a collection of Questions and Answers about Oil Well Kicks:
1) The driller is tripping pipe out of a 12 ¼” diameter hole. 25×92 ft. stand of 5” pipe have already been pulled. There are 85 more stands to pull. The calculated metal displacement of the 9 ½” collars is 0.08 bbls/ft. The capacity of the drill pipe is 0.01776 bbls/ft and the metal displacement 0.0075 bbls/ft. The trip tank volume has reduced from 27 barrels to 15 barrels. What action should be taken in this situation?
a) Flow check, if negative continue to pull out of hole.
b) Shut the well in and circulate hole clean.
c) Flow check, if negative displace a 100 ft. heavy slug into annulus and continue to pull out of hole.
d) Flow check, if negative run back to bottom and monitor returns.
e) Pull remaining stands out of hole.
Answer: d
2) Prior to pulling out of the hole from 10485 ft. TVD, the pipe is full of 10.4 ppg. mud. The pipe capacity is 0.01776 bbls/ft. A 25 bbls slug weighting 12.0 ppg is pumped into the drill pipe causing the level to drop some 216 ft. inside the drill pipe.
What is the drop in bottom hole pressure due to pumping the slug into position?
a) 25 psi
b) 0 psi.
c) 117 psi
d) 135 psi.
Answer: b
3) Which of the following possible indications suggest that mud hydrostatic pressure and formation pressure are almost equal?
a) A drilling break.
b) Connection gas.
c) Large, splintery cuttings.
d) Trip gas.
e) All of above.
Answer: e
4) While pulling out of the hole it is noticed that mud required to fill the hole is less than calculated. What action must be taken?
a) Flow check, if negative displace a 100 ft. heavy slug into annulus and continue to pull out of the hole.
b) Flow check, if negative run back to bottom circulate bottoms up and monitor returns.
c) Pull remaining stands out of the hole.
d) Flow check, if negative continue to pull out of the hole.
e) Shut the well in and circulate the hole clean.
Answer: b
5) You are pulling out of hole. Two 93 ft. stands of 8” drill collars have been stood back in the derrick. The displacement is 0.0549 bbls/ft.
According to your Assistant driller – 5.1 bbls should be pump into the well. It only takes 5 bbls to fill the hole. (Answer “Yes” or “No” to each question.)
a) Are the calculations correct?
b) Have you taken a 5 bbls influx?
c) All OK, keeps going?
Answer:
a. = No (10.2).
b. =Yes,
c.= No.
6) While tripping out of the hole a kick was taken and a full bore kelly cock was stabbed and closed. A non return type safety valve was made up on top of the kelly cock prior to stripping in.
(Answer “Yes” or “No” to each question.)
a) Should the kelly cock be closed?
b) If the kelly cock is left in the open position, can a wire line be run inside the drill string?
Answer:
a.= No,
b. = No
7) You are planing to trip out of the hole. From the list below, circle six items that you would check before starting your trip.
a) Kelly-cock on drill floor
b) Slow circulation rate recorded
c) Sufficient power to drawworks.
d) Choke and kill manifold lined up for drilling
e) Make sure trip tank is half full
f) Trip sheets ready to record volumes displaced.
g) Make up kick sheet
h) Crossover sub on drill floor for kelly cock & drill collars
Answer: a, b, c, e, f, h
Shut-in Procedure
1) From the list of practices shown below, choose the six most likely to lead to an increase in the size of the influx.
a) Switch off the flow meter alarms.
b) Regular briefing for the derrickman on his duties regarding the monitoring of pit levels.
c) Drilling 20 ft further after a drilling brake, before flow checking.
d) Running regular pit drills for drill crew.
e) Maintaining stab in valves.
f) Testing stab in valves during BOP tests.
g) Excluding the drawworks from the SCR assignment.
h) Keeping air pressure on choke control console at 10 psi.
i) Calling toolpusher to floor prior to shutting in the well.
j) Not holding down master air valve on remote BOP control panel while functioning a preventer.
Answer: a, c, g, h, i, j
2) What is the reason for raising the kelly to bring the first tool joint above the rotary table when shutting in a well?
a) Allow the free flow of mud around bit during kill operation.
b) Allow access to the lower kelly cock and, if required, removal of the kelly.
c) Extend closing time to give softest possible shut in.
d) Allow annular to close around drillpipe because the annular is not designed to seal around the kelly.
Answer: b
3) If flow through the drillpipe occurs while tripping, what should the first action be?
a. Pick up and stab kelly.
b. Run back into bottom.
c. Close the annular preventer.
d. Stab a full opening safety valve, close the valve.
