What are the best practices for managing pore pressure while drilling?

2 Monitor in real time

While drilling, you should use various tools and methods to measure and interpret the pore pressure and other drilling parameters in real time. These include logging while drilling (LWD), measurement while drilling (MWD), mud logging, drill stem tests (DST), and well testing. By monitoring the pore pressure, you can detect any changes or anomalies that indicate abnormal pressure zones, such as gas kicks, tight spots, or fractures. You can also compare the actual pore pressure with the predicted pore pressure to evaluate the accuracy of your pre-drill analysis and adjust your drilling plan accordingly.

3 Adjust as needed

If you encounter any pore pressure variations or challenges while drilling, you should take appropriate actions to maintain the well control and integrity. These actions may include changing the mud weight, circulating the mud, increasing the pump rate, reducing the penetration rate, increasing the hole cleaning, or performing a pressure test. You should also follow the standard procedures and protocols for handling any emergency situations, such as activating the blowout preventer (BOP), shutting in the well, or diverting the flow.

4 Use software tools

To assist you with managing pore pressure while drilling, you can use various software tools that provide advanced modeling, simulation, and visualization capabilities. These tools can help you to integrate and analyze data from multiple sources, such as seismic, geological, petrophysical, and drilling data, to generate reliable pore pressure and fracture gradient models. They can also help you to optimize your drilling parameters, such as mud weight, bit size, and casing design, to achieve the best balance between pore pressure and fracture gradient. Some examples of software tools for managing pore pressure while drilling are Drillworks, GeoPressure, and StressCheck.

5 Learn from experience

Managing pore pressure while drilling is not an exact science, but rather an art that requires experience and judgment. Therefore, you should always learn from your previous drilling projects and incorporate the lessons learned into your future drilling plans. You should also keep track of the pore pressure trends and anomalies in your area of operation and share your knowledge and best practices with your peers and colleagues. By learning from experience, you can improve your pore pressure management skills and enhance your drilling performance and safety.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?