No-Damage Drilling: How to Achieve this Challenging Goal? Helio Santos; Helio Santos Impact Engineering Solutions Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Jesus Olaya Jesus Olaya Ecopetrol/ICP Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology, Jakarta, Indonesia, September 2002. Paper Number: SPE-77189-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/77189-MS Published: September 09 2002 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Santos, Helio, and Jesus Olaya. "No-Damage Drilling: How to Achieve this Challenging Goal?." Paper presented at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology, Jakarta, Indonesia, September 2002. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/77189-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition Search Advanced Search AbstractNo-Damage DrillingSM is the ultimate goal of all well construction activities, by providing a way to explore and produce the hydrocarbon reserves with minimum reduction of the natural permeability of the reservoir rocks. Conventional drilling is conducted with an over-balanced pressure on the reservoir formation, which causes the drilling fluid to invade and damage the rock.The industry has been trying to come up with alternatives and underbalanced drilling UBD has grown in popularity during the last years. However, in many situations UBD is not feasible to be used, due to economical and/or technical reasons. In cases UBD is not used, a drilling fluid with an overbalanced pressure should be used. A new drilling fluid called Non-Invasive FluidSM - NIFSM has been developed and is in the market to fill this gap.The goal of this paper is to present a new concept, called No-Damage Drilling, addressing the most important points during a well construction activity. The paper describes the different techniques available to achieve the goal of drilling a well with no-damage, including UBD and drilling fluids. A new drilling fluid is described, which has the capability of not invading the rock when a certain overbalance is applied, and the unique technology of the fluid allows an extremely easy removal of the seal, guaranteeing an effective restoration of the original permeability of the rock.The paper presents laboratory tests conducted to evaluate the performance of UBD and drilling fluids related to formation damage, as well as several case histories showing that with careful planning and proper technology a successful No-Damage Drilling operation is possible to be achieved. The paper finally addresses the main points to be followed to decide the best technological option to drill with no-damage, based on a series of questions specially developed.IntroductionFormation damage during drilling oil/gas wells has been a subject discussed at depth in the industry, even in events especially organized to address this topic. It has been well recognized that while drilling with conventional fluids, significant damage to the original permeability may be induced by the drilling fluid, as the pressure inside the wellbore needs to be above the formation pore-pressure. This overbalance pressure often causes the drilling fluid to invade the rock, which, in turn, reduces the natural permeability of the rock.Damage mechanisms have been also discussed1,2,3,4, and, even though there is still debate about the real ones in some situations, it is pretty well agreed that solids invasion is one of the most important damaging mechanism. Just allowing the filtrate, without solids, to invade and penetrate into the rock is potentially damaging1. And there may be several other effects occurring downhole that the industry still cannot exactly mimic in the laboratory - this limitation prevents the industry from coming to a firm conclusion, including when drilling underbalanced2,3,4.In order to overcome the problem of formation damage while drilling, the industry developed a method to drill with a bottomhole pressure below the pore pressure, called Underbalanced Drilling - UBD. Several studies have been conducted in this subject as well, with also conferences and Forums dedicated to it in order to address the different issues involved when a well is to be successfully drilled underbalanced.Since the appearance of UBD, significant improvement in technology has been achieved, with new and sophisticated equipment providing increased safety of those operations, initially considered very risky. The success of UBD triggered a big debate in the industry: those strongly opposing the traditional drilling and those opposing the new UBD, with each side trying to defend their viewpoints. Keywords: upstream oil & gas, filtrate, composition, annular pressure drilling, invasion, underbalanced drilling, return permeability, fluid pressure, iadc spe 77189, ubd Subjects: Pressure Management, Drilling Fluids and Materials, Underbalanced drilling, Drilling fluid selection and formulation (chemistry, properties) This content is only available via PDF. 2002. IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.