WorldWide Drilling Resource

40 JUNE 2021 WorldWide Drilling Resource® the difference between an artesian well and total loss of returns is 0.1 pound per gallon. If you had been drilling with an 8.5-pound per gallon mud adding the necessary 0.2 pounds per gallon, you now need an 8.7-pound per gallon mud. One of the ways to raise the weight of the drilling mud is to add barite. Barite comes in two different forms - 4.2 or 4.1. The 4.1 is currently the easiest to obtain. It requires 140 pounds of 4.2 barite or 150 pounds of 4.1 barite to raise the mud weight of 100 gallons of mud 1 pound per gallon. It is very difficult to control a flowing well by pumping a weighted fluid down the hole because the flowing water in the hole will aggressively dilute the weight of the kill mud. You will need to design a method to control the water flow so it only flows out of the well at the same rate as the rate at which the weighted fluid is being pumped into the well. In response to your final comment, an audience of curious bystanders and potential uninformed advisors is almost never a good thing, especially during any kind of problematic situation. Now you must worry about their safety, their concerns which almost always become urgent questions, and keeping them from inadvertently impeding necessary activities to safely get the issues resolved. Once again, let me reinforce my earlier comment. The success of any project is totally dependent on proper planning, which includes knowing as much as possible about the project. The 5 P’s of success are Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. In the words of actor Clint Eastwood: “A man has to know his limitations.” Thank you for your question. I hope you find my comments beneficial and useful. If you have any questions about this topic or if you have another topic you would like me to address, please contact Michele (below) and she will let me know. If I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does and is willing to share. We work in an amazing industry and have a tremendous resource base to pull from. Ron Ron Peterson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com Artesian Flows cont’d from page 39.

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