Kick Control Research Articles

A Numerical Investigation on Kick Control with the Displacement Kill Method during a Well Test in a Deep-Water Gas Reservoir: A Case Study

A Numerical Investigation on Kick Control with the Displacement Kill Method during a Well Test in a Deep-Water Gas Reservoir: A Case Study

In-match penalty kick analysis of the 2009/10 to 2018/19 English Premier League competition

ABSTRACT The in match penalty kick may be a decisive event in a match, as well as an opportunity to progress in a knockout competition or ultimately the final standings of a competition. The aims of the current study were to conduct a video-based performance analysis of in-match penalty kicks in the English Premier League (EPL) between the 2009/10 and 2018/19 seasons to identify the relationship between selected situational (match location, match status and match period), technical (penalty taker’s footedness), and performance indicators (shot direction) and in-match penalty kick outcomes and directions. All the in-match penalty kicks (N = 952) that took place in the EPL were analysed using Nacsport video analysis software. In-match penalty kick direction, specifically vertical direction, significantly influenced in-match penalty kick outcomes (p < 0.01). Match period, score line, match location and footedness had no significant effect on in-match penalty kick outcomes or direction of the kick. The study revealed that in-match penalty kicks should be directed towards the top vertical zones of the goal area to optimise the opportunity for success of in-match penalty kicks. Importantly, the risk factor of aiming high and missing is lower than aiming low and being saved, as such; coaches and players should implement systematic penalty kick training programmes aimed at improving penalty kick placements and control into the top areas of the goal.

Temperature dynamics and its effects on gas influx handling during managed pressure drilling operations

With Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) becoming increasingly important to oil and gas well construction, there has been a growing demand for comprehensive models that can accurately describe the well hydraulic dynamics, especially for complex well geometries, High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT) conditions, during well control events, etc. To meet this demand, new multi-phase hydraulic models have been developed. However, despite their improvement over the traditional lumped parameter models, these models typically do not consider detailed temperature effects, which markedly influence well hydraulics and need to be explicitly considered for accurate MPD control.The development of a new integrated multi-phase thermal and hydraulic modeling framework is presented in this paper. This integrated model can estimate the mud temperature in the drillstring and the annulus, as well as the temperature variations of the formation during complex well control situations. The model uses a semi-implicit finite volume approach and solves the mixture energy equation for the wellbore fluids, assuming that all the phases are in thermal equilibrium. Heat transfer between the drillstring and wellbore fluids, and between the wellbore fluids and the formation is calculated using thermal resistance networks.The steady-state and transient temperature behaviors during mud circulation are compared to the steady-state analytical model by Hasan and Kabir and commercial software. These comparisons show good agreement for both steady-state and transient cases. To demonstrate the importance of accurate temperature estimation of the drillstring and annulus fluids in HPHT conditions, offshore kick scenarios for non-aqueous drilling fluids and dynamic kick control methods are simulated. Simulation results indicate that the model enables real-time estimation of crucial parameters during well control, such as the wellbore pressure and temperature profiles, increased outflow and pit gain during kicks, gas thermodynamic behavior including solubility and unloading behavior at low pressure conditions, gas rising velocity, and temperature-dependent formation strength.

Simulation-based training to enhance process safety in offshore energy operations: Process tracing through eye-tracking

