Not Just for Drilling! Utilization of MPD Technology for Unplanned Events Like Extensive Ballooning in Highly Elastic Formation, Off-Bottom Well Control with a Tapered Drill-String and Freeing Stuck-Pipe, Thinking Out of the Box, A Case Study
Authors: Muhammad Jamal uddin , Alzahrani Abdallah 
Published: March 2023

Managed Pressure Drilling(MPD) technology primarily helps operators excel in efficiently navigating through narrow pore pressure- fracture pressure windows and detecting gain/losses at an early stage mitigating complex well control situations. Apart from these routine benefits there a several other situations where MPD technology can be utilized for efficient solutions. In the beginning Managed pressure drilling was used during drilling operations only. Now overtime with the realization of the benefits and convenience has made operators more comfortable in applying the technology and exploring its use in operations than drilling. The applications have become more versatile, hence moving from just Managed Pressure drilling to Managed Pressure technology. This paper details three of those unusual applications of Managed Pressure technology, with actual well case studies. 1)- Ballooning case, 2)- Off bottom well control 3)-Stuck -pipe, demonstrating the planning and execution phases successfully

The unfortunate situations of ballooning, off-bottom kicks/losses and differential stuck-pipe occurred during conventional drilling operations. When these problems were encountered, MPD technology proposed solutions in the unconventional, more efficient and safer ways by utilizing a sophisticated MPD system that provides precise, fully automatic bottom-hole pressure control almost instantly, when compared to conventional methods.

MPD engineering team had established solid procedures for these unplanned events, considering the risks and contingency plans, to minimize several hours of non-productive time faced conventionally.

For the highly elastic formation ballooning case, the conventional operations suffered well control situation for over 3 weeks, MPD technology first distinguished between ballooning and kick by proper fingerprinting procedures, minimized ballooning by reducing extra overbalance pressure and then during operations controlled ballooning by real-time gradual bottomhole pressure adjustments.

For off-bottom kick case, due to high background gases and extensive swabbing the bit-trips were always a big challenge leading to off-bottom kicks very often. MPD technology took over the situation, enabled to strip-in to bottom safely to circulate out the kick and then utilized the precise fully automatic system to mitigate swabbing effectively for later bit-trips.

For the third case of stuck-pipe, MPD technology was utilized for both mechanical stuck and differential stuck, enabled to free the stuck-pipe following the sequence of operations provided by MPD engineering team

The competent personnel, sophisticated equipment, and precise pressure adjustments of bottom-hole pressure were the key factors of the overall success, hence mitigating any well control complications which previously costed several rig days and associated costs when dealt conventionally.

MPDwas being used primarily for early kick/loss detection and controlling bottomhole pressure in narrow windows environments in drilling phase only. But with extensive successful usage and thinking out of the box MPD technology is now being utilized for post drilling operations like reaming which requires a high pump rate to clean hole, logging, cementing and even workover activities like pressurized plug retrieval as well. This paper details three of those unconventional solutions with actual well case studies where MPD was called out not for drilling, rather other complex issues.