Gunk Squeezes

Dear DOBG,
I started a new thread as hopefully the OBM flourescence topic will continue.
For a waterbase mud system mix 400 lbs bentonite per barrel of diesel. Use base oil instead of
diesel if an enhanced mineral oil or synthetic oil is required for environmental compliance.
If you wish to use cement as well use 200 lbs of bentonite and 200 lbs of cement per barrel of
diesel / base oil.
Lost circulation material can also be included.
For an oil mud system the one barrel recipes (in order of mixing) are a little bit more complicated.
For example:
Mud Weight up to 10.5 ppg:
Water - 0.66 bbls
Chrome free lignosulphonate - 3-1/2 lbs
Caustic soda - 1-1/2 lbs
Organophillic bentonite (OBM clay viscosifier) -220 lbs
Barite - As required.
Mud Weight 13.0 ppg:
Water - 0.628 bbls
Chrome free lignosulphonate - 3-1/2 lbs
Caustic soda - 1-1/2 lbs
Organophillic bentonite (OBM clay viscosifier) -150 lbs
Barite - 175 lbs
Mud Weight 16.0 ppg:
Water - 0.582 bbls
Chrome free lignosulphonate - 3-1/2 lbs
Caustic soda - 1-1/2 lbs
Organophillic bentonite (OBM clay viscosifier) -100 lbs
Barite - 370 lbs
To Apply:
1. Drain and clean the tank thoroughly. Likewise all lines to the rig pumps or pump truck.
2. Mix the slurry as per chosen recipe
3. Pump in order at about 3 bbls/min
- Spacer to cover approximately 500 ft dill pipe
- Slurry to cover approximately twice the open hole volume
- Spacer to cover approximately 500 ft dill pipe
Note - Spacer is the base fluid of the mud system in use.
4. Displace the slurry to the bit with mud.
5. Close the BOP
6. Pump mud down the string and annulus in equal amounts until the slurry is displaced out of the
drill string.
7. Once in place pull the drill string clear of the slurry.
8. Maintain equal pressure on the drill pipe and casing - usually 150 - 200 psi for a soft squeeze /
300 - 400 psi for a hard squeeze.

9. Attempt to regain circulation slowly after an agreed setting time.

Most mud company field / pocket manuals should be able to help you.
Good Luck!
RAD.
PS: I haven't forgotten SD2 - Just waiting to defoam once the festivities are behind us.

Re: Gunk Squeezes

Reply #1 on Jan 23, 2007, 12:03am

Dear Members & Visitors:

See "Selective intervention via material squeeze saves Papua New Guinea Find" by John Reese, Boots & Coots
in World Oil January 2007 Pages 23 - 28. (Not yet available online @www.worldoil.com)for killing a gas kick
with a gunk squeeze.
Great stuff.
Best regards,
RAD
Re: Gunk Squeezes
Reply #2 on Aug 23, 2008, 4:11am

To follow up Rad posting, the full report can be found using the link at the bottom of the introduction
WELL CONTROL AND INTERVENTION
Selective interventionvia material squeeze saves Papua New Guinea find
Due to difficult, remote jungle logistics, InterOils decision to undergo theexpense and risk of a reactive
material squeeze protected an important discovery well.
John Reese , Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc., Houston
InterOil, an independent operator in Papua New Guinea, recently prevailed over myriad logistical and downhole
obstacles to safely and successfully manage a well control incident, and complete a wildcat well. The
sidetracked well was Elk 1 ST #1. This prospect, identified from geophysical and limited offset data, was sited
in such a remote area that no roads could be used to transport personnel, equipment or materials to the site.
Transportation to the site was via helicopter. Thus, equipment selection was restricted by weight, and the
operational schedule was often affected by weather.
A plugged bit, a fish in the BHA and severe losses encountered in a fractured limestone formation required
mobilization of personnel, materials and equipment necessary for the selected intervention techniqueuse of
reactive materials. A description of the well control operations, as well as explanations of the operational
environment, logistical challenges, equipment limitations, and downhole configuration that defined the well
control problem, are provided below.
Read

http://www.worldoil.com/magazine/MAGAZINE_DETAIL.asp?ART_ID=3089&MONTH_YEAR=Jan2007

Re: The "gunk plug"

Reply #3 on Aug 23, 2008, 4:18am

The "gunk plug"

