feet deep after all
of the drillings are done that will create this one gas
well.)
• As the bit turns and grinds its way into the ground it
creates “cuttings” of drilled-out rock. In order to get
the cuttings out of the way, compressed air or mud is
blown down the hollow drill pipe in the center of the
hole and out through the drill bit working at the
bottom. The air then blows the cuttings up from the
bottom and out of the hole.
• The upward moving air also mixes with whatever good
or bad water is leaking or flowing into the un-cased
hole. At the surface, the cuttings-filled air is put
through a water bath. The water bath washes the
cuttings into a “drilling pit” that is full of the water
used in the water bath, plus the water that leaked into
the hole (and rain water). The cuttings settle out into
the bottom of the pit.
• Sometimes the air and water are not dense enough to
lift the cuttings. So “soap” agents are added to the
compressed air to help lift the cuttings up to the
surface, and it ends up in the drilling pit.
• After the driller has gone as deep as
he has planned for this first drilling,
the drill bit is pulled out. What
remains at this point there is a bare
hole into the ground that goes through
the good and bad ground water strata.
• One of the most common problems affecting
surface owners’ water wells occurs during the
drilling of this open hole and now that the
drill is pulled out. With nothing to stop it, the
water pours into the gas well hole the same
way in pours into the hole at the bottom of
the surface owner’s water well. So much
water can pour out of the good groundwater-
bearing strata and into the much deeper gas
well open hole, that it can deplete the
groundwater aquifer where the surface
owners water well is.
• There is not much a driller can do to prevent
this if the groundwater strata conditions set
the stage for it to happen. Fortunately this
generally is temporary. Once the metal
casing and cement is put in as explained in
the next slides, the leaking should stop. In
most cases the volume of water in the good
groundwater strata will be “recharged” from
rain or water flowing from yet further away.
• Another thing can go wrong as
the compressed air, soap, the bad
groundwater, etc. gets mixed up in the hole
while lifting the cuttings out. All of this stuff
can get forced or work its way into the good
groundwater strata and pollute it.

This is not uncommon. A careful driller

should be able to prevent or limit this effect
by being careful with the pressures being
used to blow cuttings out of the hole, etc.
• The movement of these contaminants into the
groundwater is temporary.
• However it can take a long, long time
for pollutants that do get into a good
groundwater strata to wash out.
• Next the driller lowers a large metal
pipe called a “casing” down into the hole
almost as far as he has drilled.
• This casing alone will not protect the
groundwater. Pollution can still occur by
mixing of good and bad ground water etc.
between the outside of the metal casing and
the inside of the hole.
• This space between the outside of the
casing and the inside of the hole is called
the “annular space”.
• The driller tries to calculate the volume of the empty
annular space between the outside of the casing and
the inside of the hole.
• The driller then has a company pump that same
volume of cement down the inside of the
casing. (You will regularly see these special cement
trucks on the highways. They are usually gray and
have huge covered funnel shaped tanks on the back
holding the cement.)
• To separate this cement from the water that is going
to force it into the empty annular space, the driller
inserts a “pig” (orange here). Then water pressureis
applied down on the pig, and . . . The cement is
forced down the inside of the casing, around the
bottom of the casing, and then up the outside of the
casing and into the annular space.
• For the cement job to be good the cement has to
“return to the surface”. That is, the cement has to be
pushed all the way up the annular space so it comes
back level to the surface and completely fills the
annular space.
• Sometimes there can be “voids” (think of caves)
in the ground. In that case the cement instead of
filling up the annular space, fills up the void, and
does not make it to the surface. The annular
space is not filled with cement. This is not
uncommon. And it can cause problems to occur.
• If the driller has to pass through a mined out coal
seam while drilling down to the gas bearing
formation there will be a huge "void" problem. It
is probably larger than a naturally occurring void,
but the driller should know about it in
advance. The solution is not all that relaible. A
larger hole is drilled down through the void. A
larger metal casing is fitted into that larger
hole. However it is not possible to insert cement
between the outside of the casing and the inside
of by hole (the "annular space") by pushing it
down the center of the casing and then back up
into the annular space from the bottom up to the
surface ("circulating"), as is usually done. That is
because the cement will get as high as the void
and then flow into the void instead of on up the
annular space to cement in the surface ground
water formations.
• Instead of "circulating" the cement through the groundwater formations, the
driller places a "basket" on the larger casing at a depth above the mined out coal
seam. The driller then squirts cement down into the annular space from the top
using a hose or "tube". Hopefully the cement will drop all the way to the basket
and completely fill up the annular space from the basket to the
surface. However, this method relies on gravity which is less than the pumping
pressure of circulating cement from the bottom. In addition there is no good way
to confirm that the cement filled the annular space through all of the groundwater
strata before it hardened. This is called "grouting".
• If a cave is the problem, the driller might know there is a cave as they drill down
through and the drill bit suddenly drops a few feet instead of drilling steadily
down (if they notice). If they notice they should put the larger metal casing
mentioned above (sometimes called a sleeve). But if they do not notice, the
cement can disappear into the cave instead of cementing the pipe the rest of the
way to the surface. The driller will have to try the unreliable grouting process.
This is a particular problem in Karst formations where there are many caves,
small and large.
 Shape of well after conductor casing
• This is how the drill hole looks after the first,
“fresh water” casing is set and cemented in.
• This is designed to cement and seal
the casing in the hole. The purpose of the
casing is to keep anything from leaking out of
the inside of the casing and into
the groundwater or other strata. The purpose
of the cement is to hold the casing in place and
to prevent movement water or other substances
(“communication”) between the good and bad
groundwater strata, the surface etc.
