The behaviors of gas-liquid two-phase flow under gas kick during horizontal drilling with oil-based muds

Abstract

Natural gas is easily soluble in oil-based muds (OBM), leading to complex flow behavior in wellbores, especially in horizontal wells. In this study, a new transient flow model considering wellbore-formation coupling and gas solubility on flow behavior is developed to simulate gas kicks during horizontal drilling with OBM. Furthermore, the effect of gas solubility on parameters such as bottom-hole pressure (BHP), gas void fraction and mixture velocity in the flow behavior is analyzed. Finally, several critical factors affecting flow behavior are investigated and compared to gas kicks in water-based muds (WBM) where the effect of solubility is neglected. The results show that the invading gas exists as dissolved gas in the OBM and as free gas in the WBM. Before the gas escapes from the OBM, the pit gain is zero and there is barely any change in the BHP, annulus return flow rate and mixture velocity, which means that detecting gas kicks through these warning signs can be challenging until they get very close to the surface and develop rapidly. However, in WBM drilling, these parameters change quickly with the increasing gas kick time. Additionally, for both cases, the longer the horizontal length and the greater reservoir permeability, the greater the decrease in BHP, and the shorter the time for gas to migrate from the bottom-hole to the wellhead. A larger flow rate contributes to a greater initial BHP and a lesser BHP reduction. This research is of value in characterizing gas kick behavior and identifying novel ways for early gas kick detection during horizontal drilling with OBM.

Keywords

Flow behavior / Gas solubility / Gas kick / Horizontal drilling / Oil-based muds / Water-based muds

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Postdoctoral Program of PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Company (Grant No.20220302-21).

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