A Practical Technique to Estimate the Formation Thickness of a Kicking Zone

Abstract

Characterization of formation while drilling continues to be a challenge to the engineers. When a well kicks while drilling, evaluation of pore pressure and the corresponding kill mud density is of critical importance for the safety of the drilling crew and mechanical integrity of the wellbore. Besides the estimation of these parameters, it will be beneficial to estimate the thickness of the kicking formation prior to drilling. This helps to drill safely and carefully through the potentially active kicking formation. In this paper, it is shown how to calculate the thickness of the kicking zone with the limited information available at the time of an oil/gas kick. A method of data analysis (obtained on a kicking well) to estimate the formation thickness of the kicking zone is presented. Illustrative examples including actual field cases are described and analyzed.