A different approach in handling well control kick circulation

This paper presents a different approach in handling well control kick circulation. The existing method is to monitor the drill pipe pressure and manage the choke to hold the bottom hole circulating pressure above formation pressure while circulating the influx out of the annulus. However, this heavily relies on the experience of the personnel particularly if problems occur. In order to circulate a kick out with a safe bottom hole pressure, usually we control chokes by observing stand pipe pressure, which was calculated on a kill sheet. One of the major disadvantage of the existing method is that pressure wave needs a few seconds to travel from the choke which is located near the casing to the stand pipe pressure gauge (say pressure wave travels at 1000ft/s from the choke to standpipe gauge, applying the U-tube model, then the response time required for pressure wave to travel in 6000ft well would be 12 seconds). In order to avoid this pressure retard we could calculate and monitor the casing pressure on the control panel, and calculate the stand pipe pressure in addition. One of the major advantages of this method is that it enables the choke operator to handle the complicated downhole situation with more accuracy and immediate responds. In addition, this method gives more accurate and timely detection of some of the well control problems such as Nozzle Plugging, Nozzle Washout Drill String Wash out, Choke Plug and Washout, etc. Well control problems such as nozzle and choke washout and plugging may lead to major well control issues if they are not detected timely. This heavily relies on the experience of the personnel. There is a need to detect these problems timely in order to avoid subsequent problems. The suggested method in this paper, presents a techniques that does not rely on the experience of the personnel.