Systemic risks and human errors are the root causes of process safety incidents in offshore operations. Human factor amounts for more than 70 % of offshore incidents and among those 75 % of them are due to perceptual errors involving rich information displays. Offshore drilling console is one such area where a display of hundreds of parameters and alarms maintains a constant cognitive load on the driller and upon his slight oblivion, severe consequences can follow. One way to study these errors is through a cognitive approach that focuses on the information accusation patterns rather than a behaviorist approach of focusing on the decision outcomes. In this research, we attempt to apply process tracing through eye-tracking methodology to look at information acquisition patterns of participants during a well control simulation. The simulation was designed on a commercial well control drilling simulator to observe the difference in performances by tracking information acquisition patterns of expert and novice participants. Fourteen (n=14) participants were paired into eight teams with each comprising of a driller and a supervisor. Eye-tracking glasses were used to record the fixation and saccade pattern of the participants over the simulator console and displays. For the analysis phase, four time of interests (TOIs) were selected as drilling break detection, kick detection, kick control, and kick circulation. For these TOIs the fixation and saccades pattern of participants on various areas of interest (AOIs) were analyzed through heat and gaze plots. Significant differences in information acquisition patterns of the novice and expert participants were linked to their performance to reveal valuable insights. Such insights are useful in identifying the dominating factors behind performance and can be used for targeted feedback to improve well control training and evaluation.

Wellhead backpressure control strategies and outflow response characteristics for gas kick during managed pressure drilling

This study proposes a transient gas-liquid-solid multiphase flow model for gas kick during MPD, considering the effect of dynamic wellhead back-pressure, temperature field, and velocity relation of different phases. Based on this model, the gas kick control strategies and outflow response characteristics during MPD are thoroughly investigated. The simulated results reveal that, with the upward migration and expansion of the invading gas, the hydrostatic pressure and frictional pressure in the annulus changes accordingly, resulting in a non-linear relationship between the wellbore back-pressure and the bottom-hole pressure. Moreover, the effects of an under-balance pressure at the bottom hole, the pressure balance relationship between the formation and the bottom hole, the kick detection level, the well depth on the wellhead back-pressure control and the response behaviors of the outlet flow rate are discussed. The results of this investigation can provide engineering guidance for MPD to address the issue of gas kick.

Risk analysis of well blowout scenarios during managed pressure drilling operation

Offshore drilling involves complex operations and equipment; thus, faces many operational challenges, including well control incidents. The managed pressure drilling (MPD) provides a safer alternative; however, this technology, for the most part, is still in its infancy. Potential risks during well control operation in MPD need to be identified, assessed, and managed. The current study presents an advanced dynamic blowout risk model (DBRM) to assess safety during a managed pressure drilling operation. The DBRM involves three key steps of operation: a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) model to describe the dynamic risk of drilling during an MPD operation, a numerical model to simulate failure of an MPD kick control operation, and dynamic risk analysis to assess the safety of the well control operation as drilling conditions change over time. The proposed DBRM implements a novel approach for simulating an MPD failure and assessing blowout risk through varying MPD kick control parameters/variables in a simulated system. The proposed DBRM successfully replicated the dynamic blowout risk scenarios presented in the Amberjack field case study from the Gulf of Mexico. The results show that the presence of drilling hazards, such as depleted formation, increases the likelihood of circulation loss and thus, the occurrence likelihood of kick. Moreover, as the kick intensity increases over time, the failure likelihood of an MPD system increases until its failure occurs after the kick intensity has exceeded the designed limits of the MPD control system. Thus, the increased likelihoods of these two events (kick and MPD failure) increase the risk of a blowout. Conversely, MPD failure and blowout risk can be reduced by up to 96% by making the MPD control system more robust. The results prove that the kick control variables can be used to assess the success/failure of an MPD operation, i.e. its safety, and are instrumental in providing useful information to predict the performance and/or diagnose the failure of an MPD operation.

Nonlinear model predictive control of gas kick in a managed pressure drilling system

Managed pressure drilling (MPD) operation utilizes a fully automated control system to manage kicks during drilling which typically utilizes a proportional-integral (PI) controller and a single-phase flow model. This study proposes an MPD control system that uses a nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) and a two-phase flow model for computing annular pressure and choke valve dynamics during kick control operation. The performance of the proposed model is demonstrated by simulating kick control operation and compared their results with a single-phase linear model. The results confirm that the single-phase model underestimates key well control parameters (including kick size, bottomhole pressure and choke pressure), which may be due to ignoring gas-phase flow behaviour on mud density and the choke valve performance. Additionally, the performance of the proposed model is tested by validating the gas kick simulation results from a lab-scale MPD setup and a gas kick event from a field's case study based on North Sea drilling operation. The comparison of the control performance between the proposed NMPC model against the PI controller utilized in the field study confirms that the NMPC response more swiftly to disturbance, such as kick than the PI controller.

