Swelling of Oil-Based Drilling Fluids Resulting From Dissolved Gas

Abstract

SUMMARY The method presented in this paper uses an experimentally calibrated equation-of-state (EOS) model to estimate the swelling of oil-based drilling fluids caused by dissolved methane. With this method, the pit gain associated with a given kick size can be determined. The calculation method was verified by experiments conducted in a 6, 000-ft [1828.8-m] test well. Example calculations are also presented.