Importance of Hydraulic Planning Prior to Drilling a Well
There are multiple components that go into planning and designing a successful plan. But the importance of the Hydraulic Planning cannot be ignored as it alone can be a determining factor whether or not the well will reach planned TD. But the hydraulics don’t only allow for the well to reach TD, but also affects the efficiency of the BHA, cuttings removal, lubrication, bit efficiency, bit temperature, balancing formation pressures, well control, surge and swab, and many more important components.
Considering the full picture, planning and design of drilling hydraulics helps reduce non-productive time and cost. So, it is imperative to create a well-rounded hydraulics design.
Hydraulic simulators play an important part in designing the drilling hydraulics for a well. This design must be updated while drilling and hydraulics simulators with their rapid calculations allow the engineers to update their plans while drilling. A good simulator should include an accurate transient well model that calculates;
- Pressures — ECD’s
- Hole cleaning, cuttings carrying index, annular velocity
- Temperature
- Surge and Swab
- Kick management and well control
- Rheology
- Pore and Fracture pressures, etc.
All these components must be used together to provide an accurate hydraulics design for successful and efficient drilling operations. DrillSoft software packages deliver the tools necessary to create a transient hydraulics plan for all sections of the well. The efficient algorithms allow the user to rapidly obtain accurate results and also update the results based on new data from the well.
The software contains 5 graphs that plot pressures: ECDs, Temperature, Hole Cleaning Properties and Trends, which work together to provide an accurate plan. A well schematic that is updated real-time throughout the simulation is located on the left to provide a visual about what is going on in the well.
The configuration button allows the user to easily input the formation, well, tubulars, fluids specifications. After the well, a simple simulation can be run by inputting a pump rate hitting the play button.
Drillsoft HDX, HDX+ and PMCD software also allow the user to save all data from the simulation. It also generates configuration, hydraulics design, roll-over, batch-mode, well control, PMCD, Influx Management Envelope reports.
These reports and many other reports that can be generated from the Drillsoft software packages create the full transient hydraulics plan and design for a well.
Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂
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