Bottomhole Assembly Media Deployment for High-Loss Zone Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-loss zones during wellbore drilling result in significant fluid loss, leading to increased costs, reduced static pressure, and potential drilling hazards such as kicks and blowouts, due to the inefficiency of existing loss control materials in sealing diverse fracture and pore sizes.
Innovation Solution
A bottomhole assembly equipped with a tubular, camera, and lost circulation media reservoirs, including actuable gates and triggers, releases large and small-sized media particles and sealants to seal high-loss zones without requiring drillstring removal, using a camera for real-time monitoring and controlled deployment of media and sealants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If loss control materials are added to plug high-loss zones, then fluid loss is reduced, but the materials cannot effectively seal diverse fracture and pore sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the lost circulation media into multiple reservoirs, each containing particles of different sizes. This allows the system to address diverse fracture and pore sizes in the formation by deploying appropriately sized particles for different loss zones, thereby improving sealing effectiveness while reducing fluid loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by providing different particle sizes at different locations within the wellbore. Each reservoir contains media tailored to specific loss zone characteristics, enabling targeted plugging of fractures and pores of varying sizes rather than using a uniform material throughout.
2Reliability
If drillstring removal is required to change loss control materials, then sealing effectiveness can be improved, but drilling operations are interrupted and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic, actuable gates that can be opened or closed as needed. This allows the drillstring to remain in place while selectively deploying different lost circulation media from multiple reservoirs based on real-time loss zone conditions, maintaining both sealing effectiveness and drilling continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing operators to change and deploy different loss control materials from multiple reservoirs without removing the drillstring. The actuable gates and triggers provide on-demand access to various media types, eliminating the need for intrusive interventions and maintaining operational productivity.
3Reliability
If multiple lost circulation media reservoirs are used to address diverse loss zones, then sealing effectiveness improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements universality by designing a modular system where multiple reservoirs share common actuation mechanisms and control systems. The actuable gates and triggers serve multiple functions across different reservoirs, allowing the system to handle diverse loss zones while keeping the overall device complexity manageable through standardized components.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for controlling lost circulation while drilling include while drilling a wellbore, encountering a high-loss circulation zone by a bottomhole assembly; responsive to encountering the high-loss circulation zone, releasing a first lost circulation media retained within the bottomhole assembly; and receiving a second lost circulation media, by the bottomhole assembly, from circulation fluid circulated from a topside facility.