quote:
The solution to prevent those types of issues is in the drilling mud design. When drilling, you definitely do not want to wash out a zone. Something like that is more likely to happen in an exploratory well, in which case you monitor your pit volumes and cutting returns very closely to make changes as needed. After one or more wells are drilled and the geology is known, a better mud design can be planned for the entirety of future wells in the same area/formations. There's a lot more to it than just knowing the types of formations you're drilling through though. The people that monitor and make changes to the mud during drilling are often referred to as mud engineers, even though they are not actually engineers.

Saltwater is a byproduct of the production phase and what is commonly injected in saltwater disposal wells. Drilling muds are reused many times over and as far as I know never injected in disposal wells.

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Posted by Steadyhands

Slightly above I-10

Member since May 2016

6845 posts

Posted on 4/1/24 at 8:06 am to redstick13

quote:
Saltwater is a byproduct of the production phase and what is commonly injected in saltwater disposal wells. Drilling muds are reused many times over and as far as I know never injected in disposal wells.

Correct. The only thing that will come into contact with most of the formations is the drilling mud when drilling the wells, which makes the filter cake as you stated. Whether the well is for production or injection/disposal, the produced water should, by design, never come into contact with a formation that it could dissolve. If it happens while drilling, that would likely be a kick, which could lead to a blowout if not handled properly. Otherwise, for an injection/disposal well, it would be designed to inject into a formation that is compatible with the produced water.

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