Kick detection and remedial action in managed pressure drilling: a review

Abstract

Increasing the global demand for natural resources directs the oil industries to explore in geologically challenging structures and offshore reserves. Oil industries are always searching for innovative drilling technologies to optimize field development process in a complex structure. Managed pressure drilling (MPD) is now becoming an attractive alternative to the traditional overbalance drilling in complex formation. MPD offered substantial benefits in terms of project economics and reduced non-productive time (NPT). These benefits are substantial in the offshore structure, where any downtime significantly impacts the project cost. MPD is designed to avoid continuous formation influx into the wellbore, and any incidental fluid is contained with a specific predetermined process. MPD used some specialized tools and techniques to enhance traditional kick detection capabilities and circulate formation influx while keeping NPT at the minimum level. Early kick detection is a primary concern for the drilling industry to ensure the safety of the drilling rig, crews, and environmental protection. This research focused on a systematic review of kick detection and mitigation in MPD operation. A review of recent advancements in MPD, various early kick detection methods, comparative study of different kick indicators with their significance, different gas kick models, and risk analysis are analyzed systemically. Several control methods in the MPD operation are summarized. A systematic comparison of different gas kick circulation methods in conventional drilling and MPD is presented in this study. Also, different alternative responses to conventional kick circulation methods are summarized. This work critically analyzed different kick responses of circulating and non-circulating methods, e.g. shut-in, modified pump shut down, increasing in casing pressure and stepwise increase in pump rate. However, all circulation methods are elementary, and no kick circulation method is universally applicable to all drilling operations. Finally, this review emphasized some recent progress and challenges in kick detection on managed pressure drilling.