SPE-172349-MS

Optimizing the Drilling HPHT/Deep Offshore Wells Using Managed

Pressure Drilling Techniques
Aneru Suleman Ali, Prof. Adewale Dosunmu, Chimaroke Anyanwu, Ekeinde Evelyn, and Barodor Odagme,
University Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition held in Lagos, Nigeria, 05 07 August 2014.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) as a drilling technique is the result of the high costs of nonproductive
time (NPT) caused by close proximity between formation pore pressures and fracture pressures which is
common to offshore/deep-offshore, HPHT and depleted reservoirs as well as some land drilling operations.
The optimization of the Constant Bottom Hole Pressure (CBHP) variation of MPD was studied in this
work. The CBHP generally refers to the term used to describe actions taken to correct or reduce the effect
of circulating friction loss or equivalent circulating density (ECD) in an effort to stay within the limits
imposed by the pore pressure and fracture pressure.
In this work, a computer program was designed to efficiently calculate the required back pressure term
needed to maintain the BHP constant between the pore pressure and the fracture pressure. The computer
software designed was used to determine the back pressure for both offshore and onshore wells at various
depths to verify the robustness of the software and its level of accuracy.
The economic impact of the work was also analyzed in respect to reduction of the general cost
associated with the NPT during drilling operations both onshore and offshore.
Keywords: Discovery Drilling Gas Oil Pollution

INTRODUCTION
Most of the worlds remaining prospects for hydrocarbon resources will be more challenging to drill than
those enjoyed in the past. In fact, many would argue that the easy ones have already been drilled. And with
oil prices where they are today, drilling safely and cost effectively while producing a good well in the
process could not be more important.
Considering all these, Managed Pressure Drilling should now be regarded as a technology that may
provide a noteworthy increase in cost-effective drill-ability by reducing excessive drilling-related costs
typically related with conventional offshore drilling, if most of the worlds remaining vision for oil and
gas being economically un-drillable with conventional techniques is to be taken into account.
Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) as a drilling technique is the result of the high costs of nonproductive time (NPT) caused by close proximity between formation pore pressures and fracture pressures

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which is common to offshore/deep-offshore, HPHT and depleted reservoirs as well as some land drilling
operations.
MPD is a general description of the methods for wellbore pressure management, which includes a
number of ideas that describes techniques and equipment developed to limit well kicks, lost circulation
and differential sticking, in an effort to reduce the number of additional casing strings required to reach
total depth.
A useful drilling technique is one that solves a real world problem in a cost effective manner with the
least impact on other elements of the drilling system. The usage of MPD variations in drilling through
narrow mud weight windows has increased drilling performance, mitigated drilling hazards, considerably
reduced drilling cost and made the drilling of reserves previously categorized as economically un-drillable
possible to drill.
The MPD method known as Constant Bottom Hole Pressure (CBHP) refer to a process whereby the
annular pressure in a well is held constant or near constant at a specific depth, with the mud pump on or
off. This means that the BHP is maintained within a window bounded by the pore and fracture pressure.
To achieve this precise control of the bottom-hole pressure, an additional back pressure is required from
the surface through a rotating choke device (RCD). The back pressure term is very critical to the success
of CBHP in Managed Pressure Drilling and it has become necessary that drilling engineers adopting this
technique have a tool that can properly estimate the back pressure needed to maintain CBHP.
Based on the problem already stated, the purpose of this work is to effectively estimate the required
back pressure needed to maintain constant bottom-hole pressure during drilling while using Managed
Pressure Drilling technique. This is to ensure the back pressure is known to a high degree of accuracy, so
as to successfully drill through formations with narrow mud weight window in the most time friendly and
cost efficient manner without compromise of safety and quality.
This work will encompass a general discussion of what Managed Pressure Drilling is all about and
would include the following;

Defining and explaining Managed Pressure Drilling techniques.

Analyzing the Constant Bottom Hole Pressure method of MPD.
Developing a tool for estimating the back pressure term required to maintain CBHP in MPD.
Economic impact of using the CBHP technique of MPD in drilling and the significance of
accurately knowing the back pressure term.
Recommending areas of further work to continuously improve the application of managed
pressure drilling.

A BRIFE BACKGROUND OF MANAGED PRESSURE DRILLING

A number of techniques under the present name of managed pressure drilling are not new, and as
individual items, many have been in use for many decades. A good example of this fact is the rotating
heads, which were described in the 1937 Shaffer Tool Company Catalogue. The present MPD technology
combines and formalizes new techniques with those historically used to deal with some of the most
common drilling problems such as well kicks and lost circulation (Rehm, B., et al, 2008).
Bill Rehm et al (2008) states that many of the ideas on which managed pressure drilling is predicated
were first formally presented in three Abnormal Pressure Symposiums at the Louisiana State University
between 1967 and 1972, where the origin and extent of abnormal pressures and how to predict pressures
and fracture gradients from available data were discussed.
Rehm, B., et al (2008) also states that Mud Cap Drilling which is a form of Managed Pressure Drilling
had been common for years and was known as drilling dry or drilling with no returns of which a more
formalized version was tried in Venezuela in the 1980s, in the Hibernia field off Nova Scotia in the 1990s
and later in Kazakhstan. Development of Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling with total lost returns was

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necessitated by the efforts to drill thousands of high pressure gas wells around the 1990s in the Austin
Chalk in Texas.

