Drilling Surface - WellSharp® Live

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.

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