A brief discussion on the pros and cons of using drill cuttings to generate mud!
28 Jun,2020
Everything has two sides, and rock-cutting fluid generation is no exception—it comes with both advantages and disadvantages. The key is to leverage the benefits while minimizing the drawbacks. In drilling operations, drill pipe movement generates rock-cutting fluid, which plays a crucial role. Now, let’s take a look at the potential downsides that rock-cutting fluid can bring to drilling:
Everything has two sides, and the same goes for cuttings-generated mud—it has both advantages and disadvantages. The key is to leverage its benefits while minimizing its drawbacks. Drill pipe In drilling operations, cuttings-generated mud also plays a crucial role. Let’s now explore the drawbacks that cuttings-generated mud can bring to drilling:
① Reduce drilling speed. For every 1% increase in cuttings-generated mud, the drilling rate drops by 10%. For example, if the mud weight is 1.01 and the drilling rate is 12 m/h, increasing the mud weight to 1.11 will reduce the drilling rate to 6 m/h.
② Causes sticking and bit balling. Cuttings form a thick mud cake on the wellbore walls, and under differential pressure, this forces the drill collar Drill pipe A sticking accident occurred due to tight adhesion with the mud cake.
③ This leads to bit balling and sticking. Due to the thick mud cake buildup on the wellbore wall, during the tripping operation, the drill bit scrapes off the mud cake. At the same time, a portion of this mud cake becomes firmly adhered to the exterior of the drill bit, causing the bit's outer diameter to gradually increase. When the drill bit’s outer diameter exceeds the wellbore diameter, tripping becomes obstructed, making it easy for the bit to get stuck due to mud balling.
④ Causes hole shrinkage and sticking. The mud cake formed by cuttings on the sandstone narrows the wellbore, leading to resistance during tripping operations and increasing the risk of sticking when significant pulling force is applied.
⑤ Reduced drill bit life. Repeatedly grinding the bottomhole mud cake significantly shortens the lifespan of the drill bit.
⑥ Causing drill pipe sticking accidents. During rod connection or trip-out operations, cuttings settle and fill the annular space around the drill string, leading to drill pipe sticking incidents.
⑦ Increase pump pressure, resulting in reduced flow rate.
⑧ Operate the drilling rig Drill pipe Torque increases, and the diesel engine's load also increases.
⑨ When the cuttings slurry reaches a certain level, it must be discharged, inevitably contaminating the environment around the well site.
⑩ Contaminating the oil layer and drilling in easily collapsed formations, while allowing cuttings to moderately generate mud, can positively help prevent wellbore collapse.
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