TRANSIENT FLOWS IN A WELLBORE DURING KILLING OF AN EMPTY WELL.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- JIANG, Lin; WEI, Na; LIU, An-Qi; MENG, Ying-Feng; LI, Hai-Tao; SUN, Wan-Tong; ZHENG, Li-Jun; FU, Qiang; PANG, Wei-Xin
- Source
- Thermal Science. 2019, Vol. 23 Issue 4, p2297-2306. 10p.
- Subject
- *TWO-phase flow
*SEEPAGE
*OIL well drilling
*GAS flow
- Language
- ISSN
- 0354-9836
Failure to adequately equipping the wellhead with appropriate well control equipment may result in a high pressure in the gas drilling when it reaches a high-yield gas layer. This would require the execution of a well killing operation to facilitate follow-up drilling and well completion. An empty well of gas-phase brings implementation of a gas-liquid two-phase transient flow, filling with killing mud. The operation may also entail coupling of the transient seepage from the formation with the gas-liquid two-phase transient flow through the wellbore. In this study, a mathematical model and a numerical method for coupling the transient gas flow through the formation with the gas-liquid two-phase transient flow in the wellbore were developed. The numerical simulation results showed that successful killing of an empty gas-drilled well required proper co-ordination of several key parameters among which the wellhead backpressure is particularly crucial to the operation. The findings of this study promise to facilitate the process design and parameter optimization for the killing of empty gas-drilled wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]