Well Bore Instability Analysis
Well Bore Instability Analysis
Well Bore Instability Analysis
Abstract
Since early 1980s, the oil and gas industry has committed a huge amount of resources towards solving
the problem of wellbore instability. Investments in wellbore stability studies are justified by the
reduction in drilling and field development costs associated with a stable wellbore. A lot of progress
has been made so far. However, wellbore instability continues to present a considerable challenge
during well construction operations. The causes of instability and the mechanism of instability
especially in shale formations have been studied over the years by several researchers. The results of
their experimental and field experiences lead to varying conclusions and differing opinions. This
work reviews existing technologies and practices within the industry directed towards understanding
the causes of, predicting, preventing, and controlling wellbore instability; highlighting in the process,
their limitations and making relevant suggestions. Field examples also provided to buttress some
points.
Wellbore instability is one of the key problems that engineers encounter during drilling. Often, field
instances of instability are a result of a combination of both chemical and mechanical factors, the
former resulting from the failure of the rock around the hole due to high stresses, low rock strength,
or inappropriate drilling practice and the latter arising from damaging interactions between the rock,
generally shale, and the drilling fluid. The increasing demand for wellbore stability analyses during
the planning stage of a field arise from economic considerations and the increasing use of deviated,
extended reach and horizontal wells, all of which are highly susceptible to the problem. This paper
presents a review of the causes, symptoms, prevention, associated consequences, types and
respective problems and the principle behind the problem of wellbore instability in oil well drilling.
I - INTRODUCTION
Drilling operation in the oil and gas industry is a challenging task. The drilling stem and the drill
bit must be tough enough to bore holes into different layers of strata in the formation and withstand
high temperature, pressure, shock and abrasion from the formation. The drilling mud must meet all
the criteria necessary for the drilling operation to be successful. Some layers in the formation like
shale, fractured and abnormally high pressured formations are problematic and require a great deal
of technicality.
Wellbore instability is a natural function of the unequal mechanical stress and physio-chemical
interactions, and pressures created when support in material and surfaces are exposed in the
drilling process of the well. Wellbore instability (WI) is recognised when the hole diameter is
markedly different from the bit size and the hole does not maintain its structural integrity.
Succinctly put, an over guage or under gauge hole implies wellbore instability. For oil and gas
wells to be successfully completed, it is imperative to formulate mud of an adequate mud weight
to maintain hole stability, avoid formation fluid influx into the wellbore and minimize mud loss
to the formation.
Unexpected or unknown behaviour of rock is often the cause of drilling problems, resulting in an
expensive loss of time, sometimes in a loss of part or all of the borehole. Borehole stability is a
continuing problem which results in substantial yearly expenditures by the petroleum industry.
As a result, a major concern of the drilling engineers is keeping the borehole wall from caving
in. Detailed attention is paid to drilling fluid programs, casing programs, and operating
procedures in drilling a well to minimize these costly problems Wellbore instability has
become an increasing concern for horizontal and extended reach wells, especially with the move
towards completely open hole lateral section, and in some cases, open hole build-up section
through shale cap rocks. More recent drilling innovations such as underbalanced drilling
techniques ,high pressure jet drilling, re-entry horizontal wells and multiple laterals from a single
vertical or horizontal well often give rise to challenging wellbore stability question.
In many cases, the selection of an optimal strategy to prevent or mitigate the risk of wellbore
collapse might compromise one or more of the other elements in the overall well design, e.g.,
drilling rate of penetration, the risk of differential sticking, hole cleaning ability, or formation
damage. For drilling situations, it is therefore desirable to apply integrated predictive methods that
can, for instance, help to optimize the mud density, chemistry, rheology, the selection of filter cake
building additives, and possibly temperature. Sensitivity studies can also help assess if there is any
additional risk due to the selected well trajectory and inclination. Wellbore stability predictive
models may also be used to design appropriate completions for inflow problems where hole
collapse and associated sand production are concerned. For example, in highly permeable and
weakly cemented sandstones, such predictive tools can be used to decide whether a slotted or
perforated liner completion would be preferred over leaving a horizontal well completely open
hole.
