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Merlin Quiz - Test Your Knowledge

Test your knowledge on the new ERD or TDH quiz from Merlin, how many can you get correct?

Take The New ERD Quiz!

Step 1 of 11

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Which factors listed below are relevant for hole cleaning in a high angle well?
- Flow rate
- String rotation
- Sweeps
- Drilling fluid rheology
- Drilling fluid gel strength

The shakers are close to capacity with large quantities of the material shown in the picture above. What does this indicate?
- Downhole shocks and vibrations are high
- Hole cleaning appears to be effective
- The wellbore is unstable
- The mud weight should be increased
- The mud system is not inhibitive

While drilling a 12-1/4” hole section the stand pipe pressure limit (maximum pressure that the rig can deliver) is approached. A decision is made to pull out of hole due to an MWD tool failure, but there is still 3,300 ft to drill. For the next run to TD which of the options below would be feasible options for reducing the stand pipe pressure, without adding significant risk for the rest of the section?
- Change mud pumps pop-off settings
- Increase bit nozzle size / TFA
- Reduce flow rate to 640 gpm
- Remove some heavy-weight drill pipe and/or drill collars
- Reduce high shear mud rheology

An 8-1/2" hole section is drilled in an ERD well (33,000 ft MD; 82° inclination) with 5-1/2” drill pipe and a short, light BHA (~200ft) and oil based mud. What would you expect to contribute the most to surge and swab pressures?
- Bottom hole assembly
- Drill pipe
- Mud weight
- Inclination
- Oil / Water ratio

Which of the following are benefits of taking pre-connection torque and drag readings with pumps off?
- The collected data will be more useful for comparison with tripping data
- Actual data will more closely match modelled data
- Avalanching risk reduction
- Fewer variable / parameters to control for consistency
- Less risk of swabbing the formation

The driller is back-reaming out of hole with the torque fluctuating between 30 to 40 kNm with a hookload of approximately 300 MT. Is there cause for concern?
- Possibly, although more information is required
- Yes
- No

Downhole tool measurements indicate possible stick-slip vibration while drilling. Select the best course of action.
- Reduce WOB, reduce RPM
- Leave parameters as they are
- Increase WOB, reduce RPM
- Reduce WOB, increase RPM
- Circulate the hole clean

Which of the following are indicators of borehole instability?
- Cavings on the shakers
- ECD lower than predicted (model)
- Fill on bottom after trips
- Divergence of LWD logs from the drilling pass
- Seepage losses

On a re-entry (side-track) well that is planned with 10 ppg WBM in the section that has a high casing wear risk, what would be the most effective method of quantifying wear in the donor well casing?
- Running a multi-finger mechanical caliper before and after drilling the section
- Simulating wear conditions planned vs historical records
- None of the above
- Running an ultra-sonic wireline logging tool before and after drilling the section
- Accurately weighing metal collected from the flow line magnet array while drilling

Floating casing and liner strings is an important enabling technique for ERD wells, however which of the following are considered disadvantages of the technique?
- Inability to circulate when running in hole
- Casing collapse risk
- Inability to rotate when running in hole
- Handling a large quantity of displaced fluid at surface
- Inability to rotate when cementing

Take The New TDH Software Quiz!

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1. When taking the rotating off bottom weight close to TD in the S-shape well shown, which point shown above is experiencing the highest side force?

2. On the drillers torque view above, the torque at 0.40 friction factor is below the torque limit of the drill pipe. Is it safe to assume that drilling with that torque close to TD is within the drill string limit?

3. The chart above shows a slack-off weight for a floated casing run. At what depth has the floatation collar been installed?

4. You are required to lower standpipe pressure in a 6” hole section as the pop-off valve limit (4,000PSI) is exceeded for the required flow rate of 250 GPM. Reduction in flow rate is not possible. Rheology has been optimised for effective hole cleaning and will likely not change. The BHA configuration is fixed and defined by the LWD requirements, and the mud weight cannot be lowered because of wellbore stability requirements. What actions should you take based on the chart above? Tick the correct answer(s).
- Optimise the bit pressure drop.
- Optimise the tool joint OD and ID
- Optimise ID of the 4” drill pipe.

5. A 6” hole is planned to be drilled with a 250 GPM flow rate in a well that reaches horizontal at 5,000 ft MD. The rule of thumb for effective and efficient hole cleaning says that an annular velocity of 150 ft/min is required. This requirement is satisfied for the 6” hole section. Is it safe to assume that hole cleaning is not an issue considering that sufficient string RPM and good rheology and good wellbore stability are observed throughout this section?

6. While tripping out of the 8 ½” open hole you plan to lubricate out of the hole to the previous casing shoe, mitigating formation collapse risk. The swab/surge driller’s view without pumps on is presented on the image above. Inside the casing shoe, you decided to pull the string on elevators. Has the risk of collapsing 8 ½” open hole been mitigated?

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Flow Rate

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Flow Rate Unit

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Hole Size

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Hole Size Unit

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Drill Pipe Size

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Drill Pipe Size Unit

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AV ft per min

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AV m per min

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Differential %

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Wellbore %

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Packoff %

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q1

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q2

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q3

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q4

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q5

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q6

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