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IPTC-19003-MS

DEVELOPMENT OF HYDRAULIC MODEL FOR FOAM DRILLING IN

VERTICAL WELLS
Seydou Sinde, Petroservices GmbH, Egypt Branch; Eissa Shokir, and Abdel Sattar Dahab, Cairo University,
Faculty of Engineering, Petroleum Department

Copyright 2016, International Petroleum Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, 1416 November 2016.

This paper was selected for presentation by an IPTC Programme Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s).
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Abstract
Foam is commonly used for UBD (underbalanced drilling) because of its low variable densities;
which make adjustment of its densities possible in order to keep control of the circulating
bottomhole pressures, and because of its high effective viscosities; which give a superior
cuttings lifting and transport ability. Foam is also used to transport formation fluids that enter
the borehole while underbalance-drilling. This paper is intended to propose an improved
computer program in the VISUAL BASIC language that can be used to better simulate the foam
hydraulics for vertical wells. The developed model considers foam as a Non-Newtonian power-
law fluid in spite of the dispute that still persists among the researchers. Results of the proposed
model revealed that the foam flow is affected by the injection pressures, injection flow rates,
bottomhole temperatures, ROP (Rate of Penetration), cutting sizes and densities, fluid influxes
and the surface back-pressures. The model also proposes a try-and-error procedure to initially
determine the best selections of the injection pressures and the injection rates for both liquid and
gas. The model evaluation was tested by running the program on two field wells drilled
underbalanced with foam in the Middle East with an absolute average error of less than 2.6 %
for the first well and with an absolute average error of less than 10.9 % for the second well.

1. Introduction
Several proposed models of foam rheology have been published in the literature with different
contradictory conclusions (Ozcan, B., Luis, A., and Watson, R., 2007, Ahmed, R., Ergun, K.,
and Arild, S., 2008, Osunde, O., and Kuru, E., 2008, Cheng, R., and Wang, R., 2008,
Nosakhare, O. I., 2012, and Ali, R. E., 2013). In fact, the disagreement between the researchers
over the adoption of the exact flow type of the foam results in the necessity to extensively
conduct more studies on foam to determine the ranges of occurrence of each flow type. In
correspondence with these challenges, this paper is intended to propose an improved hydraulic
model that considers the Power-Law flow principals to address the rheological characterizations
and cuttings transport with foam fluids for vertical wells.