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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Resour. Manag.
Sec. Natural Resources
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsrma.2024.1403874
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Sustainable Mining for Critical Minerals: Using Innovative Extraction Methods and Circular Economy Principles to Achieve a Sustainable Green Energy Transition View all articles

Research on Anti-Drilling Mechanism of Wujiaping Formation Shuangyushi structure in western Sichuan Basin

Provisionally accepted
Zuwen Tao Zuwen Tao 1*Yingfeng Meng Yingfeng Meng 2Guanchang Pan Guanchang Pan 3
  • 1 state key laboratory of oil and gas reservois geology and exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 Downhole Operation Branch of Sinopec Southwest Petroleum Engineering Company, Deyang, Sichuan, China
  • 3 Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company, Guangdong, Maoming,, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Wujiaping Formation is the key bottleneck for drilling speed which restricts the development of the rich natural gas resources of the Qixia Formation in the Shuangyushi structure in western Sichuan. In this study, the anti-drilling mechanism of chert band limestone and siliceous limestone of Wujiaping Formation was studied. For this purpose, the drillability and abrasiveness of rock samples were evaluated. Then the mechanical properties and controlling factor of rock and rock breaking characteristics of drill bits were analyzed. The Wujiaping Formation has strong siliceous heterogeneity , which makes the drill bit vulnerable to impact damage. The higher the quartz content of the rock, the higher the hardness and the lower the compressive strength. Compared with compressive strength, hardness has a greater impact on rock drillability. In addition, due to the hard limestone of Wujiaping Formation and the low rock-breaking friction coefficient of the bit, it is difficult for the drill bit to penetrate and easy to slip. Therefore, hardbrittle-slip characteristics of rock, rather than strong abrasiveness, are the key to the extremely strong drilling resistance of the formation. These preliminary studies could contribute significantly to understanding anti-drilling mechanism and guide the development of efficient drill bits of Wujiaping Formation.The predicted and controlled reserves of natural gas in the Qixia Formation of the Shuangyushi structure in western Sichuan have been submitted to more than 100 billion cubic meters. The daily natural gas production of the two newly test wells reached 123.97×10 4 m 3 and 142.51×10 4 m 3 , showing great potential for exploration and development. However, the drilling project of the Qixia Formation gas reservoir in the Pisces structure faces the ultra-deep and difficult-to-drill formations of the Wujiaping Formation vertically. Taking Well ST1 as an example, the drilling depth was 7 309 m and the drilling cycle was 415 d. Among

    Keywords: Shuangyushi structure1, Wujiaping formation2, drillability3, abrasiveness4, anti-drilling mechanism5

    Received: 20 Mar 2024; Accepted: 06 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tao, Meng and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zuwen Tao, state key laboratory of oil and gas reservois geology and exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China

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