Drilling Surface

Surface Drilling Well Control Course Outline IADC

The IADC WellSharp® Driller Level course offers basic, fundamental well control knowledge for crew members involved in day-to-day drilling operations including kick detection, well shut-in procedures, calculations, standard well control methods, and barrier equipment.

Interactive Study Tools

• Provide students with over 600 pages of pre-course study
  materials at wildwell.com
• Provide students with a study guide that covers up to 150
  interactive well control questions and answers.
• Provide students with a 50 question test to determine their
  well control knowledge gaps

Preliminary Items

• Safety: escape routes, muster points, etc.
• Discussion of special needs
• Introductions
• Class paperwork

Serious Well Control Problem From the Wild Well Library

• Students form teams
• Team discussion of the potential lateral well control problem
• Simulator exercise demonstrating the well control challenge
• Return to class to discuss the challenge

Well Control Course Objectives

• Formations, pore pressure, fracture gradients
• Killsheet, kick detection, flow checks, well shut-in, and gas
  behavior
• Well control methods
• Well control equipment (barriers, BOPs, manifolds,
  accumulator, etc.)
• Completing the well and post-completion activity
• Final well control simulation: from kick to kill, with a
  complication
• Assessments: skills and written Formations, Pore Pressure
• Fracture Gradient
• Formation structure
  − Porosity
  − Permeability
• Fracture gradients, kick tolerance, pore pressures
  − Related formulas/math (hydrostatic pressure, the U tube,- force,
  MAASP, etc.)
  − Equivalent mud weight
  − Kick tolerance
  − Pore pressure vs. fracture gradient (drilling margin/window)
• Simulator exercise demonstrating a FIT; discussion of LOT (if needed, depending upon class knowledge level)
• Discuss casing and cementing program
• Discuss drilling fluids program

Barriers

• Philosophy and operation of barrier systems
• Number of barriers for safe operation
• Testing barriers

Shallow Gas, Water Flows, and Top-hole Drilling

• Definitions and causes of pressure in top-hole formations
• Causes of underbalanced top-hole
• Diverting practices
• Top-hole drilling practices and causes of kicks

Abnormal Pressure Warning Signs

• Abnormal pressure
• Shaker evidence
• Changes in mud properties
• Changes in drilling data/parameters

Kick Detection

• Well flow with pumps off
• Pit gain
• Flow return rate increase

Killsheet, Kick Detection, Flow Checks, Well Shut-in, and Gas Behavior

• Related formulas/math (capacities/volumes, strokes,
  circulation times, etc.)
• Causes of kicks
• Kick signs
  − Overt kick signs
  − Pre-kick signs
• Flow-check procedures
• Shut-in procedures and verification
  − Drilling
  − Tripping
  − Out of the hole
  − Running casing and cementing
  − Wireline
  − Shut-in methods
  − Blind and blind shear rams
  − Diverting
• Post-shut-in monitoring and activities
  − Kick log
  − Gas migration
  − Trapped pressure
  − Handling ballooning
  − Bumping the float
  − Line-up
• Paper killsheet with preliminary well data
  − Well data, volume calculations
  − Discuss the importance of a killsheet
• Simulator exercises demonstrating hard and soft shut-in
  − Kick detection and shut-in
  − Students complete killsheet with simulator well data
  (or instructor-given data)
  − Discussion of killsheet calculations:
  − What do they mean? (if needed) Discussion of − IADC WellSharp
  rounding rules
• Gas behavior
  − While drilling
  − In horizontal wells
  − While shut-in

Well Control Methods

• Review of related formulas/math (capacities/volumes, strokes,
  circulation times, kill mud, MAASP, ICP, FCP, etc.)
• Wait and Weight Method
  − Discussion of Wait and Weight
  − Techniques
  − Skills (pump startup, step-down chart, gauge use, lag time, etc.)
  − Simulator exercise
• Driller’s Method
  − Discussion of Driller’s Method
  − Techniques
  − Skills (pump startup, capturing pressure after the first circulation,
  − lag time, etc.)
  − Simulator exercise

Stripping Pipe Under Pressure

• Discussion of technique
• Skills (annular pressure, speed of strip, managing wellbore pressures via volumetric method)
• Simulator exercise

Bullhead Method – Discussion and simulator exercise if time allows
Discussion of study guide questions

Well Control Drills

• Pit drills
• Trip drills
• Stripping drills
• Choke drills
• Early response and empowerment to act
  
  

Completing the well and post-completion activity: a short discussion

• Completions
• Differences between drilling and workover

Final simulator exercise (if time allows)

• Abnormal lateral well and kick detection
• Kill the well with Wait and Weight Method

Discussion

• Ballooning wells vs. kicking wells
• Fingerprinting

Discussion of Study Guide Questions
Skills Assessment
Computer-Based WellSharp® Exam