The deepwater environment can place serious demands and constraints on the drilling fluid during well construction. Failure to adequately address these concerns can lead to excessive well costs, unscheduled trouble time, unnecessary high-risk activities, and poor performance. In this paper, we identify and succinctly discuss the top 10 mud-related concerns based on field experience in the Gulf of Mexico, off-shore West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Brazil.

Mud-related concerns selected for this top-10 list are (1) lost circulation, (2) mud properties, (3) solids transport, (4) stuck pipe, (5) wellbore stability, (6) shallow hazards, (7) gas hydrates, (8) reservoir productivity, (9) environmental issues, and (10) fluid-related logistics.

Keywords:
rheology, circulation, deepwater drilling operation, spe annual technical conference, deepwater well, operation, hydrate, drilling fluid selection and formulation, drilling fluids and materials, deepwater drilling
Subjects:
Well Planning, Wellbore Design, Drilling Operations, Pressure Management, Drilling Equipment, Drilling Fluids and Materials, Hydraulic Fracturing, Reservoir Characterization, Fluid Characterization, Formation Evaluation & Management
Copyright 2000, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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