Risk Due to Pipe Sticking

Abstract

A stuck pipe is a common worldwide drilling problem in terms of time and financial cost. It causes significant increases in non-productive time and losses of millions of dollars each year in the petroleum industry. There are many factors affecting stuck pipe occurrence such as improper mud design, poor hole cleaning, differential pressure, key seating, balling up of bit, accumulation of cuttings, poor bottom hole assembly configuration, etc. The causes of a stuck pipe can be divided into two categories: (a) differential sticking and (b) mechanical sticking. Differential-pressure pipe sticking occurs when a portion of the drill string becomes embedded in a filter cake that forms on the wall of a permeable formation during drilling. Mechanical sticking is connected with key seating, formation-related wellbore instability, wellbore geometry (deviation and ledges), inadequate hole cleaning, junk in hole, collapsed casing, and cement related problems. Stuck pipe risk could be minimized by using available methodologies for stuck pipe prediction and avoiding based on available drilling parameters.