Wellbore Mud Invasion Depth Determination Method Based on Fluid Loss Experiment
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Wellbore Mud Invasion Depth Determination Method Based on Fluid Loss Experiment Cai Jun1,2, Sun Jian-meng3, Chen Yuanfang1, Liang Hao1 1 .School of Petroleum Engineering in China University of Petroleum. Qingdao 266580, Shandong, China; 2. Zhanjiang constituent company of CNOOC, Zhanjiang 524057 Guangdong, China; 3 .School of Geosciences in China University of Petroleum. Qingdao 266580, Shandong, China) e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT The density of the drilling fluid applied in the gas field A with high temperature and high pressure 3 (HPHT) located in the South China Sea can be up to 2.1 g / cm . This high density of the drilling fluid can cause reservoir pollution, damage and other issues. In order to determine the invasion depth by the drilling fluid, a multi-cores measurement of drilling fluid contamination experimental device under formation temperature and pressure conditions has been developed. First of all, based on the analysis of real time data of drilling fluid loss, the filtration law with three typical stages is proposed and a drilling fluid loss calculation model is developed. Second, a new model which can calculate the fluid filtration inversion under the wellbore conditions is developed by using Darcy flow characteristics and fluid filtration equation. Finally, the new built model is applied to calculate the filtration invasion depth of the drilling fluid under wellbore conditions. The results are compared with those obtained from the resistivity inversion. The comparison proves the efficiency and accuracy of the new model. KEYWORDS: Mud filtration; filtration law; three stages; invasion depth; Darcy law INTRODUCTION During the reservoir exploration and development, drilling fluid invasion can cause formation damage problems. The invasion of the solid particles and filtration fluid can be influenced by different factors such as rock pore structures, formation soaking time and reservoir development environment. Till now, many mathematical models have been developed to determine the invasion depth. Fan et al. [1-5] discussed the damage caused by the drilling fluid and its impact on the effectiveness of oil exploration and development. Also Fan et al. [1-5] proposed the damage radius- permeability reservoir model to evaluate the formation damage. Based on the principle of chemical analysis, Li [6] proposed a method to determine the invasion of the fluid by calculating the changes of ion content from the test oil. Zhang et al. [7-11] analyzed the changes of the electrical and physical performance due to the invasion and predicted the invasion depth by applying the bilateral logging and other engineering data. Yu et al. [12] calculated the drilling fluid invasion radius based on test oil and well logging. By using radial friction and mass conservation equations, Wang and Yan [13] - 9973 - Vol. 21 [2016], Bund. 25 9974 deduced a model to quantify the invasion of solid particles and filtration fluid under the consideration of mud cake. These studies provide different methods to calculate the invasion depth. However, these methods are based on the traditional theory of drilling mud invasion model, which can not accurately predict the invasion characteristics under the real wellbore conditions. In this study, we carried out the filtration tests for core samples with different permeability and recorded the filtration in real time. Based on the assumption that the liquid be regarded as Newtonian fluids, function of fluid invasion amount, invasion depth, permeability and pressure difference is developed. Thus, the invasion depth of the drilling fluid can be determined by the amount of fluid filtration estimated by the exposure time. Gas filed A is a high temperature and high pressure gas filed in the South China Sea. Drilling fluid with high density (up to 2.1 g / cm3 ) was applied in the development of this gas filed. This high density makes the reservoir exploration to face the risk of the formation damage. In order to determine the invasion depth under wellbore reservoir conditions, a multi-cores measurement of drilling fluid contamination experimental device was developed. First, the filtration volume in real time during the experiment was recorded, and the dynamic filtration characteristics were identified by analyzing the experiment data. A new invasion calculation model was built considering three stages. Thus, the amount of filtration loss under wellbore conditions was obtained by applying the Darcy flow characteristics and fluid filtration equation. Finally, the volume method was used to calculate the invasion radius of the drilling fluid under wellbore conditions. Also, the calculated results were compared with those obtained by using resistivity inversion. The