Wellbore instability manifests itself in different ways like hole pack off, excessive reaming,
overpull, torque and drag, sometimes leading to stuck pipe that may require plugging and side
tracking. This requires additional time to drill a hole, driving up the cost of reservoir development
significantly. In case of offshore fields, loss of hole is more critical due to a limited number of
holes that can be drilled from a platform. Wellbore instability is usually caused by a combination of
factors which may be broadly classified as being either controllable or uncontrollable (natural) in
origin. These factors are shown in table
A. Uncontrollable factors :
1. Naturally fractured or faulted formations: A natural fracture system in the rock can often
be found near faults. Rock near faults can be broken into large or small pieces. If they are loose,
they can fall into the wellbore and jam the string in the hole . Even if the pieces are bonded
together, impacts from the BHA due to drill string vibrations can cause the formation to fall into
the wellbore. This type of sticking is particularly unusual in that stuck pipe can occur while
drilling. Fig. 1 shows possible problems that result drilling a naturally fractured or faulted
system. This mechanism can occur in tectonically active zones, in prognosed fractured limestone,
and as the formation is drilled. Drill string vibrations have to be minimized to help stabilize these
formations. Hole collapse problems may become quite severe if weak bedding planes intersect a
wellbore at unfavourable angles. Such fractures in shales may provide a pathway for mud or fluid
invasion that can lead to time-depended strength degradation, softening and ultimately to hole
collapse. The relationship between hole size and the fracture spacing will be important in such
formations.
3. High in-situ stresses: Anomalously height in-situ stresses, such as may be found in the vicinity of
salt domes, near faults, or in the inner limbs of a folds may give rise to wellbore instability. Stress
concentrations may also occur in particularly stiff rocks such as quartzose sandstones or
conglomerates. Only a few case histories have been described in the literature for drilling problems
caused by local stress concentrations, mainly because of the difficulty in measuring or estimating
such in situ stresses.
4. Mobile formations: The mobile formation squeezes into the wellbore because it is being
compressed by the overburden forces. Mobile formations behave in a plastic manner, deforming
under pressure. The deformation results in a decrease in the wellbore size, causing problems of
running BHA´s, logging tools and casing (Fig. 3). A deformation occurs because the mud weight is
not sufficient to prevent the formation squeezing into the wellbore [16]. This mechanism normally
occurs while drilling salt. An appropriate drilling fluid and maintaining sufficient drilling fluid
weight are required to help stabilize these formations.
6. Naturally Over-Pressured Shale Collapse: Naturally over-pressured shale is the one with a
natural pore pressure greater than the normal hydrostatic pressure gradient. Naturally over-
pressured shales are most commonly caused by geological phenomena such as under-compaction,
naturally removed overburden and uplift (Fig. 5). Using insufficient mud weight in these
formations will cause the hole to become unstable and collapse This mechanism normally occurs in
prognosed rapid depositional shale sequences. The short time hole exposure and an adequate
drilling fluid weight can help to stabilize these formations.
Controllable factors
1.Bottom hole pressure (mud density): Depending upon the application, either the bottom hole
pressure, the mud density or the equivalent circulating density (ECD), is usually the most important
determinant of whether an open wellbore is stable (Fig. 7 and Fig. 8). The supporting pressure
offered by the static or dynamic fluid pressure during either drilling, stimulating,working over or
producing of a well, will determine the stress concentration present in the near wellbore
vicinity.Because rock failure is dependent on the effective stress the consequence for stability is
highly dependent on whether and how rapidly fluid pressure penetrate the wellbore wall.
That is not to say however, that high mud densities or bottom hole pressures are always optimal for
avoiding instability in a given well. In the absence of an efficient filter cake, such as in fractured
formations, a rise in a bottom hole pressure may be detrimental to stability and can compromise
other criteria, e.g., formation damage, differential sticking risk, mud properties, or hydraulics.
Fig. 7: Effect of mud weight on the stress in wellbore
wall
2. Well Inclination and Azimuth: Inclination and azimuthal orientation of a well with respect
to the principal in-situ stresses can be an important factor affecting the risk of collapse and/or
fracture breakdown occurring (Fig.8). This is particularly true for estimating the fracture
breakdown pressure in tectonically stressed regions where there is strong stress anisotropy.