Answer: d
4) While drilling along at a steady rate the derrickman asks to slow the mud pumps down so that the shakers can handle the increase in cuttings coming back in the returns. Which one of the following would be the safest course of action.
a) Continue at the same rate allowing the excess to bypass the shakers and get caught in sand traps which can be dumped later.
b) Pick up off bottom and check for flow, if there is not any then circulate bottoms up to reduce rate so shakers can handle cutting volume, flow check periodically during circulation.
c) Slow down the mud pump until the shakers can handle the volume of cuttings in the returns as requested by derrickman.
d) Slow down the drilling rate and the pump rate until the shakers clear up then go back to the original parameters.
Answer: b
5) Which of the following would be the first action you would take if while circulating out a kick the chicksans or hose connected to your drill string parted?
a) Stop pump and close the full opening safety valve on the drill string. Close the choke.
b) Close the shear rams. (Shear ram position above pipe rams being used).
c) Drop the drill string and close blind/shear rams.
Answer: a
6) While circulating out the kick, No.1 mud pump fails. What is the first thing to do?
a) Immediately switch to No. 2 pump.
b) Fix pump as soon as possible
c) Secure the well, isolate mud pump restart using No. 2 pump.
d) Divert the well.
Answer: a
read also Testing of Drilling Systems
Kick Data – Pressure Observations
1) When a kick occurs, why is it important to get the well shut in as soon as possible? Please answer the following items True or False.
a) A larger pit gain will result in a higher SIDPP resulting in a heavier kill mud weight
b) A larger pit gain will result in higher SIDPP and SICP
c) A larger pit gain will result in higher SICP but SIDPP will stay the same
Answer:
a) False
b) False
c) True
2) A flowing well is closed in. Which pressure gauge reading is normally used to determine formation pressure?
a) BOP manifold pressure gauge.
b) Choke console drill pipe pressure gauge.
c) Driller’s console drill pipe pressure gauge.
d) Choke console casing pressure gauge.
Answer: b
3) A flowing well is closed in. Which two pressure gauge readings might be used to determine formation pressure?
a) BOP manifold pressure gauge.
b) Choke console drill pipe pressure gauge.
c) Driller’s console drill pipe pressure gauge.
d) Choke console casing pressure gauge.
Answer: b & d
4) A kick is being circulated out at 30 SPM. The drill pipe pressure reads 550 psi, and casing pressure 970 psi. It is decided to slow the pumps to 20 SPM while maintaining 970 psi on the casing gauge.
How will this affect bottom hole pressure (exclude any Equivalent Circulating Density [ECD] effect)? Pick one answer.
a) Increase
b) Decrease
c) Stay the same
d) No way of knowing
Answer: c
5) While killing a well, as pump speed is increased, what should happen to casing pressure in order to keep bottom hole pressure steady?
a) Casing pressure should be held steady during SPM change.
b) Casing pressure should be allowed to rise during SPM change.
c) Casing pressure should be allowed to fall during SPM change.
Answer: a
read also Acidizing Concepts
6) The principle involved in Constant Bottom Hole Pressure methods of well control is to maintain a bottom hole pressure that is :
a) Equal to the slow circulating rate pressure.
b) At least equal to the formation pressure.
c) Equal to the shut in drill pipe pressure.
d) At least equal to the shut in casing pressure.
Answer: b
7) At what point while correctly circulating out a gas kick is it likely that the pressure at the casing shoe to be at its maximum?
a) At initial shut in.
b) When kill mud reaches the bit.
c) When kill mud reaches the shoe.
d) When top of gas reaches the shoe.
Answer: d
8) If Drill pipe Pressure is held constant while displacing the string with kill mud, what will happen to Bottom Hole Pressure?
a) Increases.
b) Remains the same.
c) Decreases.
Answer: a
9) How is a choke wash-out recognized?
a) Rapid rise in casing pressure with no change in drill pipe pressure.
b) Increase in drill pipe pressure with no change in casing pressure.
c) Continually having to open choke to maintain drill pipe and casing pressure.
d) Continually having to close choke to maintain drill pipe and casing pressure.
Answer: d
10) The choke has to be gradually closed due to a string washout. What effect does the gradual closing of the choke have on the bottom hole pressure?
a) Decreases.
b) Increases.
c) Stays the same.
Answer: b
11) If Bottom Hole Pressure is held constant while circulating the influx out, the pressure on at the casing shoe will not increase after the influx passes, even though surface pressure on the annulus continues to rise.
a) True
b) False
Answer: a
References:
1.Transocean Sedco Forex – Jakarta Learning Centre – Pre-school exercises for Well Control With Answers.
2. Well Control Manual part.1 & 2 – from Well Control School