• And usually it does. As explained previously
there can be some problems that occur before
this casing and cementing is done.
• If the cement is not correctly formulated, or
if there is unexpected water pressure from
good or badground water strata, water can
force its way into the cement and
“honeycomb” the cement.
• This leaves passages for the bad ground
water to migrate up to the good groundwater
(as shown). In addition, it is possible for
surface or shallow subsurface pollutants to
migrate down as shown in the previous slide
into the good groundwater.
• There is another important way that the
cementing of the metal casing can be
compromised.
• After the cement is forced into the annular
space, the driller is supposed to wait 8 hours
before continuing to drill on down the
hole. This is to allow the cement to harden
sufficiently to do its job. But it costs the
driller bunch of money for the drilling rig to
sit there idle for 8 hours. We regularly get
complaints that drillers do not wait the 8 hours
before they start drilling. If the driller does
not wait, the new drilling activity can cause
cracks and spaces up and down the cementing
of the casing.
• After the 8 hours have passed, the driller
then drills through the cement at the
bottom and continues on down through
other strata and the coal seam.
• Again, for a short period of time the hole
is not protected by a metal casing and
cement. If the surface casing and
cementing is not right, then pollution can
occur at this later time, though this is less
common than the problems that occur
before or during the setting and
cementing of this first string of casing.
• Again the driller lowers metal
casing into the drill hole. This
time it goes from the surface all
the way through the coal seam
and other strata.
Shape of well after intermediate casing
• Again the driller pumps cement down
the casing and up the annular space to
the surface and waits 8 hours for it to
dry.
• The primary purpose of this casing is
to protect the coal seam from pollution
from fluids or from the gas.
• Note that it is common for
the freshwater and for the coal seam to
be drilled, cased and cemented all at
once,in one stop. We do not know if
that makes for extra dangers.
• So far the drilling has only been
hundreds of feet down. Now the
driller drills on down thousands
of feet until he reaches the
gas bearing strata, and a
little bit past.
• When gas is hit, the driller tries
to use muds etc. to prevent the
gas from blowing up the hole.
• Now the driller lowers thousands
of feet of metal production pipe
down all the way to the bottom,
and a little bit past.
• Again the driller cements the metal pipe into hole,
this time at the level of the gas bearing strata.
• Note however that the cement does not go all the
way to the surface this time, the way the cement
“returns to the surface” for the previous casings. It
just goes to some distance above the top of the gas
bearing strata. The annular space between the
production pipe and the outside of the hole above
that is left open.
• This open annulus is thousands of feet in vertical
distance between the bottom of the cement job near
the surface and the top of the cement job down at
the gas bearing formation. There was not enough
vertical space in the image to the right to show this
distance so \\'s indicate where these thousands of
un-cemented feet of open annulus would be in
relation to the cemented casing.
 final inside view of well
• The driller had to case and cement the drill pipe into the
gas bearing zone in order to keep the gas etc. from
getting into and coming up the annular space and
escaping into other strata
• Next in order to make it possible for the gas to flow into
the production pipe, the driller lowers a small controlled
“explosive” to the gas bearing strata and sets it off. It
burns/explodes holes through the production pipe and
cement and into the gas producing strata.
• So now the gas should flow out of the gas bearing
strata, into the production pipe and up and out to
market. And it will, but too slowly for the driller’s
purposes.
• In order to make the gas flow more quickly out of the
gas producing strata, the driller wants there to be cracks
or fractures into the gas producing strata. The gas can
flow more quickly out of the gas bearing strata to the
production pipe if there are fractures in the gas bearing
strata.
• So . . .
• The driller pumps compressed air, or water or nitrogen
(sometimes mixed with sand) down the production pipe, out
through the holes at the bottom and into the gas bearing
formation. He uses enough pressure to actually crack the
rock in the gas bearing strata! Enough pressure to lift all of
the rock above it to make the cracks!
• IF, the metal casing and cementing were done properly, and
IF the “fracture” job is done deep enough in the ground. If it
is done deep in the ground, then the fractures (that may
spread beyond the gas bearing strata) do not reach up into
strata that could affect the surface owner and the surface
owner’s good groundwater.
• Having the fractures extend up that far would be rare in most
conventional gas wells that are thousands of feet in the
ground. A fracture would be very unlikely to reach up to
where it would bother the surface owner.
• However, if there is an old orphaned unplugged well nearby
that penetrates the same gas bearing strata, and if the fracing
pressure reaches it somehow, that could cause
communication up the old unplugged gas well. The pressure
or gas or fluids could rise up the orphaned, unplugged well
into shallower strata and cause problems.
• Also, if the well being drilled is a “coal bed methane” well
into one of the much shallower coal seams, then
any errant fractures will be close enough to the surface that
they could cause problems.
• Sometimes the flow of gas up through the
production casing would not be fast
enough to lift particles out of the well that
could clog production. Or it may be that
the particles would erode the vital well
casing. In either case, or for other reasons,
an additional metal "tubing" is lowered
down the well inside the production
casing.
• It is shown as orange in the image at the
right. The gas escapes to the surface and
then to market only through the tubing.
The narrower tubing increases the
velocity of the gas flowing out of the well
to lift the troublesome particles, and it
protects the casing. There is still pressure
between the inside of the casing and the
outside of the tubing even though the gas
there is not moving.
• So here is the finished down hole
product. If done right problems can
happen, at least temporarily, but
usually do not. An unskillful job,
or malfeasance such as failing to
wait the 8 hours for the cement to
dry, can cause serious and long
lasting problems. A surface owner
who is knowledgeably paying
attention and letting the driller
know it by checking cement tickets
etc., will certainly help deter
problems