URTeC: 2697162

Alkenes Detection from Drill Bit Metamorphism and Real-Time

Geochemical Elemental Analysis on Drill Cuttings Aids Drilling
Optimization and Geo-Steering in Tight Unconventional Laterals.
Ettore Carcione, Isaac Easow and Barzin Chiniwala, GEOLOG Americas Surface
Logging.
Copyright 2017, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) DOI 10.15530-urtec-2017- 2697162

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference held in Austin, Texas, USA, 24-26 July 2017.

The URTeC Technical Program Committee accepted this presentation on the basis of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). The contents of this paper
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Abstract

Utilization of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits has led to improved drilling efficiency and bit
performance, especially in long laterals in unconventional organic tight rocks. However, although the drilling
efficiency has improved, there are challenges related to increased bit wear in certain types of rocks. It is important
to identify when the bit wear starts occurring and in what rock type. No definitive methodology has been proved up
to date to help operators to understand precisely when a drill bit is starting to wear off and the attempt to drill ahead
becomes an invisible NPT and a high risk of tools lost in hole. Drill bit burn and drill bit metamorphism have been
an argument of discussion since several decades without any conclusive determination, despite the fact that some
experiments over the years have demonstrated a strong connection to this phenomenon. The intense heat generated
by drill bit “fatigue” during drilling, in conjunction with drilling fluid, hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbon gases, is
recognized to generate artifacts that are usually not present naturally. Drill bit metamorphism defines the artifact
produced by the interaction between the drill-bit, rocks and drilling fluid and is related to gas and rock artifacts. The
additional heat produced by part of the mechanical energy applied to the bit being transformed into heat by friction,
thermally crack oil-based drilling fluids and produce both hydrocarbons and Rock artifacts. This thermal cracking of
hydrocarbons in the drilling fluids generate unsaturated alkanes such as ethylene and propylene.

Real-time elemental analysis from X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) on drill cuttings can help identify the rocks that cause
drill bit metamorphism. Cuttings collected while drilling can be quickly measured with XRF and the data can be
flashed to the geo-steering team to help identify the lithological heterogeneity.
In this case study we will show how the real-time application of alkenes detection for identifying drill bit
metamorphism combined with XRF elemental analysis to identify the abrasive silica rich layer, can be utilized to aid
geo-steering and provide early alerts to prevent drill bit wear and if necessary to trip out of hole with BHA to avoid
severe damage to the bit, thus avoiding junk in hole. This real-time technology is of primary importance to optimize
drilling operation by performing timely Bit trip and saving rig time to significantly reduce invisible NPT.
.

Introduction

Although the drilling efficiency and drill bit performances have been significantly improved in recent years, challenges
related to pre-mature bit wear, due to unexpected rock abrasiveness while drilling long horizontal and ER (extended
reach) wells, remain as one of the major unknown factors while drilling. Drill bit selection is one of the most important
and complex task of the drilling engineers. There are many aspects that need to be considered and evaluated before
decision is made, such as well design and characteristics of the formation to be drilled. Choosing the wrong bit or
damaging the bit can add to increased costs for the operator. The engineer must also be aware of the impact of the
operating parameters on the performance of the bit such as, weight on bit (WOB), rotations per minute (RPM), mud
properties and hydraulic efficiency. Pre-mature bit wear strongly reduces drilling performances and represent a serious
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risk of NPT and potentially lost in hole problems that may have a significant impact on the overall well economics.
The conventional way to assess drilling efficiency at rig site is to compare the actual performance to statistical
standards in the same drilling environment (e.g. reference wells). Other processes involved measuring the mechanical
energy input at the drilling rig floor and calculating the drilling specific energy, but often such processes need to be
complemented by other expensive downhole tools and comparison with bit manufacturer benchmarks. Nevertheless,
no significant progress has been made up to date to definitely recognize early bit wear and thus timely and efficiently
plan to implement bit trips to significantly reduce operational costs.

