Thermal simulation of two-phase flow in under-balanced drilling operation with oil and gas production

The accurate prediction of wellbore temperature distribution helps to accurately estimate well pressure profile and bottom-hole pressure (BHP) which is important in the under-balanced drilling (UBD) operation. In this paper effect of temperature variation due to heat transfer of drilling fluid with the formation and also oil and gas production from the reservoir into the annulus in under-balanced drilling condition were investigated. Gas-liquid two-phase flow model considering thermal interaction with the formation is used to numerically simulate a well with real dimensions. Based on drilling fluids flow and heat transfer characteristics in wells, conservations of mass and momentum and energy equations have been developed to compute BHP and wellbore temperature and pressure profile. After temperature and pressure validation of the numerical model, the effect of heat transfer between drilling fluid inside the well and the formation was considered on the pressure distribution and bottom-hole pressure. The results of two-phase flow, considering thermal effect gives better results compared to two-phase flow with geothermal temperature distribution analysis and better accuracy in comparison with other models.

Keywords:

Under-Balanced Drilling (UBD) , Bottom-Hole Pressure (BHP) , Pressure distribution , Two-fluid model , Temperature profile