Cuttings transport with gas in the highly-deviated horizontal wells

Gas drilling has been widely used due to its advantages of protecting and finding oil and gas reservoir, reducing lost circulation and pipe sticking, extending the bit life, and improving rate of penetration (ROP). Cuttings transport in highly-deviated and horizontal segment is considered as an important part of the design of hydraulic parameters. In this case, poor cuttings transport will lead to stuck pipe, higher drag and torque, slower ROP, bad cementing quality, and other problems. In this study, a two-layer steady model was developed to depict cuttings transport behavior, and the sensitivity analyses were conducted. The simulations show the ratio of bed area and annular area and pressure drop decrease with the increase of pipe eccentricity or inclination, and increase with the increasing gas density or gas viscosity. But the inclination, gas density and viscosity have a minor effect on cuttings transport. © Xiaofeng et al.