The intense heat generated by drill bit “fatigue” during drilling, in conjunction with drilling fluid, hydrocarbons and
non-hydrocarbon gases, is recognized to generate artifacts that are usually not present in natural gas from formation.
This paper will explain how the presence of the mud gas contaminants generated by bit overheating can be associated
to lithological variations and / or decreasing bit efficiency due to early bit wear. Such events, if not timely recognized,
may generate invisible non-productive time and other severe drilling problems such as, low penetration rate, bit failure
and sometimes lost in hole of BHA. This paper will describe how the correct integration of the presence of unsaturated
alkane (alkene), drilling parameters and elemental analysis by XRF, can allow to discriminate between lithological
heterogeneity and low bit efficiency as cause of poor penetration rate (ROP). Failure to correctly evaluate such events
will strongly affect the drilling performances (NPT), and compromise the correct geological evaluation due to drill
cuttings artifact and generation of Hydrocarbons and non-Hydrocarbon contaminations₁. Bit “Metamorphism” as
noted by L. A. Kennedy, et Al (1992) ₂ may not be the correct term to define such type of transformation and in this
paper we will refer to a generic “bit fatigue” that according our determinations better describe the particular anomalous
behavior of the Bit that do not reflect the expected performance.

Theory

In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or
long chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of
carbon-carbon bonds. Cracking, in petroleum industry is the process by which heavy hydrocarbon molecules are
broken up into lighter molecules by means of heat and catalysts. The rate of cracking and the end products are strongly
dependent on the temperature.
During the drilling operation a mechanical energy is applied to the bit through the drill string, such mechanical energy
will be mostly transformed by the drill bit into work (ROP) and partly transformed / dispersed by the bit friction into
temperature.

To optimize hydraulic stimulation of unconventional reservoirs, it is important to identify brittle regions based on
knowledge of rock properties. Petrophysics, rock mechanics and mineralogy, and in particular, percentage of quartz
and calcite, control the brittleness of shale section. By utilizing the X-ray fluorescence (XRF), calcium and silica were
recognized as two major elements from drill cuttings. These major elements were then considered as proxies allowing
the geo-steering in the most suitable layers.
An alkene analyzer, a GC equipped with an FID detector, installed in parallel with a conventional gas detection system,
is used to separate ethylene and propylene from ethane and propane. All data are synchronized time to depth and
plotted in a composite log including ROP (rate of penetration), RPM (rotation per minute), Torque & WOB (weight
on bit) and a lithological column which is generated from cuttings observation under a field microscope. The elemental
analysis performed on drill cuttings, using an onsite-while drilling XRF measurement, complements the geological
description giving the elemental composition of the cuttings analyzed. The method described in this paper has been
developed mainly for the following reasons:
• The drill bit components are too often left in well bore, much before a pre-mature bit wear is identified, which
adversely affects the subsequent bit run (metal left in hole).
• Severe bit gauge wear will result from excessive reaming with new bits before ever reaching the bottom and
will contribute to poor ROP and overall life of the new bit.
• Uncertainty in well placement and geo-steering in tight unconventional reservoir, due to unexpected
mechanical behavior of the formation drilled, and failure to resolve using conventional downhole tools.
• All the above reasons imply a very negative impact on overall performances of the project, due to Invisible
Non Productive Time (INPT), and LIH (lost in hole) risk.

To eliminate these problems a robust workflow has been established, which uses real-time alkene detection and
drilling parameters jointly with elemental analysis (XRF) on cuttings. The appearance of contamination in the
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liberated gas during drilling is the first sign of an excess heat downhole caused by bit “fatigue” consequently the
non-optimal bit action will reflect in erratic and anomalous drilling behavior and decrease in penetration rate. The
lithology effect in this process is of primary importance, because each bit type is selected according to the expected
lithology. The chemical composition of each type of rock may have a significant impact on drilling performance.
The presence of silica component of the rock, is one of the main factors that could increase the abrasiveness of the
formation and if not timely recognized could cause pre-mature bit wear. Early identification of such problem will
allow to timely optimize the drilling parameters and in some cases will allow better bit selection.

As we will discuss below in the case study, the timely recognition of lithology type, chemical composition and bit
“burn effect” event will effectively assist in well placement and performance optimization.

