Published: 06/15/2019
Published: 06/15/2019
After drilling several horizontal wells in Argentina, Total wanted to use the recovered synthetic-based mud to drill the next well. However, the mud contained more than 10% LGS that could not be eliminated mechanically by traditional solids-control equipment due to the small size of the solids incorporated in the mud.
Unconventional wells in the region are designed with lateral sections of 6,562 ft [2,000 m] or more drilled with mud densities from 1.7 sg [14.2 lbm/galUS] to 2 sg [16.7 lbm/galUS].
In this configuration, the control of ECD and circulating pressures is a challenge and the increase of plastic behavior caused by the accumulation of ultrafine solids had resulted in significant dilution rates while drilling previous wells, causing elevated mud costs.
For operations in Argentina, the technology was set up as a trailer-mounted unit to deliver fast and flexible treatments, offline or directly on the active mud system according to customers’ needs.
The effective duration of the offline treatment was 70 h. The savings Total generated by the treatment were more than USD 90,000 in dilution.
Challenge: Significantly reduce or eliminate low-gravity solids (LGS) that could not be removed by traditional solids-control equipment.
Solution: Performed offline treatment of the contaminated mud volume using the proprietary RHE-USE two-stage centrifuge system.
Results: Generated more than USD 90,000 in dilution savings by reducing LGS content from more than 10% to less than 3%.
