Affiliation:
1. Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids
Abstract
Summary
A new water-based mud system was successfully introduced as a high-performance, environmentally compliant alternative to oil and synthetic emulsion-based muds (OBM/SBM). Historically, emulsion muds have been the systems of choice when drilling challenging onshore, continental shelf, and deepwater wells to minimize risk, maximize drilling performance, and reduce costs. However, environmental constraints, a high frequency of lost circulation, and the high unit cost of emulsion systems sometimes negate the benefits of their use. Conventional water-based muds (WBM) offer the benefits of environmental compliance, attractive logistics, and a relatively low unit cost but consistently fail to approach the drilling performance of OBM and SBM.
The new high-performance, water-based mud (HPWBM) is designed to close the significant drilling performance gap between conventional WBM and emulsion-based mud systems. The system has undergone extensive field testing on very challenging onshore, deepwater, and continental shelf wells that would otherwise have been drilled with oil or synthetic-based muds. This paper provides a detailed, technical overview of the new system, discusses its inherent environmental advantages, and presents case histories comparing performance to offset wells drilled with emulsion and conventional WBM systems.
Publisher
Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Cited by
21 articles.
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