comparison shows the accuracy of the drilling fluid filtrate loss model based on the three -stages drilling fluid law. THREE-SECTION FILTRATION LAW AND NEW MODEL FOR FILTRATION LOSS Gas field A with high temperature and pressure can be easily influenced by the filtration and have formation damage problem. In this study, drilling fluid filtration experiments were conducted on different cores under formation pressure and temperature conditions. The amount of filtration was recorded in the real time. 5 DF-11(17.36md)filtration volume 4 DF-2(0.87md)filtration volume DF-13-1(29.5md)filtration volume DF-14-1(34.98md)filtration volume 3 filtration volume,ml 2 1 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 root of time, min1/2 Figure 1: Relation diagrams of mud filtrates and mud invasion time Vol. 21 [2016], Bund. 25 9975 As shown in the Fig.1, a linear relationship can be found between the filtration volume and root of exposure time. When t is less than 2.5 min, this linear relationship is not obvious. However, when t is greater than 2.5 min, filtration volume changes linearly as t increases. The slope of the linear part does not change until t is larger than 25 min. Based on the filtration characteristics illustrated above, the filtration process can be divided into three stages, namely Section A, Section B and Section C as shown in Fig.2. Section A can be regarded as the instant filtration section and in this section, no linear relationships can be found between the filtration and t . In Section B and Section C, filtration volume changes linearly with t , and the slope in Section C is larger than Section B. 5 DF-11(17.36md)filtration volume 4 DF-2(0.87md)filtration volume DF-13-1(29.5md)filtration volume DF-14-1(34.98md)filtration volume 3 filtration volume,ml 2 B C A 1 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 root of time, min1/2 Figure 2: Three steps of mud filtrate change with invasion time Fig.2 shows the drilling fluid filtration in gas field A can change with time in three stages, and the total amount of the drilling fluid filtration volume is the sum of the filtration volume of each stage. Based on the change of three stages, the new model to calculate the filtration loss is built as shown below: Q = Q + Q + Q (1) Based on the analysis of experimentTOTAL data, filtrationA BvolumeC of Section A has no relationship with t . However, when t equals to 2.5min, a power law relation exists between filtration and permeability. The parameters in the power law function depend on the permeability of the core samples. By considering the reality that t normally is larger than 2.5 min, we can characterize the instant filtration volume at t equals to 2.5min as the input model for Section A, which can be described as: Q = 0.1483 × k . , k (0.1,1.5) (2) 1. 0828 ( ) Q A = 0.2103 × k , k ∈ [1.5,10. ) 3 0.2213 ( ) QA = 0.1483 × k , k ∈ [10. ,100) 4 0 1091 A ∈ Vol. 21 [2016], Bund. 25 9976 For the Section B ( t is less than 20), the filtration volume changes linearly with t and the slope of the linear part is influenced by the permeability of the core sample, the filtration volume of section B can be calculated as: Q = Q + × ( t 2.5) (5) . = 0.0425 × k filtration A where . α √ − 0 109 For αthe Section C ( t is larger than 20), the amount of the drilling fluid invasion is linearly changed with t and the slope is also related to the permeability of the core sample as in section B. Compared with Section B, the slope in section C is larger. Eq. (6) can be used to calculate the filtration volume in C Section: Q = Q + × (20 2.5) + × ( t 20) (6) . = 0.0425filtration× k A, = 0.0148 × ln(k) + 0.0544 . Where, α − β √ − 0 109 α β CALCULATION OF DRILLING FILTRATION AND DEPTH OF INVASION UNDER WELLBORE CONDITIONS Drilling fluid loss is a penetration process. Under the actual wellbore conditions, the principle of drilling fluid filtrates into the formation can be regarded same as the principle of reservoir fluid flows through the porous medium, both them are based on the Darcy law. Normally, it assumes that the drilling fluid is incompressible with a constant thickness value, the permeability of the cake is constant and the liquid phase (filtration fluid) is a Newtonian fluid. Thus, under the wellbore conditions, the fluid filtration rate can be described by Darcy's law under as shown in Eq. 7: = (7) Q A∆p Then the static filtration and dynamic filtrationt canℎmc be derived as shown below: Q = A 2 p( 1) (8) √ ∆ − √ �Q = k (9) ∆pt The dynamic filtration equation (Eq. 9) describes that∙ under the differential pressure ∆p , the fluid with viscosity flows through the sample with the cross-sectional area A and sand column length L during time t, the total flow volume is Q. When the permeability and the column length is constant, , and at the same value of ∆p and t the fluid filtration volume is proportional to the cross section area.