Abstract:

Managed Pressure Drilling is an adaptive drilling process used to precisely control the annular pressure profile throughout the wellbore, to prevent the well from the pressure-related drilling problems, including lost circulation, differential pipe sticking, wellbore instability, kick, etc.... The control is proceeded by adjusting the surface back pressure, through the use of closed-loop circulation system. In this paper, the authors present the basis for determining the surface back pressure from which the appropriate adjustment methods are given to improve the efficiency of managed pressure drilling technology