MUD-WEIGHT PREDICTION FOR DEVIATED DRILLING

The success of drilling operations predominantly depends on the preparation of the mud weight design, which takes into consideration factors, such as narrowing of mud window, pressure loss as the well deviates, and availability of data from the field itself. This project aims to provide an in-house application to predict the mud weight design in deviated drilling. Specifically, the objectives of this project are 1) to develop an algorithm for predicting mud weight in deviated drilling; 2) to solve the governing equation for stresses around the wellbore for deviated drilling and 3) to build an integrated tool kit for different data that are available on the field. The project was divided into four main phase. The first phase consisted of background study and literature review related to wellbore instability, principle stress, mud window, and Mohr’s Coulomb Criteria. The second phase identified the parameters and deriving the equation for stresses around deviated well. The third phase focused on building a model to calculate the stresses around the borehole and mud weight window. The fourth phase was testing and validation of the model and also improving the user interface. The project deliverable is a mud weight design tool for deviated drilling with capability to depict well trajectory.