Developing a new approach for the anticipation of subsurface pressure in three oil wells from various fields in Iraq

Abstract

Subsurface pressure quantification is the main goal for all drilling engineers due to its vital importance to minimizing drilling costs and preventing various excavating dilemmas such as stuck pipe, pipe collapsing, lost circulation, and well kick. Formation pressure is measured directly in producing hydrocarbon zones using special equipment; however, it is difficult to obtain pore pressure measurements in other intervals; therefore, many approaches were suggested and developed to anticipate the geopressure due to its importance on the drilling operation. Traditionally, Eaton's method is the most widely used for geopressure anticipation from well logs. In the current study, a new proposed formula for geopressure determination was derived from the modified Eaton's equation which is based on the inception of the mechanical specific energy. The study was applied on three oil-producing wells from different fields in Iraq (Missan C, West Qurna 15, and Zubair 171). The estimated subsurface pressure from the new suggested approach was validated by comparison with the actual in situ subsurface pressure obtained from Drill Stem Test (DST) and Repeated Formation Test (RFT). Statistical analysis is used for the validation by applying Mean squared error (MSE) and Mean Absolute percentage Error (MAE). Encouraging results were obtained from the present research for all wells being studied. The main finding of the current work is involving a new parameter (mechanical specific energy) for subsurface pressure determination, where it was not included in the previous techniques of geopressure equations. It was found that the value of exponent (m) in the new proposed equation has a significant influence on the predicted geopressure, where (m) varies from 0.1626 to 0.6896 depending on the type of the excavated rock plus the materials that the drill bit is manufactured of, where the interaction between these components is vital. The present work could be a useful method when planning to excavate a new well adjacent to the area of the investigated wells, where special well logs are unavailable for pore pressure measurement and suitable usage of mud weight is highly needed for the overall drilling process.