PRESSURE CONTROL
Generally, the MPD method known as Constant Bottom-hole Pressure refers to a process whereby the
annular pressure in a well is held constant or near constant at a specific depth, with the rig mud pumps
on or off. In this context, constant means maintaining BHP within a window bounded by an upper and
lower pressure limit. The difference between these limits is also known as the margin.
On the low side, the margin is normally bounded by the pore pressure and wellbore stability, whereas
on the high side, it can be bounded by differential sticking, lost circulation and fracture pressure.
This relationship can be represented mathematically as;

Where;
Pp pore pressure
Pwbs wellbore stability
BHP bottom hole pressure
Pds differential sticking pressure
Plc lost circulation pressure
Pf fracture pressure
Conventionally, the bottom-hole pressure is represented as;

Where
BHP Bottom Hole Pressure
Phydrostatic Hydrostatic Pressure exerted by the drilling fluid
PAPL Annular Pressure losses created by the circulating drilling fluid
The equation above /applies when the rig mud pumps are on and mud is circulating. However, when
the pumps are off or when circulation stops, PAPL 0 which makes the bottom-hole pressure equal to the
hydrostatic pressure alone.
Thus;

The equations given above represent the dynamic and static BHP in an open circulation system, where
the drilling fluid flows out of the wellhead through the surface piping open to atmospheric pressure. In
a closed system, the drilling fluid flows out of the wellhead under pressure.
In an open system, the only way to maintain ECD at dynamic BHP while the rig pumps are off is
through the use of a continuous circulation system. This inability to maintain a constant bottom-hole
pressure in an open system limits drilling to control pressure with only the Phydrostatic and PAPL.
Unlike an open circulation system in which the drilling fluid flows out of the well under atmospheric
pressure, a closed circulation system seals off the wellhead and applies surface back pressure to the fluid
in the annulus by restricting its flow through a choke manifold.
Thus, the bottom-hole pressure in a closed system becomes;

Where

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Pbp surface back pressure

So when the pump is off, we obtain;

It is through the control of this back pressure that the bottom-hole pressure is maintained at a constant
value from dynamic to static conditions (i.e, from pumps-on to pumps-off).

BACK PRESSURE CALCULATION

In this work, a computer program was designed to calculate the required back pressure for the constant
bottom-hole variation of MPD using Microsoft Excel 2007.
The annular pressure losses due to friction was calculated using the API 13D model (2003).
Mathematically,
Where
f friction factor
v velocity (in ft/s)
MW mud weight (in ppg)
D2 inner diameter of casing or diameter of hole (in inches)
D1 outer diameter of drill pipe or drill collar (in inches)
L length (in ft)
Also, the friction factor, f, for Laminar flow is given as;

And for turbulent flow;

Where
and
Flow behavior index,
Reynolds number,
Effective viscosity,
In addition, the flow velocity in ft/s is given as;

Where
Q flow rate (in gpm)
Since for effective drilling, the BHP must be within the pore and fracture pressure, then we have that;

Therefore,

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So,

Thus,

Using this relationship, the back pressure calculator is developed as shown below.

Figure 1SCREEN SHOT OF THE BACK PRESSURE CALCULATOR

The computer programs accuracy in calculating the back pressure required to maintain CBHP was
considered under the following cases:

Deep offshore drilling with a riser.

Drilling onshore.
Drilling surface holes with abnormal pressure profile offshore.
Drilling surface holes with abnormal pressure profile onshore.

The required back pressure is calculated when all the necessary parameters are provided and drilling
operations can be optimized by doing simulation and sensitivity analysis on;

Mud weight
Pump mud flow rate

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CASE ONE DEEP OFFSHORE WITH RISER

Figure 2Required Back Pressure For Case 1

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DRILLING ONSHORE

Figure 3REQUIRED BACK PRESSURE FOR CASE 2

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DRILLING SURFACE HOLE OFFSORE

Figure 4 REQUIRED BACK PRESSURE FOR CASE 4

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Figure 5POSSIBLE CAUSES OF DRILLING DOWNTIME

Figure 6 CAUSES OF DRILLING DOWNTIME IN ABNORMAL PRESSURE FORMATIONS

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ECONOMIC IMPACT
The various problems encountered during drilling can be categorized as shown in the diagram below.
The NPT which increases drilling cost in abnormal pressure formations include lost circulation, stuck
pipes, kicks, shallow water/gas and wellbore instability. All these problems are capable of increasing the
time spent on drilling by about 41%.
Considering a typical offshore rig that cost between 250,000USD to 500,000USD, an estimated
3,250,000USD to 6,500,000USD can be saved while drilling an offshore well by successfully using MPD
to eliminate the possible causes of MPD.

CONCLUSION
The Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) technique was studied and emphasis was

made on the Constant Bottom Hole Pressure (CBHP) variation.

A computer program was designed to calculate the required back pressure to
maintain CBHP.
The ability of the computer program to accurately estimate the back pressure for
various drilling cases was illustrated.
The economic impact on the general drilling cost of accurately obtaining the back
pressure and successfully applying CBHP variation of MPD was analyzed.
RECOMMENDATION
Further work should be done on accurately calculating the back pressure of the

CBHP variation of MPD using multiple models for the determination of the annular
pressure losses.
The suitability of this computer program to accurately calculate back pressure
should be verified in real time drilling operations.
The benefits of MPD in drilling should be highlighted by drilling engineers to
management.
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