WELL CONTROL

By:-Ashutosh gupta Under the guidance

Ayush Kumar
of:-V.K. BHALLA
Shubham sharma
Shashi agrawal
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
 killing a well
Introduction

Well control is the procedure of maintaining pressure on open

formation (that is exposed to the wellbore) to prevent or direct
the flow of formation fluids into the wellbore.

Or it’s to avoid this

situation
Introduction (cont.)

• Overbalance
Mud Hydrostatic Pressure > Formation
Pressure
• Underbalance
Mud Hydrostatic Pressure < Formation (Possible
Pressure Kick!)
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
 killing a well
Causes of Kicks
 Kicks:

• Any influx of formation fluids (oil, gas or water)

in the borehole is known as a kick.

• When a kick is taken, primary

control has been lost.

• An uncontrolled kick at the surface is called

a BlKoiwckou
blowout.
t
Causes of Kicks (cont.)

Kicks occur when “underbalance is

found”

Underbalance is caused by :
• Increase in Formation Pressure.
• Mud Hydrostatic Reduction.
Causes of Kicks (cont.)

What causes Mud Hydrostatic to

drop? Pressure = Mud Wt X TV
X Constant D

Reduce mud Reduce length

weight of mud
? column
? ?
? ?
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
1- Running into
bubbles
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
3-
Swabbing
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
4- Pumping Light
Mud

psi
Bottom Hole
Pressures
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
5- Loss of
Barite

Pit Hole
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
6- Lost
circulation

Well Under
Control (Normal
Condition)
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
6- Lost
circulation

Pressure Exert
On Upper
Formation
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
7- Pull Out of The Hole
Dry
Rig Floor

Flowline
Causes of Kicks (cont.)
8- Pull Out of The Hole
Wet
Rig Floor

Flowline
Causes of Kicks (cont.)

 Kick Prevention
 Monitor trips; in and out.
 Circulate bottoms up if in doubt of hole
condition.
 Monitor well at all times.
 Trip carefully in and out.
 Pump out if tight hole.
 Circulate through choke if a lot of gas is
expected.
 Keep mud in good shape.
 Always keep hole full.
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
 killing a well
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well control

You must have an idea of primary, secondary and tertiary

well control and the equipment used to detect the kicks or
any other problem.

Secondary
Control Tertiary
BOPs
Control
Primary Control
Control &Recovery
Mud Weight
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well control (cont.)

The well control system is designed to:

1. Detect a kick
2. Close-in the well at surface
3. Remove the formation fluid which has flowed into the
well
4. Make the well safe
1- Primary well control

 Mud Hydrostatic Pressure:

Mud Hydrostatic Pressure > Formation
Pressure
 2- Secondary well
control

BOP (Blowout Preventer)

Secondary control is activated only

to restore the primary well
control.
3- Tertiary well control:
• Tertiary control involves pumping substances into the wellbore to
try to physically stop the flow down hole.

• This may involve pumping cement with a high risk of having

to abandon the well afterwards.

• However, there is another method that may be employed,

called a
Barite Plug …
 3-Tertiary well control (cont.)
 Barite Plug:

• A barite plug is set by mixing a heavy slurry of barite in water

or diesel oil. It has to be kept moving while mixing and
pumping.

• Once the slurry is in position down hole and pumping stops,

the barite rapidly settles out to form an impermeable mass
that will hopefully stop the flow of formation fluid.
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
 killing a well
Blowout Preventer
stack
The primary function of the BOP is to
form a rapid and reliable seal around the
drill string or across the empty hole, so
as to control down hole pressures.

Note: it is installed after the surface

casing, before this a diverter is installed.
 Blowout Preventer stack (cont.)

There are two types of preventers:

1. Bag-type preventer (or annular preventer):

• Contains a large rubber seal, which is circular if
viewed from above and conical if viewed from the
side. This is held inside a steel chamber.
• Below the rubber element is a hydraulically operated
piston with a matching conical shape on top to fit
the rubber underside.
Blowout Preventer stack (cont.)

2. Ram-type preventer:
• The other type of preventer uses a pair of large steel rams that shut
under high hydraulic pressure, with great force.
• These rams are interchangeable and are of different types:
 Fixed pipe ram
 Variable bore pipe ram
 Blind rams
 Shear rams
 Blind-Shear rams
 Casing shear rams
Blowout Preventer stack (cont.)

 Choke Valves:
Below the rams are pipes that come out to the side.
These are called side outlets and are used to allow flow
out of or into the annulus during well killing operations.
Blowout Preventer stack (cont.)

 Subsea BOP systems:

• attached to the top of the surface
casing at the seabed.