Fig. 8: Effect of the well depth (a) and the hole inclination (b) on wellbore stability
3. Transient wellbore pressures: Transient wellbore pressures, such as swab and surge effects
during drilling, may cause wellbore enlargement. Tensile spalling can occur when the wellbore
pressure across an interval is rapidly reduced by the swabbing action of the drill string for instance.
If the formation has a sufficiently low tensile strength or is pre-fractured, the imbalance between
the pore pressures in the rock and the wellbore can literally pull loose rock off the wall. Surge
pressures can also cause rapid pore pressures increases in the near- wellbore area sometimes
causing an immediate loss in rock strength which may ultimately lead to collapse. Other pore
pressure penetration-related phenomena may help to initially stabilize wellbores, e.g. filter cake
efficiency in permeable formations, capillary threshold pressures for oil-based muds and transient
pore pressure penetration effects.
5. Drill string vibrations (during drilling): Drill string vibrations can enlarge holes in some
circumstances. Optimal bottom hole assembly (BHA) design with respect to the hole geometry,
inclination, and formations to be drilled can sometimes eliminate this potential contribution to
wellbore collapse. Some authors claim that hole erosion may be caused due to a too high annular
circulating velocity. This may be most significant in a yielded formation, a naturally fractured
formation, or an unconsolidated or soft, dispersive sediment. The problem may be difficult to
diagnose and fix in an inclined or horizontal well where high circulating rates are often desirable to
ensure adequate hole cleaning.
6. Drilling fluid temperature: Drilling fluid temperatures, and to some extent, bottomhole
producing temperatures can give rise to thermal concentration or expansion stresses which may be
detrimental to wellbore stability. The reduced mud temperature causes a reduction in the near-
wellbore stress concentration, thus preventing the stresses in the rock from reaching their
strength .
II. TYPES AND ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
A. Hole closure
Hole closure is a narrowing time-dependent process of borehole instability. It sometimes is
referred to as creep under the overburden pressure, and it generally occurs in plastic-flowing shale
and salt sections. Problems associated with hole closure are:
Increase in torque and drag
Increase in potential pipe sticking
Increase in the difficulty of casings landing
B. Hole enlargement
Hole enlargements are commonly called washouts because the hole becomes undesirably larger than
intended. Hole enlargements are generally caused by:
Hydraulic erosion
Mechanical abrasion caused by drill string
Inherently sloughing shale
C. Fracturing
Fracturing occurs when the wellbore drilling-fluid pressure exceeds the formation-fracture
pressure. The associated problems are lost circulation and possible kick occurrence.
D. Collapse
Borehole collapse occurs when the drilling-fluid pressure is too low to maintain the
structural integrity of the drilled hole. The associated problems are pipe sticking and possible
loss of well.
Before drilling, the rock strength at some depth is in equilibrium with the in-situ rock stresses
(effective overburden stress, effective horizontal confining stresses). While a hole is being drilled,
however, the balance between the rock strength and the in-situ stresses is disturbed. In addition,
foreign fluids are introduced, and an interaction process begins between the formation and borehole
fluids. The result is a potential hole-instability problem. Although a vast amount of research has
resulted in many borehole-stability simulation models, all share the same shortcoming of
uncertainty in the input data needed to run the analysis. Such data include :
In-situ stresses
Pore pressure
Rock mechanical properties
Formation and drilling-fluids chemistry
Mechanical borehole failure occurs when the stresses acting on the rock exceed the compressive or
the tensile strength of the rock. Compressive failure is caused by shear stresses as a result of low
mud weight, while tensile failure is caused by normal stresses as a result of excessive mud weight .
The failure criteria that are used to predict hole-instability problems are the maximum- normal-
stress criterion for tensile failure and the maximum strain energy of distortion criterion for
compressive failure. In the maximum-normal-stress criterion, failure is said to occur when, under
the action of combined stresses, one of the acting principal stresses reaches the failure value of the
rock tensile strength. In the maximum of energy of distortion criterion, failure is said to occur
when, under the action of combined stresses, the energy of distortion reaches the same energy of
failure of the rock under pure tension.
