As oil well drilling encountered more and more difficult conditions, hole problems finally became undeniably associated with excessive drilled solids. Many years ago, a controversy raged concerning the effect of drilled solids on the cost of a well. Many thought that drilled solids were beneficial as an inexpensive substitute for weighting agents. Frequently, production horizons near the surface were normally pressured and could be drilled with unweighted drilling fluids. Usually, these drilling conditions were relatively trouble free, and a poor-quality drilling fluid was used for drilling. Of course, drilling performances and well productivity could be enhanced with better-quality drilling fluids, but those effects were difficult to quantify. As these areas graduated from unweighted drilling fluids to weighted drilling fluids, better drillingfluid properties were required to prevent trouble. The primary problem was that large quantities of drilled solids were intolerable. The drilling trouble costs could easily be traced to failure to limit drilled-solids concentration. This provided the impetus for most drilling rigs to upgrade their surface systems handling drilling fluids. The benefits of a clean drilling fluid have been well stated in previous chapters and have been well validated.
SOLIDS REMOVAL EQUIPMENT EFFICIENCY
The term solids removal equipment efficiency is frequently used to describe solids-control equipment performance. This term may be somewhat confusing. American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practice (RC) 13C, ‘‘Solids Control,’’ refers to the solids-removal process in terms of system performance.
EFFECT OF POROSITY
Thus, 10 bbl of formation solids arrive at the surface. However, consider drilling 10 bbl of hole. Ground rock occupies the same volume as the rock before it is drilled. If a drilled formation has a 10% pore volume, or porosity, the rock added is 9 bbl and the volume of fluid in the pore space is 1 bbl. If the fluid in the pore space is liquid, no volume change will occur when the formation is ground into small pieces and enters the drilling fluid. The pit levels remain constant except for the volume of the drill string added to drill the hole. If the fluid space is filled with gas the pit levels decrease as the gas is liberated at the surface. The pit levels decrease only by the volume removed from the system by the solids control equipment.
DILUTE DRILLING FLUID
Dilution refers to the process of adding a liquid phase to a drilling fluid to decrease the drilled-solids concentration. Dilution is used in several ways. If no solids-control equipment is used or if the equipment is used ineffectively, dilution may be the principal method of keeping drilled solids to a reasonably low level. This is an expensive solution to the problem. For example, to decrease drilled solids by 50% requires that 50% of the system be discarded and replaced with clean drilling fluid. Usually dilution is used after processing by solids-removal equipment to dilute drilled solids remaining in the drilling fluid. Dilution may be added as a clean drilling fluid or as the liquid phase of a drilling fluid with the other necessary drilling fluid ingredients, usually through a chemical barrel and a mud hopper. In this discussion, dilution will refer specifically to the clean drilling fluid necessary to decrease drilled-solids concentration. Clean drilling fluid is the liquid phase with all necessary additives such as barite, polymers, clay, etc.