Fit-for-Purpose Sweep Pumping Schedule to Improve Operation Efficiency While Achieving Effective Hole Cleaning During Clean Up Cycle at Well Total Depth in an Unconventional Drilling Operation

Many horizontal wells have been delivered in the unconventional drilling operation. After the well is drilled to total depth (TD) of the well, it is not uncommon to have an excessively long clean-up circulation time prior to tripping out of hole to prepare for completion run. To improve the operation efficiency, an innovative strategy was proposed and applied by optimizing the sweep pumping schedule to reduce the circulation time while achieving the equivalent effective hole cleaning. In this paper, an innovative application tool developed to accomplish this new pumping schedule will be addressed. When the rig follows the new pumping sequence established by this tool, multiple tandem sweeps can be pumped in the hole while keeping only one tandem sweep in the annulus between the end of curve (EOC) and surface, and one tandem sweep between surface and EOC inside the drill string. As such, the well control condition will not be compromised, the equivalent hole cleaning effect can be achieved while reducing the circulation time by around 50%. In addition to the benefit as described above, this tool also brings the great convenience to eliminate the time-consuming calculation for driller, foreman and mud engineer, which allows the team to increase focus on operations.