A Novel Automated Model for Evaluation of the Efficiency of Hole Cleaning Conditions during Drilling Operations

Abstract

Hole cleaning for the majority of vertical and directional drilling wells continues to be a substantial difficulty despite improvements in drilling fluids, equipment, field techniques, and academic and industrial research. Poor hole cleaning might cause issues such as stuck pipe incidents, drilling cuttings accumulation, torque and drag, the erratic equivalent circulating density in the annulus, wellbore instability, tight spots, and hole condition issues. In order to enable the real-time and automated evaluation of hole cleaning efficiency for vertical and directional drilling, the article’s objective is to develop a novel model for the cutting transport ratio (CTRm) that can be incorporated into drilling operations on a real-time basis. The novel CTRm model provides a robust indicator for hole cleaning, which can assess complications and enhance drilling efficiency. Moreover, the novel CTRm model was successfully tested and validated in the field for four wells. The results of the real-time evaluation showed that the novel model was capable of identifying the hole cleaning efficiency in a normal drilling performance for Well-C and a stuck pipe issue in Well-D. In addition, the novel CTRm improved the rate of penetration by 52% in Well-A in comparison to Well-B.