New Method for Well Kick Tolerance Calculation

Abstract

Well kick is an important basic parameter in the well drilling operation, and it directly determines the Casing layers as well as casing depth. At the same time it also directly determines whether the well drilling will be performed continuously or whether the well-killing operation should be carried out in the well drilling process. Based on the current questions about the well kick tolerance values, the influence caused by several factors such as invasion amount of formation fluid, the distribution of formation fluid in the wellbore and the shut-in casing pressure should be taken into consideration. According to the annular multiphase flow theory, the well kick tolerance calculation model is brought out, besides the relationship between well kick tolerance and formation fluid permeability as well as formation pressure forecasting error is simulated and analyzed. Based on the above analysis it can be seen from the result that when the permeability increases, the well kick tolerance goes up by following the exponential function module. And when the formation pressure forecasting error increases, well kick tolerance goes up significantly. Therefore the simulation result could used to effectively direct the well structure design for complex deep wells.
Key words: Well kick tolerance; Casing depth; Permeability; Formation pressure; Well structure