Drilling performance and optimization programs have been historically based only through the analysis of reference
datasets which are often difficult to interpret because of the lack of uniformity in type and make of bits used and
variable drilling parameters applied among others. The use of technology onsite such as elemental analysis on drill
cuttings and more recently, alkene detection from mud gas, help overcome those uncertainties in near-real-time with
a structured, consistent and robust approach.

Case history # 1

Drilling an unconventional reservoir laterally in the Delaware basin: The operator’s objective was to maximize the
drilling performance in a silica rich target interval in a ~ 10,000ft lateral by avoiding early bit wear, drilling a hole in-
gauged, and maximizing the rate of penetration. The figure number 1 shows the strong correlation between the
appearance of mud gas contaminants (alkenes) and the increased presence of silica content in the formation (indicated
by red ellipses in figure 1). The decrease in ROP is always accompanied by the increase of alkenes. This effect is the
justification of increasing bit fatigue and mechanical energy dissipation as temperature. The damage to the drill bits
(images to the right in figure 1) are clearly visible with worn, broken and chipped teeth as well as a severely worn
gage. We can also see in the figure #1 the much lower alkenes contamination when the silica content from XRF is
decreasing (blue rectangles in figure #1) and ROP is increasing. Providing timely inputs toward geo-steering could
allow staying in the slightly lower silica rich layer, enabling better drilling performance.
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Increase in Alkenes followed by trips out with bit. Bit shows partial wear. Tripping out in time prevented further damage

Figure 1: Comparison of silica content and appearance of alkene contamination. Early signs of bit wear are visible from the images in the right
side of the figure.

Case history # 2

Drilling an unconventional reservoir laterally in the Permian basin: In figure number 2, it is clearly visible how the
presence of alkenes contamination gradually increasing, following the increasing trend of the silica content
measured in cuttings by XRF. The maximum level of alkenes contamination is seen corresponding to the sharp
increase in silica peak. The timely trip out-of-hole avoided a higher deterioration and damage to the bit and avoiding
leaving cutters in the hole. The new bit run shows a clear enhancement of the penetration rate (blue rectangle in
figure #2). The new bit doubled the penetration rate contributing to reducing the NPT and eliminating the need of a
probable wiper trip to ream and condition the hole prior to drilling ahead due to hole under-gauge.
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Figure 2: Correlation of Alkenes contamination and Silica content of the formation. Early bit wear due to fatigue (bit burn effect)

Conclusions

A method for timely identifying bit wear and helping decide on when to perform a bit trip in case of low penetration
rate and avoiding expensive NPT has been demonstrated in this paper.
In the absence of an independent information about the bit status, drilling operators usually rely on ‘best drilling
practices’ before deciding to trip out-of-hole due to poor drilling performance. This action could potentially have a
risk of lost drilling time, because a temporary drop in the penetration rate could be related to a lithological change or
local formation mechanical heterogeneity and not always due to early wearing of the bit. However, continuing to
drill as the ROP drops substantially could cost the operator accordingly. E.g. risk for the associated reaming cost of
an under-gauged hole, risk of lost in hole and ultimately invisible NPT costs. These scenarios lead to uncertainties
on decision making on whether to trip out or not.

The use of alkene measurements from drilling mud gas and XRF elemental analyses from drill cuttings in near real-
time has proved to be an effective, independent and highly reliable method to assess lithological heterogeneity and
early bit wear, thus helping improve drilling performance and optimizing well placement while drilling laterals in
unconventional reservoirs.

The use of alkene detection complemented by XRF elemental analysis allowed the operators to efficiently improve
the performance and reduce costs while drilling lateral wells using a cost effective surface logging technology. A
potentially effective method now exists, to optimize bit selection and decisions on bit trips, independent of
historically incomplete database of drilling and local lithological and mechanical formation heterogeneity.
Well placement in unconventional could be optimized avoiding highly abrasive silica cemented layers that could
represent a barrier for a production optimization and at the same time, significantly reducing non-productive-time
due to unexpected early bit wear or local lithological heterogeneity.
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