Fracture development during disposal of hazardous drilling cuttings by deep underground injection: A review

Drilling fluids with complicated compositions are becoming more common as the oil and gas industry develops. The production of hazardous cuttings is increasing, which not only stifles the oil and gas industry’s development but also poses a severe environmental threat. Deep underground re-injection is a cost-effective and efficient method for dealing with hazardous cuttings. Numerous experiments and numerical studies on cuttings re-injection have been conducted in the past thirty years. However, there is still a divergence of views on the fracture development in the process of cuttings re-injection. A comprehensive review of existing studies is necessary to help researchers advance this technology. This paper provides a review of the fundamental studies on fracture behaviors during the deep underground re-injection of drilling cuttings. The limitations of the existing studies are also discussed to inspire new research endeavors.

Research on Reliability of Desorption Indexes of Drilling Cuttings(K_(1)andΔh_(2)):A Case-Based on Pingdingshan Mining Region,China

To accurately predict the risk of coal and gas outburst and evaluate the reliability of desorption indexes of drilling cuttings(K_(1) andΔh_(2))in No.16 coal seam of Pingmei No.12 coal mine,two sets of coal samples were selected from the target coal seams for proximate analyses,methane adsorption/desorption tests,and desorption indexes of drilling cuttings tests.The results indicated that the desorption volume in the initial stage of desorption is large,and increases slowly in the later stage.The methane desorption volume of PMD1 and PMD2 coal samples accounts for 15.14%-18.09%and 15.72%-18.17%respectively in the first 1 min,and 43.92%-48.55%and 41.87%-52.25%respectively in the first 10 min in the 120 min desorption tests.Both K_(1) andΔh_(2) present power function relationships with methane pressure.Similarly,the power function relationships also can be found between the initial desorption characteristics(Q1 and Q4-5)and the methane pressure.Finally,the average relative error between the measured value and the calculated value of Q1 based on K_(1) is less than that of Q4-5 based onΔh_(2),which indicates that K_(1) is a more reliable index thanΔh_(2) to predict the risk of coal and gas outburst in the No.16 coal seam of Pingmei No.12 coal mine.

A novel predictive model of drag coefficient and settling velocity of drill cuttings in non-Newtonian drilling fluids

In oil and gas well drilling operations,it is of great significance to accurately predict the drag coefficient and settling velocity of drill cuttings in non-Newtonian drilling fluids.In this paper,the free-falling of 172 groups of spheres and 522 groups of irregular-shaped sand particles in Newtonian/non-Newtonian fluids were investigated experimentally.It was found that the drag coefficient calculated based on Newtonian correlations can result in a significant error when the particle settles in the non-Newtonian fluid.Therefore,predictive models of drag coefficient were established respectively for different types of fluids.The validity of the proposed drag coefficient model of spheres was verified by comparing it with the previous works.On this basis,the drag coefficient model of irregular-shaped sand particles was established by introducing a shape factor.The models do not use the shape factor that requires detailed threedimensional shape and size information.Instead,two-dimensional geometric information(circularity)is obtained via image analysis techniques.The present new models predict the settling velocity of sand particles in the power-law fluid and Herschel-Bulkley fluid accurately with a mean relative error of5.03%and 6.74%,respectively,which verifies the accuracy of the model.

Cuttings transport: Back reaming analysis based on a coupled layering-sliding mesh method via CFD

Inadequate hole cleaning is one of the main reasons for inefficient operations in extended-reach drilling.The mechanism of cuttings transport under the back reaming operation,which is frequently adopted to remove the cuttings,has been investigated in this study.To this end,a coupled layering-sliding mesh method with the Eulerian-Granular approach has been established innovatively.The dynamic layering method has been employed to simulate the axial motion of the pipe,whereas the sliding mesh method has been used to simulate the pipe rotation.The back reaming operation of a connector-furnished pipe has been simulated,and the sensitive parameter analysis has been conducted.The results thus obtained demonstrate that the increase in the initial bed height,inclination,and the diameter and length of the connector causes a significant increase in the cuttings concentration.In addition,the cuttings concentration is observed to decrease significantly with the pipe rotation speed.Furthermore,two main factors contribute towards the cuttings accumulation around the connector,namely,the difference in the cross-sectional area and the pushing effect of the connector—like a“bulldozer”.The“bulldozer”effect of the connector dominates when the tripping velocity is significant compared to the velocity of the cuttings.Conversely,the effect of the difference in the cross-sectional area becomes the leading factor for cuttings accumulation.The“bulldozer”effect of the connector causes a more severe impact on hole cleaning.In both cases,increasing the tripping velocity only mildly affects the cuttings concentration.It is therefore suggested that the tripping velocity should be slower than that of the sand during the back reaming operation.Furthermore,increased fluid velocity might lead to a higher accumulated cuttings concentration around the connector when the cuttings bed has not entirely passed through the connector.A significant flow rate can be safely applied after the cuttings have passed through the connector furnished with a large diameter,such as the bottom hole assembly.This exploration serves as an essential guide to predicting and controlling tight spots while back reaming.