• contains extra control systems

when compared to a surface BOP.
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
 killing a well
Kick Detection Equipment

There are two main kick detection systems that give a direct
indication of a kick:

1. Pit volume totalizer

2. Flow indicator
Kick Detection Equipment (cont.)

 The pit volume totalizer

PVT:
• It provides a readout showing the
total volume of drilling fluid held
on the surface.
• If this total increases, and the
increase is not due to the mud
engineer adding chemicals or
fresh mud to the system, a kick is
occurring.
Kick Detection Equipment (cont.)

 The flow indicator:

• This system consists of an instrument
attached to a paddle that sits in the flow
line from the annulus. This paddle is
pushed up by the returning mud stream.
If the flow rate increases, an alarm will
sound.
• However, the paddle-type flow indicator is
prone to false alarms because of cuttings
and other debris that may stick to the
paddle or build up underneath it.
Kick Warning Signs & Indicators

 Kick Warning
Drilled cuttings
Signs
1.ROP changes
• Less overbalance
• Softer rock
2.Hole condition
• Squeezing rock Nocked
• Torque / Drag / Fill or packed off
cutting
3.Data from Mud • Chlorides
• Gas • Shale
• Cuttings Property
• • Trip Monitor
Kick Warning Signs & Indicators (cont.)

 Major Warning Signs:

• Improper fill up or displacement during trips
• Connection gas
• Increased background gas
• Increased drilling rate ( known as Drilling Break or Fast
Break)
• Flowline mud temperature increase
• Increased chloride content of mud
• Increased drill string torque
• Increased drill string drag
• Increased number and size of cuttings
Kick Warning Signs & Indicators (cont.)

 Surface Kick Indicators

• Excess flow from the well when tripping
• Return flow rate increase when
pumping
• Pit gain
• Flow from well with pumps off
 Outlin
e
 Introduction
 Causes of Kicks
 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary well
control
 Blowout Preventer stack
 Kick Detection Equipment
killing a well
 Killing a well
•First, how to shut-in the well:
 Reason for Shut In:
1 To prevent blowout.
2 To allow pressure reading to be taken for kill mud
 Shut In Methods
1. Hard (Drilling / Trapping)
2. Soft (Drilling / Trapping)

Hard Vs Soft
- Quicker . - Slower & Reduces Water Hammer
- Less to Effect
Remember - Checks if choke line is Clean
 Killing a well (cont.)
Simplifying the Initial Phase of Killing the
well

Driller’s Method Wait and Weight

Volumetric Bullheading
Killing a well (cont.)

A- The Driller’s Method:

 The Driller`s method is one of the oldest well killing methods and it
was developed for shallow vertical wells.

 As time moved on, wells got deeper and went from vertical into
more inclined pathways.

 The method got further developed to overcome the new

challenges related to deviated well paths.
Killing a well (cont.)

A- The Driller’s Method Procedure:

 Removing Kick:
1. Kick detection
2. Stop mud pumps and rotation of the drill string rotation
3. Close the BOP
4. Monitor the shut-in pressure until it levels out – the
wellbore pressure is equal to formation pressure
5. Then open choke line and circulate the kick out through the
choke line to the separator/flare
Killing a well (cont.)

A- The Driller’s Method Procedure:

Another option is to reverse kill or bullhead, this is done by forcing
the kick back into the formation again.
Killing a well (cont.) SIDPP
psi
0

A- The Driller’s Method Mud Pump

Procedure:
- Two Circulation's: SICP
psi
0

1st Clean Out Influx

2nd Circulate Kill Mud

- After 1st Circulation

SIDPP = SICP
Killing a well (cont.)

B- Wait and Weight Method

• The Wait and Weight method kills the kick faster and keeps
wellbore and surface pressures lower than any other method.
• Requires good mixing facilities, full crews, and more supervision
than most other methods.
• Fluid weight is increased before circulation begins, hence the
name Wait and Weight.
Killing a well (cont.)

B- Wait and Weight Method Procedures:

1. Shut-in well after kick.
2. Record kick size and stabilize SIDPP and SICP, calculate kill
fluid density.
3. Pits are weighted up as other calculations are performed.
4. Once pits are weighted, start circulating kill weight fluid by
gradually bringing up the pump up to the kill rate while using
the choke to maintain constant casing pressure at the shut-in
value.
 Remember to hold pump rate constant.
Killing a well (cont.)

B- Wait and Weight Method Procedures:

5. Follow pressure chart/graph as kill fluid is pumped down the
string to bit.
6. Once kill fluid is at the bit/end of string, FCP should be realized.
7. Maintain constant FCP circulating pressure until the kill
fluid completely fills the well.
8. Shut down pump and check for flow, Close choke and
check pressures.
9. If no pressure is noted, open choke , open BOP.
Killing a well (cont.) Drillpipe
Pressure

Casing
0 psi
Pressure
B- Wait and Weight Method Mud Pump
Procedures:
0 psi
- One Circulation
- Pump kill mud from the
start