Dynamic Kill of Underground Blowouts
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DYNAMIC KILL OF UNDERGROUND BLOWOUTS ALVARO F. NEGRÃO, PETROBRAS VICTOR GERARDO VALLEJO-ARRIETA, PEMEX ADAM T. BOURGOYNE, JR. LSU JOHN ROGERS SMITH, LSU Table of Contents Non - Newtonian Kill Fluids ................................................. 47 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................... 3 Reservoir Model..................................................................... 53 Formation Fluid Rate Determination.................................... 54 Global Solution Scheme......................................................... 56 INTRODUCTION ............................................ 4 CONCLUSIONS......................................................................... 67 NOMENCLATURE ................................................................... 67 CONCEPT................................................................................... 4 SUMMARY ................................................................................. 8 STEADY-STATE DYNAMIC KILL COMPUTER MODEL FOR DYNAMIC KILL COMPUTER PROGRAM ............................. 71 OF AN UNDERGROUND BLOWOUT COMPUTER PROGRAM IMPLEMENTING THE CONSIDERING FRACTURE PROCEDURE............................................................................. 71 PROPAGATION ............................................. 9 Work Sheet Descriptions...................................................... 71 Input Data................................................................................ 73 INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 9 Potential Applications of the Program................................ 74 GAS RESERVOIR MODEL........................................................ 10 Example Application to Dynamic Kill of an Actual WELLBORE MODEL............................................................... 11 Surface Blowout ..................................................................... 74 THE INDUCED FRACTURE MODEL...................................... 17 Example Application to Dynamic Kill of an Actual VERTICAL FRACTURE INITIATION..................................... 17 Underground Blowout........................................................... 76 FRACTURE EXTENSION MODEL.......................................... 18 SUMMARY ANALYSIS OF RESULTS..................................... 82 GLOBAL CALCULATION PROCEDURE................................. 24 CONCLUSIONS......................................................................... 83 LEAK OFF VOLUME CORRELATION .................................... 25 Description of the experimental apparatus......................... 25 CONCLUSIONS AND Experimental Procedure ......................................................... 26 RECOMMENDATIONS................................ 84 RESULTS................................................................................... 28 CONCLUSIONS......................................................................... 32 CONCLUSIONS......................................................................... 84 Time-dependent Model accounting for Fracture STEADY-STATE DYNAMIC KILL Extension Pressure ................................................................. 84 METHODS..................................................... 34 Steady-state Model................................................................ 85 RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................. 85 PUBLISHED STEADY STATE FLOW MODELS.................... 34 ACKNOWLEDGMENT............................................................. 86 E. M. Blount and E. Soeiinah (1981)7................................... 34 R. D. Lynch et al. (1981)8 ....................................................... 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................... 87 W. L. Koederitz, F.E. Beck, J.P. Langlinais and A. T. Bourgoyne Jr. (1987)9............................................................. 37 G. E. Kouba, G. R. MacDougall, and B. W. Schumacher TIME-DEPENDENT DYNAMIC KILL (1993)10 ..................................................................................... 38 PROGRAM..................................................... 90 Dhafer A. Al-Shehri (1994)11................................................. 39 P. Oudeman, and D. Mason (1998)12.................................... 40 Kill volume............................................................................... 41 STEADY-STATE DYNAMIC KILL Michael Wessel, and Brian Tarr (1991)13 ............................ 41 SPREADSHEET FOR SURFACE MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND METHODOLOGY FOR BLOWOUTS................................................. 124 STEADY-STATE DYNAMIC KILL ANALYSIS...................... 42 DYNAMIC KILL MATHEMATICAL MODEL....................... 42 Model Assumptions.............................................................. 44 STEADY-STATE DYNAMIC KILL Wellbore Model...................................................................... 44 SPREADSHEET FOR Newtonian Kill Fluids ............................................................ 45 UNDERGROUND BLOWOUTS ................. 125 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chapter 1 Executive Summary This LSU study was funded by the Minerals Management Services, U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., under Contract Number 14-35-001-30749. This report has not been reviewed by the Minerals Management Service and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views and policy of the Service, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. his report describes the work performed for Task 8 - Requirements for Dynamic Kill of Underground Blowouts. This task was part of the 1994 –1999 LSU/MMS well control research project focused on underground blowouts. Dynamic kills have been successfully T used to control both surface and underground blowouts. Therefore this task related to improved modeling of dynamic kills for underground blowouts. The original goals of Task 8 were to modify a dynamic kill simulator that was developed in a previous project to include a hydraulic fracture model, to design and conduct an experimental test of the fracture model, and to initiate technology transfer activities for dynamic kills. These goals were met and are described in Chapter 3. A program listing for the dynamic kill simulator is included as Appendix A. The primary conclusions from conducting this work are that the new model predicts a lower minimum mud flow rate to control an underground blowout than the current models, is significantly more difficult to use and maintain than previous time-dependent and steady-state models, and provides a more exact prediction of pressure versus time during a kill than current models. Steady-state models have also been widely used as a basis for design and analysis of dynamic kills. Given the difficulty in using and maintaining the new time-dependent simulator, steady-state methods are described in Chapter 4. A steady-state method was implemented in ExcelTM spreadsheets to design and analyze dynamic kills for both surface and underground blowouts. Application of the spreadsheets to actual examples of surface and underground blowouts are described in Chapter 5. The resulting conclusions are that the spreadsheets provide reasonable estimates of steady-state pressures and flows to be expected during kill operations and that the quality of the estimates could be improved by implementing a power-law rheology model and by accounting for the measured depth in directional wells. The spreadsheets are included as Appendices B and C to this report. 3 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 Introduction The Minerals Management Service is concerned about reducing the potential for surface and underground blowouts because Congress has mandated that MMS is responsible for worker safety and environmental protection. he 1994 –1999 LSU/MMS well control research project was proposed by Bourgoyne and Kelly1 to focus on the development of improved procedures for detecting and handling underground blowouts in marine environments. Task 8 of the project was proposed to T consider dynamic kills of underground blowouts. The original proposal stated that “the current model used for contingency planning of dynamic kill operations often does not perform satisfactorily for a case involving an underground blowout because it is necessary to assume that the pressure in the fracture is independent of kill rate. Subtask 8a would involve the modification of a dynamic kill computer simulator that was developed in a previous project to include a representative hydraulic fracture model and the design of an experimental test for verifying the model in our research well. Subtask 8b would involve conducting the experimental test and initiating technology transfer activities.1” The work performed for these tasks is described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes additional work on a simplified dynamic kill calculation method implemented in an Excel� spreadsheet. While this method does not include the hydraulic fracture model, it is more practical to run and maintain than the simulator. Chapter 5 compares results from the spreadsheet method to other published methods used in analyzing a surface blowout and to data recorded during kills of both surface and underground blowouts. Concept The dynamic kill is a relatively new technique. It was formalized by Mobil Oil Corporation and was first reported by Blount and Soeiinah7. The method was designed to control an Arun field surface