Simulation Research on Coal-Water Slurry Gasification of Oil-Based Drill Cuttings Based on Fluent

In this paper,based on Fluent software,a five-nozzle gasifier reactor was established to simulate the gasification process of oil-based drill cuttings coal-water slurry.The influence of concentration and oxygen/carbon atomic ratio on the gasification process of oil-based drill cuttings coal-water slurry was investigated.The results show that when the oxygen flow is constant,the outlet temperature of gasifier decreases,the content of effective gas increases,and the carbon conversion rate decreases with the increase of concentration;When the ratio of oxygen to carbon atoms is constant,the effective gas content rises and the temperature rises with the increase of the concentration,and the carbon conversion rate reaches the maximum value when the concentration of oil-based drill cuttings coal-water slurry is 65%;When the concentration is constant,the effective gas content decreases and the outlet temperature rises with the increase of the oxygen/carbon atom ratio,and the carbon conversion rate reaches 99.80%when the oxygen/carbon atom ratio is 1.03.It shows that this method can effectively decompose the organic matter in oilbased drill cuttings and realize the efficient and cooperative treatment of oil-based drill cuttings.

Study of Oil-Bearing Drill Cuttings Cleaning and De-Oiling Treatment Method for Shale Gas Reservoirs

Due to its extensive use in shale gas exploration and development,oil-based drilling fluids generate large amounts of oil-bearing drill cuttings during the drilling process.The large amount of oil-bearing drill cuttings generated during the drilling process can lead to serious secondary contamination.In this study,a wetting agent FSC-6 with good hydrophobic and oleophobic properties was synthesized to construct an efficient oil removal system.For the first time,the mechanism of this system was analyzed by using the theory of adhesion function,interfacial tension and wettability.At the same time,a combined acoustic-chemical treatment process was applied to the wastewater and slag generated after the cleaning of the oil-bearing drill cuttings.The experimental results show that the application of this pollution-free technology can effectively solve the environmental pollution and resource recovery problems of oil-bearing drill cuttings.It meets the standard of drilling chips with oil content less than 2%in SY/T7422-2018“Oil-based drilling fluid drilling chips treatment system for oil and gas drilling equipment”.

Solidification and utilization of water-based drill cuttings to prepare ceramsite proppant with low-density and high performance

Water-based drill cuttings(WBDC)and bauxite are used as raw materials to prepare proppants with low density and high performance.The effects of sintering temperature,sintering period,mixture ratios of materials,doping with iron oxide,and acid modification of WBDC on the properties of proppants are discussed.The proppant performance is evaluated according to the national standard SY/T5108-2014.The morphology of the proppant is analyzed using scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The crystal phase structure of the proppant is studied using X-ray diffraction(XRD).Thermal analysis of the proppant sintering process is performed using thermogravimetry(TG).Proppant Z-23 completely satisfied the SY/T5108-2014 standard.This study provides a new perspective for the resource utilization of water-based drill cuttings and preparation of low-density proppants.

A THREE-SEGMENT HYDRAULIC MODEL FOR ANNULAR CUTTINGS TRANSPORT WITH FOAM IN HORIZONTAL DRILLING

Through mechanical analysis, an improved hydraulic model for annular cuttings transport with foam was established for horizontal drilling. Based on the two critical inclination angles, the entire well was divided into three segments. The Bagnold stress, generalized power law rheological model and modified hindered particle settling velocity in foam fluid were adopted in the model to improve the simulation accuracy. The proposed model allows more precise prediction of cuttings transport property in the whole range of well inclination angle. Model performance was examined via case study and experimental data. Simulation results given by the propulsion iteration and trial-and-error method agree well with in-situ horizontal well drilling practice for the case study, and the comparison between the model prediction and Capo’s experimental data shows satisfactory agreement.

