Gas Migration in Wellbores During Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling PMCD

Abstract

In PMCD operations, reservoir gas is expected to migrate uphole, and the uncertainty in gas migration rates under downhole conditions leads to challenges in planning logistics and fluid requirements. Estimates of migration velocities based on current methods (e.g. Taylor-bubble correlation) are highly conservative and involves simplifying assumptions. This paper presents a systematic approach to understanding the fundamentals of gas migration in wellbores, relates it to field data, and provides recommendations to improve PMCD design and planning. Our approach includes analysis of PMCD field data, multiphase flow literature and computational flow simulations. The field data on gas migration is used to establish the field-scale parametric effects and observed trends. Multiphase flow literature is used to qualitatively understand some of these parametric effects at downhole conditions. A comparison between multiphase flow literature and field data overwhelmingly demonstrates the gaps in understanding of underlying physics. 3-dimensional multiphase CFD simulations for a representative well geometry and downhole conditions are used to understand gas migration physics at downhole conditions and the reasons for its sensitivity to different conditions. CFD simulations showed a strong impact of pressure on bubble breakup. As a result, the gas migrates as a slow-moving swarm of smaller bubbles. The formation of smaller bubbles from a given gas volume is a rate dependent process and requires a finite time to reach to an equilibrium/steady-state. The field conditions provide both high downhole pressure and sufficient length-scale for formation of smaller slow-moving bubbles. For the same reason, small scale-experiments are limited in their application for field-scale designs due to use of low pressure and/or insufficient length-scales. The CFD results also compare well with field data in showing ~30% holdup of migrating gas at low migration rates and negligible effect of rotation and wellbore geometry i.e. annulus vs openhole. The extent and rate of disintegration of gas volume (bubble) has a negative correlation with well inclination, liquid viscosity, and surface tension. The rheology and liquid viscosity also affect the ability of liquid to sweep the gas back into the reservoir and therefore it is expected to have an optimum range for a given PMCD application. Use of high viscosity fluids for typical downhole well conditions is counterproductive and results in higher gas migration rates and therefore not recommended. The understanding of downhole physics is expected to improve logistics/storage/ planning/fluid choice and lead to lower gas migration rates and reliable operation. The same approach can be applied to other operations and scenarios where gas migration velocities are a key design factor.