Several technical factors contribute to the flow of cuttings from the wellbore to the surface of the well, some of which are fundamentally due to the speed and inclination of the drill pipe at different positions (concentric and eccentric), the efficacy of the drilling mud considers plastic viscosity (PV) and yield point (YP), the weight of the cuttings, and the deviation of the well. Moreover, these overlaying cutting beds breed destruction in the drilling operation, some of which cause stuck pipes, reducing the rate of rotation and penetration. This current study, while it addresses the apropos of artificial intelligence (AI) with symmetry, employs a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation model to validate an effective synthetic-based mud-drilling and to investigate the potency of the muds’ flow behaviours for transporting cuttings. Furthermore, the study examines the ratio effects of YP/PV to attain the safe transport of cuttings based on the turbulence of solid-particle suspension from the drilling fluid and the cuttings, and its velocity–pressure influence in a vertical well under a concentric and eccentric position of the drilling pipe. The resulting CFD analysis explains that the YP/PV of SBM and OBM, which generated the required capacity to suspend the cuttings to the surface, are symmetric to the experimental results and hence, the position of the drill pipe at the concentric position in vertical wells required a lower rotational speed. A computational study of the synthetic-based mud and its potency of not damaging the wellbore under an eccentric drill pipe position can be further examined.
17 July 2020 in Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology
Application of nanofluids flooding in the oil and gas industry is recently emerging as enhanced oil recovery methods. Nanoparticles have the ability to alter the rock formation in order to recover oil trapped in the pores of the rock to improve oil recovery. In this study, core plug samples were formulated in the laboratory to investigate the effect of nanoparticles on oil recovery. The formulated core samples were saturated in low salinity brine. However, low salinity brine was used because it has the ability to alter rock wettability. After core flooding with brine for secondary recovery process, extracted oil from Irvingia gabonensis was introduced into the formation to investigate the effect of Irvingia gabonensis on oil recovery. The result of the study showed that magnesium oxide, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide and zinc oxide had oil recovery of 38.1%, 45.6%, 47.7% and 35.1%, respectively. However, when the nanofluids with Irvingia gabonensis were injected into the formation as a displacing agent, the oil recovery greatly improved to 50.3%, 52.0%, 53.2% and 52.4% for (MgO, SiO2, Al2O3 and ZnO). The result of the study showed that nanofluid flooding is a promising potential to improve oil recovery in the Niger Delta.