Pyrolytic gas analysis and evaluation from thermal plasma pyrolysis of simulated oil-based drill cuttings

Oil-based drill cuttings(OBDCs)are hazardous wastes generated during shale gas exploration,and the rapid,efficient and safe disposal methods for OBDCs have attracted the attention of many researchers.Plasma pyrolysis technology is widely used in solid waste treatment due to its extremely high temperature and reaction activity.A laboratory-scale thermal plasma pyrolysis system was built to investigate the plasma pyrolysis mechanism of simulated OBDCs.The thermal decomposition characteristics of OBDCs were studied by thermogravimetric-derivative thermo gravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry(TG-DTG-DSC)analysis in the range of 50–1300℃.The thermal decomposition process of OBDCs was divided into the following four stages:evaporation of water and light oil,evaporation and decomposition of heavy oil,carbonate decomposition,and phase change reaction from solid to liquid.The effects of the oil ratio,water content,and water/oil(W/O)ratio of OBDCs on the composition and gas selectivity of pyrolytic gas were investigated.The results show that thermal plasma can crack the mineral oil in the OBDCs into clean gases such as H_(2),CO and C_(2)H_(2),while water can promote the decomposition of the heavy oil molecules and enhance the H_(2)production.The energy consumption model calculation for the pyrolysis and melting of OBDCs shows that the highest energy utilization and the lowest molar energy consumption of H_(2)were achieved at a W/O ratio of 1:4.Based on the thermal plasma pyrolysis system used in this study,the commercial application prospects and economic benefits of the plasma pyrolysis of OBDCs were discussed.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TRANSIENT CUTTINGS TRANSPORT WITH FOAM FLUID IN HORIZONTAL WELLBORE

With considering the interlayer mass transfer and fluid influx from the reservoir, a one-dimensional two-layer hydraulic model was established to describe the mechanism of transient cuttings transport with foam fluid in horizontal well section. The model was numerically calculated based on the modified SIMPLE algorithm, and the height of cuttings bed was predicted by the trial-and-error method. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on the affecting factors on the cuttings transport performance. Results show that cuttings deposition moves along the horizontal wellbore from the drilling bit, and finally achieves a steady state with dynamic balance. Dimensionless cuttings bed height decreases with the increase of foam quality or foam flow rate, but increases with the increase of drillpipe eccentricity, cuttings size or drilling rate. The influx of water and gas from the reservoir is helpful to improve the cuttings transport efficiency with foam. The proposed model offers theoretical guidelines for hydraulic parameter design and hole cleaning control in foamed horizontal drilling.

Artificial neural network model for predicting drill cuttings settling velocity

The traditional method of using the coefficient of drag–Reynolds number relationship to predict cuttings settling velocity involves an implicit procedure that requires repeated,time-consuming and tedious iterations using Newtonian or mostly non-Newtonian correlations.Usually,these correlations are limited to certain fluid flow regimes.Besides,most of the explicit and direct cuttings settling velocity models that exist are based on the assumption that the cuttings are spherical particles.However,in the field,the cuttings are a mixture of various shapes and are hardly spherical,hence these models when applied to field conditions come off with huge errors.The objective of this work was to use a nature-inspired algorithm(artificial neural network-ANN)to develop a model for estimating cuttings settling velocity that would be robust and useful in the field that would take into account the shape of the cuttings.The data used for this work was obtained from research experiments in the literature.The model was then evaluated using four performance metrics namely:mean squared error(MSE),root mean square error(RMSE),sum of squares error(SSE)and goodness of fit(R2).It was found that the model's predictions obtained in this work agreed with experimental evidence.Furthermore,the developed model possesses the capacity to generalize across new input datasets and can be applied to particles of any shape,hence,defining the novelty of this research and bridging the gap between theory and practice.When compared with state-of-the-art models,the developed models show a high degree of robustness,as the ANN model performed reasonably well with an MSE of 7.5×10−4,an R2 of 0.978,RMSE of 0.0274 and SSE of 0.25.To generalize the results across new input datasets,the developed model was cross-validated with new data that was not part of the training process.It was found that the ANN model had an MSE value 0.00807,RMSE of 0.0898,MAE of 0.065,SSE of 2.74 and MAPE of 0.675%.To ensure the replicability of the ANN model,the weights and biases for the inputs,hidden and output layers are presented in this work unlike other artificial intelligence-based models in the literature.The range of application for the developed ANN model is 0.0001<Particle Reynolds's number<100 and 0.471<cuttings sphericity<1.With the model developed in this work,the cuttings settling velocity can be predicted with minimal errors in a quick,less cumbersome,non-iterative manner and is not limited by cuttings shapes'factor and fluid flow regimes.

