If you want to know why the weight of drilling mud is important in drilling and how weight loss and weight gain affect this, keep reading the rest of this article from Nikan west company the gilsonite producer in Iran.
Drilling mud weight is one of the important features of this fluid. Simply put, changing the mud weight means reducing or increasing its density. This reduces or increases change the various properties and applications of drilling mud. For example, these changes are used to control ground pressures in oil wells, or to improve the ability to transfer and remove well chips.
Increasing or decreasing underground pressure
Underground pressure is the first and the most important threat for a deep well. If these pressures are not properly controlled, they can easily cause the well to collapse. This happens in deep wells, such as oil wells, cause a lot of financial losses.
The best approach to control this pressure can be done by a variety of drilling fluids. Each well has its own characteristics, which require drilling mud with the right density and weight. Since the weight of the drilling mud can create hydrostatic pressure in the well, reducing or increasing it can be directly related to controlling the pressure on the well.
When the pressures created on the well are not controlled, we encounter the phenomenon of mudflow into the formation.
?What is the source of this pressure imposed on the formation
To explain this phenomenon, you need to know the physical properties of the well. Simply put, a steady point in equilibrium is a point where the summation of the pressures on it is zero. Now, if for any reason (like digging a well) this balance is disturbed, it is possible to change the balance. The collapse of the well walls is usually due to this imbalance. In fact, the well regains its balance by falling.
Drilling fluids can also create this pressure and take the well out of equilibrium. When the weight of the drilling mud increases or decreases, the pressure of the drilling mud can be more or less than the pressure of the formation. Therefore, by increasing or decreasing the weight of the drilling mud, the amount of fluid pressure and formation can be maintained in the same state, so that the balance inside the well is established.
Read more: Concept and Causes of Drilling Mud Drainage
Simplifying and speeding up the well chip exit
The most important factor in preventing chips from escaping from wells is gravity. In fact, we are facing an additional pressure here, which we must counteract with the opposite pressure. Therefore, by reducing and increasing the density of the drilling mud and as a result its weight, the appropriate pressure can be achieved for the simple and fast exit of the drilling chips from the well.
More scientifically, this allows the “buoyancy force” to win over the “gravitational force” and lead the chips out of the well. This force, according to the “law of immersion bodies”, causes us to have a force against the gravity force.
The weight and material of the chips are another determining factor in this regard. But in the end, it’s the weight of the mud that can be increased to increase the buoyancy of the drilling mud to the required amount.
Read more: The role of mud weight in drilling operations
The bottom line is that accurate calculations are needed in this area, but what was presented in this paper referred to the characteristics of drilling mud weight in simple words. The complexity of these calculations is that the weight of the drilling fluid must be determined to the best possible point; and its overall increase or decrease may cause other problems for well performance.