B. Shale instability
Shales make up the majority of drilled formations, and cause most wellbore-instability problems,
ranging from washout to complete collapse of the hole. Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks
composed of clay, silt, and, in some cases, fine sand. Shale types range from clay-rich gumbo
(relatively weak) to shaly siltstone (highly cemented), and have in common the characteristics of
extremely low permeability and a high proportion of clay minerals. More than 75% of drilled
formations worldwide are shale formations. The drilling cost attributed to shale-instability
problems is reported to be in excess of one-half billion U.S dollars per year. The cause of shale
instability is two- fold: mechanical (stress change vs. shale strength environment) and chemical
(shale/fluid interaction—capillary pressure, osmotic pressure, pressure diffusion, borehole-fluid
invasion into shale).
3. Capillary pressure:
During drilling, the mud in the borehole contacts the native pore fluid in the shale through the pore-
throat interface. This results in the development of capillary pressure cap . To prevent borehole fluids
from entering the shale and stabilizing it, an increase in capillary pressure is required, which can be
achieved with oil-based or other organic low-polar mud systems.
4. Osmotic pressure: When the energy level or activity in shale pore fluid, a s, is different from the
activity in drilling mud, am , water movement can occur in either direction across a semipermeable
membrane as a result of the development of osmotic pressure, p os , or chemical potential, μc . To
prevent or reduce water movement across this semipermeable membrane that has certain efficiency,
Em, the activities need to be equalized or, at least, their differentials minimized. If am is lower
than as, it is suggested to increase E m and vice versa. The mud activity can be reduced by adding
electrolytes that can be brought about through the use of mud systems such as:
Seawater
Saturated-salt/polymer
KCl/NaCl/polymer
Lime/gypsum
Pressure diffusion: Pressure diffusion is a phenomenon of pressure change near the borehole
walls that occursover time. This pressure change is caused by the compression of the native pore
fluid by the borehole-fluid pressure, pwfl, and the osmotic pressure, pos.
Borehole fluid invasion into shale: In conventional drilling, a positive differential pressure (the
difference between the borehole-fluid pressure and the pore-fluid pressure) is always maintained.
As a result, borehole fluid is forced to flow into the formation (fluid-loss phenomenon), which may
cause chemical interaction that can lead to shale instabilities. To mitigate this problem, an increase
of mud viscosity or, in extreme cases, gilsonite is used to seal off microfractures.
Use of drilling fluid: Drilling overbalanced through a shale formation with a water-based fluid
(WBF) allows drilling-fluid pressure to penetrate the formation. Because of the saturation and low
permeability of the formation, the penetration of a small volume of mud filtrate into the formation
causes a considerable increase in pore-fluid pressure near the wellbore wall. The increase in pore-
fluid pressure reduces the effective mud support, which can cause instability. Several polymer WBF
systems have made shale-inhibition gains on oil-based fluids (OBFs) and synthetic-based fluids
(SBFs) through the use of powerful inhibitors and encapsulators that help prevent shale hydration
and dispersion.
IV. SYMPTOMS OF WELLBORE INSTABILITY
Total prevention of borehole instability is unrealistic, mainly because the rock can never be
restored to its initial conditions . However, the drilling engineer can mitigate the problems of
borehole instabilities by adhering to good field practices. These practices include:
Proper mud-weight selection and maintenance
Use of proper hydraulics to control the equivalent circulating density (ECD)
Proper hole-trajectory selection
Use of borehole fluid compatible with the formation being drilled Additional field
practices that should be followed
VI. CONCLUSION
Key parameters that influence wellbore instability discussed are rock properties, in-situ stresses, pore
pressure, wellbore trajectory, drilling fluid and drilling practices.
Wellbore instability problems still exist today due to unknowns (values of rock data) and differences
in formations drilled.total prevention of wellbore instability is unrealistic. Reason is that we caused it
and we cannot restore the in-situ rock conditions.Combined analysis (integrated approach) of
wellbore stresses, mud chemistry, and excellent drilling practices is the key to minimizing wellbore
instability.
Nonetheless, although we cannot control what the drillers do, we can influence them and gain
credibility with them by understanding their problems, speaking their language, and letting them
understand the consequences of their actions. With adequate planning and supervision the problems
can be minimized.
24
View publication stats