Modeling Gas Migration During a Gas Kick

Gas kick is an undesirable problem in the oil and gas industry, which can potentially interfere with the production process and damage drilling equipment. The primary intent of this study is to highlight gas migration and its effect on gas kick mitigation approaches that would benefit the petroleum industry. The integrated analysis provides valuable insight regarding parameters promoting efficient drilling and production processes, Minimizing the risk of gas kicks. This study aimed to investigate the impact of critical parameters on gas migration during the gas kick in both water- and oil-based mud and promote the understanding of the dynamics of the choke pressure, gas velocity, and bottom-hole pressure based on completion and reservoir parameters. This study reveals various factors affecting gas migration during gas kicks, characterized by different interactive parameters. These parameters include casing size, open hole size, drill-pipe size, drill collar size, kick volume, mud density, reservoir temperature, and circulation rate. This study used two base-models: Oil-Based mud and Water-Based mud. The models were used to perform several parametric studies to investigate the impact of critical parameters on gas migration during the gas kick. A commercial multiphase dynamic well control simulator was used in this study. Each type of mud acted differently and affected the gas migration discussed explicitly in this study. The study explicitly illustrates the different outcomes for each model during gas migration. The parameters that range from most effective to least effective on gas migration are casing size, kick volume, drill-pipe size, mud density, and reservoir temperature, while in the OBM the parameters that range from most effective to least effective are casing size, kick volume, drill-pipe size, oil-water ratio, mud density, and reservoir temperature. However, the main differences are the gas rise velocity and time in the base models. In water-based mud, the Average gas velocity is 97.8 ft/Min, while the average gas velocity in the oil-based mud is 75.6 ft/Min. Thus, the water-based mud is faster than the oil-based mud by 58%. The gas is discharged from the well within 48.2 Minutes in the water-based mud, while the oil-based mud takes 115.7 Minutes