The "gunk plug" is an adaptation of the gunk squeeze method used to plug fractures. The gunk plug forms when
water comes in contact with bentonite that has been placed in the hole as a concentrated suspension in diesel
oil.
Water causes the bentonite to swell to form a putty-like mass. When the gunk plug is placed through the drill
pipe, care must be taken to have enough diesel oil precede and follow the bentonite suspension to serve as a
barrier to prevent any mixing with water before the suspension has been displaced from the pipe.
There are several types of "Gunk Squeeze". Typically a mixture of 300-400 ppb of bentonite in diesel or
synthetic oil is pumped . The bentonite affinity for water causes rapid thickening (or hardening) that can seal of
a loss zone.
A 50:50 mixture of bentonite/oil and mud can plug open holes because it gives near instantaneous setting. The
one draw back to this method of curing losses is that you are to be pretty sure that you know exactly what part of
the hole the loss zone is in.
BENTONITE-DIESEL/SYNTHETIC OIL (10 bbls at 11.3 ppg) 7.2 bbl diesel/synthetic oil 2600 lbs bentonite
50 lbs course mica 50 lbs fine mica 10 lbs fiber Can be mixed a weighted with barite.
BENTONITE-CEMENT-DIESEL/SYNTHETIC OIL (10 bbls at 11.7 ppg) 7.1 bbl diesel/synthetic oil 1400 lbs
bentonite 1300 lbs cement Add LCM material as required, and barite to attain required weight.
Invert BDO/BSO formulations mix with oil (or OBM) and react the same way that normal "gunk squeezes" do
in WBM.
INVERT BENTONITE-DIESEL/SYNTHETIC OIL (Water Organophilic Bentonite)
*10 bbls at 12.0 ppg 7.14 bbl drill water 33 lbs lignosulfonate 16.5 lbs caustic soda 2500 lbs organophilic clay
(VG-69, GELTONE V etc.)
*10 bbls at 16.4 ppg 5.9 bbl drill-water 10 lbs caustic soda 5 lbs lignosulfonate 1625 lbs organophilic clay 3000
lbs barite
TIPS 1. Make sure mixing pit, hopper, lines, etc, are completely clean 2. Isolate pop-offs and use cementing
lines 3. Spacers of at least 10 bbl diesel/synthetic oil before and after the "gunk pill" to prevent plugging in the
pipe (or water/gel pills when using OBM) 4.
Squeeze pills into loss zone from 50ft above (at 1-4 bpm) 5. Once final squeeze pressure is obtained, pull into
casing shoe with drill pipe and hold pressure for 2-4 hours. If cement is used, allow another 8 hours before
attempting to drill
Drilling with slight lose or minimum is quite common but in this writers opinion is an extremely dangerous
practice even in so called known fields. However it is done and here is how. The annular pressure loss it +/- 6%
of the total system pressure lost and is added to the Bottom hole pressure if this is reduce it may be possible to
bring down the lose of fluid "It can be live with" comes to mind.

Lets say the system pressure loss is 3000 psi 6% of that would be 180 psi +/- By slowing down the flow rate you
will lower the circulating pressure and the pressure lose in the annuals. This will not cure the loss just relieve
some of the pressure
Cement can also be used to cure and plug lost zone. In know loss area drilling with no jet will allow cementing
through the bit. This is not a common practice but there are times when it may be the only way. This system will
often be used in conjunction with well control problem. Straddle packer are another way of using cement.
A lot of time and money has been spent on developing a drillable straddle packer. The idea behind such packers
is to isolating the section of well bore near a loss zone in order to improve the efficiency of the cementing
operation.
The packer off consists of two packer one above and one below the loss zone, thereby directing cement into the
well bore region between the two bags and forcing most of the cement into the loss zone. More recently such
packed have been developed that are made of flexible materials that inflates with cement using the differential
pressure that develops across the cement ejection ports in the packer assembly making them a lot easier to drill
out.
Another unconventional mud approach is the use of mud caps. In these applications, the annulus is shut in and
the wells are drilled without returns. Water is pumped down the drill pipe and is lost to the natural fracture
system along with the cuttings. Mud on the annulus provides pressure control.
Applications for mud caps include very low-pressure formations with severe lost circulation potential and very
high-pressure intervals. They have been widely used in applications where both high and low-pressure fractures
may be encountered.
There is still a long way to go with this page, attached to this page is a discussion group The idea is quite simple
I often find when I read what others have written it jolts my memory It could do the same for you. However
instead off letting things slide just pop a note on the board We can then transfer it into this page

Acknowledgement:
Alan Rodgerson Consultant mud engineer for his help and information on formulating the gunk
Re: Gunk Squeezes
Reply #4 on Aug 26, 2008, 6:09pm

I have worked with John Reese on Kashagan, pumping lots of gunk! I have emailed him to let him know that he
is mentioned in the post to see if he wants to add anything. Gunk is very reactive and contact with water on its
way to the bit it will start setting up. This means you have to be sure there is no WBM between the pump and
the bit, or it will plug! I also seem to remember a lot of trials prior to the final recipe to measure reaction times
and ratios etc. Great fun!

Re: Gunk Squeezes

Reply #5 on Aug 27, 2008, 5:14am

Further to my last post a reply from John Reese as follows:

"Thanks, Warren. Interesting bulletin board there.
You should note that the Papua New Guinea job was a bit different from the Kashagan jobs. We couldn't pump
through the bit, so we didn't have any way to mix the gunk with WBM. We bullheaded it down the annulus
praying that it wouldn't find any water with which to react. Once it was past the bit, we prayed that it WOULD
find water!
We didn't get any squeeze pressure at all, but I pumped very slowly after reaching the bit. The next morning, we
compared the pressure buildup to previous buildup curves and knew that we had achieved a plug. The pressure
built slowly for a while, then leveled off at a much lower pressure than before. I guess it found some water!
Also note that Danny Walzel, one of our junior engineers, was there for the first few weeks of the job and did a
great job getting everything set up and fabricated. "
Re: Gunk Squeezes
Reply #6 on Jun 2, 2010, 11:54am

could you please tell me what is invert gunk squeez

Read
more:http://drillingclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=lost&action=display&thread=3203#ixzz2
DaOD4DZn