Numerical simulation of wellbore and formation temperature fields in carbonate formations during drilling and shut-in in the presence of lost circulation

Temperature curves reflect geothermal gradients and local temperature anomalies, thus providing a new understanding of the underground reservoir conditions. When encountering caverns or fractures and fissures during drilling, lost circulation may occur and result in a change to the original formation temperature field, and in severe cases, even the conventional open hole well logging data cannot be obtained. This paper uses finite element analysis software COMSOL to establish a heat transfer model for the wellbore/reservoir formation system during drilling and shut-in in the presence of lost circulation, and a case study is made in a carbonate reservoir in the Tahe oilfield. On the basis of the above, we analyze the temperature distribution in the leakage zone, and the studies have shown that the leakage and petrophysical properties have an impact on the temperature of the wellbore and formation, hence we can estimate the reservoir permeability using the temperature data. In addition, the determination of the temperature recovery time after some drilling fluids have leaked into the formation will help in recognizing the subsurface temperature field of the carbonate formation correctly, thus enhancing production logging interpretation accuracy and improving the understanding of later measurements.

Near-wellbore fracture initiation and propagation induced by drilling fluid invasion during solid fluidization mining of submarine nature gas hydrate sediments

Drilling in a natural gas hydrate formation is challenging due to the poor consolidation of the formation and the potential evaporation of the hydrate.The unreasonable down-hole pressure of the drilling fluid can not only lead to the wellbore instability,but also change the predrilling condition of the natural gas hydrate formation,thus leading to an instable wellbore.In this paper,the integrated discrete element method(DEM)-computational fluid dynamics(CFD)work flow is developed to study the wellbore instability due to the penetration of the drilling fluid into the hydrate formation during crack propagations.The results show that the difference between in-situ stresses and overpressure directly affect the drilling fluid invasion behavior.The lower hydrate saturation leads to an easier generation of drilling fluid flow channels and the lower formation breakdown pressure.The breakdown pressure increases with the increase of hydrate saturation,this also indicates that hydrates can enhance the mechanical properties of the formation.The induced cracks are initially accompanied with higher pressure of the drilling fluid.According to the rose diagram of the fracture orientation,a wider orientation of the fracture distribution is observed at higher pressure of the invasion fluid.