Dynamic gas kick regulation through control reconfiguration under MPD scenario – Two-phase flow validation

Controlling gas kick is essential to guarantee safe drilling of oil wells. As the gas flows toward the surface, its volume increases due to gas expansion, reducing mud weight. As a result, an uncontrolled gas kick may produce a blowout. A literature review, concerning MPD (Managed Pressure Drilling) technology, unveils that there is a gap regarding experimental validation of gas kick control strategies. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is building an experimental unit, representing the oil well drilling process, for dynamic gas kick control validation. Pressure, flow and level data are employed for real-time monitoring and control purposes. A drift-flux mathematical model (DFM) and a control reconfiguration scheme are validated using two-phase flow data from the experimental facility. The transient nature of the oil well drilling process, exhibiting a variety of operational modes and being nonlinear was successfully regulated by control reconfiguration, which works as an advanced control holistic structure.

Kick Control: Using the Attracting States Arising Within the Sensorimotor Loop of Self-Organized Robots as Motor Primitives.

Self-organized robots may develop attracting states within the sensorimotor loop, that is within the phase space of neural activity, body and environmental variables. Fixpoints, limit cycles and chaotic attractors correspond in this setting to a non-moving robot, to directed, and to irregular locomotion respectively. Short higher-order control commands may hence be used to kick the system from one self-organized attractor robustly into the basin of attraction of a different attractor, a concept termed here as kick control. The individual sensorimotor states serve in this context as highly compliant motor primitives. We study different implementations of kick control for the case of simulated and real-world wheeled robots, for which the dynamics of the distinct wheels is generated independently by local feedback loops. The feedback loops are mediated by rate-encoding neurons disposing exclusively of propriosensoric inputs in terms of projections of the actual rotational angle of the wheel. The changes of the neural activity are then transmitted into a rotational motion by a simulated transmission rod akin to the transmission rods used for steam locomotives. We find that the self-organized attractor landscape may be morphed both by higher-level control signals, in the spirit of kick control, and by interacting with the environment. Bumping against a wall destroys the limit cycle corresponding to forward motion, with the consequence that the dynamical variables are then attracted in phase space by the limit cycle corresponding to backward moving. The robot, which does not dispose of any distance or contact sensors, hence reverses direction autonomously.

Kick control reliability analysis of managed pressure drilling operation

Offshore drilling involves complex operations and equipment; thus, faces many operational challenges, including well control. Managed pressure drilling has been proved to resolve most of these challenges; however, this technology, for the most part, is still in its infancy. This paper explores the safety and reliability assessment of a managed pressure drilling operation by investigating the kick control operation of constant bottomhole pressure technique of managed pressure drilling. In addition, this study seeks to understand the components interactions in an MPD system and their modes of failure. Failure scenarios are first built using a Fault Tree model and then analyzed using a Bayesian Network model. The reliability assessments of kick control operation are performed in two ways: a basic-components approach and a system-barrier elements approach. The analysis identifies communication related components, including network device damage as the most safety-critical component due to their high-level of influence while flowline and pump line blockages/rupture are ranked second-most critical but with limited-level of influence. However, the system-barrier element approach ranks the managed pressure drilling control system as the most safety-critical equipment. Further detailed analysis confirms that the monitoring equipment are the most safety-critical components of the managed pressure drilling control system with Coriolis flow meter and Rig pump exhibiting the most critical monitoring equipment. Additionally, the managed pressure drilling system's components show high degree of dependencies on one another and exhibit non-sequential modes of failure during kick control operation.

