Cement placement plays an important role in the primary cementing process. There are several best practices in place which are believed to have significant impact on the quality of the overall cement job. Previous investigations suggest that a combination of multiple placement techniques, such as density and rheology gradient coupled with proper displacement rates, pipe rotation or reciprocation, conditioning of drilling fluid prior to cement job, pipe centralization, and bottom plugs, improves the chances of a successful cement job. However, there is little quantitative analysis available to demonstrate the importance of each technique independently in the field.

In the past 15 years, operations in offshore Atlantic Canada have cemented 140-mm and 178-mm liners in 216-mm openhole sections in two different reservoirs. The cementing designs for the liners are similar, especially in terms of flow rate, centralization (type or placement), and spacer train, but differ in pipe rotation, mud conditioning, and bottom plugs. Once the cementation process is executed, it is evaluated by an ultrasonic imaging tool, which measures the acoustic impedance to calculate the cement bond index. The average of the cement bond index for the entire liner is then used to quantify the quality of the cement job for each well.

The average cement bond index obtained from 53 wells was used to evaluate various cement placement techniques. The average cement bond index is proportional to the amount of cement bonded to the pipe and is inferred to be proportional to factors related to mud removal and cement placement. Factors that affect mud removal, such as mud conditioning, annular velocity, pipe movement, wellbore characteristics, and the presence of a bottom plug, are investigated. Statistical analysis of the cement bond index indicates that some of these cement placement techniques affect mud removal significantly more than others. A comprehensive analysis of these results and an assessment of potential benefits are presented in this study. The results of the study were used to improve the cement job design.