DIRECTIONAL DRILLING HYDRAULICS OPTIMIZATION USING CONVENTIONAL AND NANOBASED DRILLING FLUIDS

📄 Project Abstract

During drilling operations, special attention must be given to wellbore hydraulics to ensure functional, safe, economic, and environmentally responsible delivery of the well. The Hydraulics system shares common purposes with the drilling fluid, it helps to control subsurface pressures, remove cuttings from the well, clean the bit, size the pump, increase the rate of penetration, and minimize surge and swab pressures. Hydraulics optimization is an attempt to maximize the pressure drop across the bit by minimizing the parasitic pressure losses. A properly designed hydraulic system will help to improve drilling efficiency and lower drilling time and cost. This thesis examines hydraulics optimization using conventional drilling fluids and nano-based drilling fluids. Nanofluids are specialized fluids obtained by careful combination of nanoparticles and a base fluid. The nanoparticles are particles with an average diameter of less than 100nm. They possess unique characteristics that differen...