Automated Kick Control Procedure for an Influx in Managed Pressure Drilling Operations

Automated Kick Control Procedure for an Influx in Managed Pressure Drilling Operations

Analysis of the Pressure Response of Kick Control in MPD

With narrow Density Windows wells and high pressure oil and gas well drilling growing in number, the kick risks becoming increasingly prominent and higher requirements for well control technology being needed, the manage pressure drilling (MPD) technology is used more and more widely. The problems like how to effectively find gas overflowand how to effectively control the overflow in the MPD must be solved.Well must be shuted timely in conventional drilling when overflow happens.The special characteristics of overflow control equipment determines the diversity and effectiveness of its overflow monitoring means in MPD, and the overflow is found more effectively and timely than conventional drilling. Well control risk will increase sharply if kick cannot be timely and effectively identified and controled when overflow occurs. MPD can quickly adjust the wellhead back pressure and inhibit the formation fluid further invasion. Therefore, combining with MPD process and the fluid pressure parameters, the article establishs process of kick recognition and kick control, analyses of the process and analyzes and evaluates the pressure response in process of kick control.MPD can better control the bottom hole pressure in well control situation, ensuring drilling safety. The process of kick recognition and control is of great significance to promote the development and application of kick control technology in MPD.

Polymer Use in Blowout Control

This paper describes a unique application of polymers in a blowout of a high-capacity gas well in the Middle East. The polymers effectively assisted in controlling the blowout by polymers effectively assisted in controlling the blowout by filling up cavities in the formation and diverting or preventing hydrocarbons from entering the wellbore. Although the well was not brought under control completely, the material did reduce the flow rate enough to extinguish the flame. Introduction Blowouts in high-capacity formations require high pump and capture rates for control, even when subsurface communication between the relief hole(s) and the uncontrolled well is good. Control fluids are carried out of the hole by high-velocity flow. A hydrostatic head large enough to overbalance the formation pressure cannot be obtained. Hole enlargement also creates difficulty by retaining control fluids or by causing their dilution with formation fluids before they can take effect. Polymers can be used effectively to reduce the flow rate from the uncontrolled well so that control fluids kept in the hole can control the well. Also, polymers can be used to fill enlarged hole spots and alleviate control-fluid retention or dilution downhole. Using polymers for blowout control evolved during a lengthy control effort of an offshore-Dubai platform development well. The well blew out on July 19, 1975, and flowed uncontrolled until Feb. 24, 1976. Four attempts were made to control the well by directly pumping sea water and mud before using polymers during the fifth attempt. The blowout was not controlled completely, but the gas flow rate was reduced and the flame actually was extinguished. The supply of the most effective polymer became exhausted, so the control operation was terminated. Plans for the next attempt included extensive use Plans for the next attempt included extensive use of polymers; however, the hole was bridged and gas flow ceased, making further control measures unnecessary. Polymers will not be the key to well control every time, but they showed great promise in the Dubai situation and should be a valuable aid to control blowouts. The Blowout The Fateh field L-3 development well had reached 4,180 ft (515 ft below the Asmari gas-water contact) when the kick occurred. A 30-in. conductor had been driven to refusal at 450 ft and a full string of 20-in. casing was cemented at 1,310 ft. The kick control effort was terminated and the rig abandoned when gas broke around the 20-in. shoe and bubbled up under the platform. Eight days after the blowout, the gas ignited and in 2 weeks the rig and platform disappeared beneath the Arabian Gulf. The Asmari limestone formation in the Fateh field has a total thickness of about 540 ft, with a 115-ft gas column at Well L-3. The upper part of the Asmari is vuggy and fractured with permeabilities of several hundred millidarcies. The lower portion of the Asmari is shaly and relatively tight. The entire section of the Asmari gas and water columns was open to the 17 1/2-in. wellbore, resulting in a high-rate gas flow with an indeterminable amount of entrained water. Control Effort Before the well ignited, efforts were made to move barges up to the platform so that surface control measures could be tried. JPT P. 705