Laboratory study of fluid properties owing to cutting intrusions during horizontal directional drilling

During horizontal directional drilling installations,a primary function of drilling fluids is to yield drill cuttings and lubricate the product pipe.This paper presents the results of a research study of drilling fluid parameters,and the filter cake properties associated with drill cutting intrusions.Different sand meshes and field cutting sizes were added to the drilling fluids.Based on the laboratory experiments of eighteen samples including testing drilling fluid rheology and filter cake properties,the influence of drill cuttings on low solid-phase drilling fluid systems were obtained.The results reveal that drilling fluid plastic viscosity values increase with sand content and particle size.The 100-mesh sand exhibits a larger plastic viscosity compared to the 200-mesh sand.This suggests that the coarser the sand,the greater is the plastic viscosity.By contrast,drilling fluids with 200-mesh sand exhibit greater shear forces than the 100-mesh sand.When the sand content is4%,the shear dilution ability of the drilling fluid begins to weaken.The thinnest filter cake is formed after 6 h with a 100-mesh cutting size and 4%sand content.However,when the cutting size changed to 150-mesh and 2%content,the largest filter cake toughness and strength after rolling for 12 h were obtained.Simultaneously,the combination of 200-mesh and 150-mesh with 2%–4%content rolling for 12–24 h indicate different results.For the filter cake thickness,cutting content is the primary influencing factor followed by particle size and gradation.The factor with the least influence is rolling time.We found that rolling time and gradation were the most significant factors affecting the toughness of the filter cake,followed by cutting content.Conversely,particle size exhibits the least influence on filter cake toughness.These results are important to better understand the solid-phase control of drilling fluids in the field.

Exploring the potential of drill cuttings for reservoir characterization:A case study from the Volga-Ural basin,Russia

The research objectives are to assess the possibility of using drill cutting analysis to obtain information about the mineralogical and geochemical properties of the reservoir rocks.Drill cutting samples were collected from a vertical well that penetrated the Domanik sediments(Semiluksk Formation)in one of the oil fields in the Volga-Ural petroleum province.Thin sections from drill cuttings were examined using an optical polarizing microscope(Axio Imager A2).X-ray diffraction(XRD)analyses were performed using a Brucker D2 Phaser X-ray powder diffractometer.Thermophysical properties were studied using an STA 449 F3 Jupiter instrument.The pyrolytic studies were performed using the Rock-Eval method.Visual inspection showed that the studied sediments are alternations of carbonates and siliceous-carbonate rocks.Thin section examinations revealed that the carbonates are mainly limestone(mudstone and wackestone)and are characterized by a dense texture and up to 30%organic residues.The siliceous-carbonate rocks are dominated by siliceous mudstones and are characterized by dark colours,layered structure,and an enrichment in organic matter.XRD analyses showed that the carbonate rocks are mainly composed of calcite,dolomite,quartz,feldspar,and mica,which are minor components.The siliceous-carbonate rocks are dominated by quartz,followed by calcite,although they also contain feldspars,mica,dolomite,and pyrite as impurities.According to the simultaneous thermal analysis,the average total hydrocarbon in the carbonate and siliceous-carbonate rocks is 13.6%(for the core samples)and 11.5%(for the drill cutting samples).The content of heavy hydrocarbons in the rocks is higher than the content of light hydrocarbons,indicating the immature nature of organic matter.Kerogen is found sporadically in siliceous-carbonate rocks.According to the pyrolytic studies,average S1 is 4.4 mg/g and average S2 is 19.8 mg/g(for the core samples);average S1 is 2.1 mg/g and average S2 is 17.8 mg/g(for the drill cutting samples),which indicated that the studied sediments have very good to excellent generation potential.The average T_(max) of 425.7℃(for the drill cutting samples)and 427.9℃(for the core samples)indicate immature organic matter that generated only heavy oils.Comparing the results of the analysed drill cutting samples with the results of the analysed core analysis from the same reservoir interval in the neighbouring wells showed a good correlation,which proves that this technique is a valid tool that provides an alternative,cost-effective method to determine the rock's characteristics from drill cuttings.