Fotios N. Zachopoulos and Nikolaos C. Kokkinos
Department of Chemistry, School of Science, International Hellenic University, Kavala, Greece

Part of the book: The Challenges of Disaster Planning, Management, and Resilience

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide information about a common phenomenon, that takes place during the drilling operations for oil or gas, known as the “kick.” An introduction into the basic principles and behavior of a kick was presented, along with the well control techniques and the kick identification methods. Since a kick could result in disastrous consequences, such as the blowout of a well, the formation of oil spills and environmental damage, special emphasis has been placed on real world accidents and their dramatic results. The available emergency response methodologies for eliminating such events, which are currently utilized by the oil and gas industry, were discussed as well as their restrictions and limitations. Conclusions were drawn about the current technological status of the available emergency response methodologies and suggestions were made for further development and improvements.

Keywords: oil and gas drilling, well control, kick, blowout, oil spill

References

Ahmed, Mohammed A., Omar A. Hegab, and Ahmed Sabry. 2016. “Early detection enhancement of the kick
and near-balance drilling using mud logging warning sign.” Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied
Sciences 3 (1): 85-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbas.2015.09.006.
Ashena, Rahman, Farzad Ghorbani, and Muhammad Mubashir. 2021. “The root cause analysis of an oilwell
blowout and explosion in the Middle East.” Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207: 109134.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109134.
Azar, J. J. 2004. “Oil and Natural Gas Drilling.” In Encyclopedia of Energy, edited by Cutler J. Cleveland, 521-
534. New York: Elsevier.
Beyer, Jonny, Hilde C. Trannum, Torgeir Bakke, Peter V. Hodson, and Tracy K. Collier. 2016. “Environmental
effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: A review.” Marine Pollution Bulletin 110 (1): 28-51.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.027.
Bhattacharjee, Sangita, and Trina Dutta. 2022. “Chapter 1 – An overview of oil pollution and oil-spilling
incidents.” In Advances in Oil-Water Separation, edited by Papita Das, Suvendu Manna and Jitendra
Kumar Pandey, 3-15. Elsevier.
Bourgoyne, A. T. 1986. Applied Drilling Engineering. Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Chandrasekaran, Sridharan, and Suresh Kumar Govindarajan. 2019. “Numerical Modeling of Real-Time Gas
Influx Migration in Vertical Wellbores During Drilling Operation.” 20 (2): 95-111.
https://doi.org/10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.2019029547.
Chukwudi, Ohaegbulam, Ibeh Stanley, Obah Boniface, and Onwukwe Stanley. 2018. “A Realistic Kick
Simulator for Casing Design – Part 2: Well Design and Execution.” SPE Nigeria Annual International
Conference and Exhibition.
Crumpton, H. 2018. Well Control for Completions and Interventions. Elsevier Science.
Darling, T. 2005. Well Logging and Formation Evaluation. Elsevier Science.
Grace, R. D. 2017. Blowout and Well Control Handbook. Elsevier Science.
Guan, Z., T. Chen, and H. Liao. 2020. Theory and Technology of Drilling Engineering. Springer Singapore.
Holand, Per. 1997. “Chapter Three – Blowout Barriers and Analyses.” In Offshore Blowouts, edited by Per
Holand, 17-32. Burlington: Gulf Professional Publishing.
Hossain, M. E., and A. A. Al-Majed. 2015. Fundamentals of Sustainable Drilling Engineering. Wiley.
Johnson, A. B., and D. B. White. 1991. “Gas-Rise Velocities During Kicks.” SPE Drilling Engineering 6 (04):
257-263. https://doi.org/10.2118/20431-pa.
Lan, Zhigang. 2019. “Blowout Accident Impact Analysis Method for the Siting of Offshore Floating Nuclear
Power Plant in Offshore Oil Fields.” Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations 2019: 3491201.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3491201.
Lexicon, Iadc. 2013. “Definition of: Blowout – Oil and Gas Drilling Glossary – IADCLexicon.org.” Last
Modified 2013-08-08.
Ma, Z., A. Karimi Vajargah, D., Chen, E., van Oort, R., May, J. D. MacPherson, G., Becker, and D., Curry.
2018. “Gas Kicks in Non-Aqueous Drilling Fluids: A Well Control Challenge.” IADC/SPE Drilling
Conference and Exhibition.
Manikonda, Kaushik, Abu Rashid Hasan, Omer Kaldirim, Jerome J. Schubert, and Mohammad Azizur
Rahman. 2019. “Understanding Gas Kick Behavior in Water and Oil-Based Drilling Fluids.” SPE Kuwait
Oil & Gas Show and Conference.
Mirderikvand, Hossein, Fatemeh Razavian, Ali Nakhaee, Behnaz Moradi Ghiasabadi, and Reza Gholamnia.
2022. “A barrier risk-based evaluation model for drilling blowouts.” Journal of Loss Prevention in the
Process Industries 74: 104624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2021.104624.
Nayeem, Ayesha Arjumand, Ramachandran Venkatesan, and Faisal Khan. 2016. “Monitoring of down-hole
parameters for early kick detection.” Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 40: 43-54.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2015.11.025.
Othumpangat, S., and V. Castranova. 2014. “Oil Spills.” In Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Third Edition), edited
by Philip Wexler, 677-681. Oxford: Academic Press.
PetroWiki. 2016. “Well control.” Last Modified 2016-02-04. https://petrowiki.spe.org/Well_control.
Pezeshki, S. R., M. W. Hester, Q. Lin, and J. A. Nyman. 2000. “The effects of oil spill and clean-up on dominant
US Gulf coast marsh macrophytes: a review.” Environmental Pollution 108 (2): 129-139.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-7491(99)00244-4.
Rader, D. W., A. T. Bourgoyne, Jr., and R. H. Ward. 1975. “Factors Affecting Bubble-Rise Velocity Of Gas
Kicks.” Journal of Petroleum Technology 27 (05): 571-584. https://doi.org/10.2118/4647-pa.
Rohal, Melissa, Noe Barrera, Elva Escobar-Briones, Gregg Brooks, David Hollander, Rebekka Larson, Paul
A. Montagna, Marissa Pryor, Isabel C. Romero, and Patrick Schwing. 2020. “How quickly will the
offshore ecosystem recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Lessons learned from the 1979
Ixtoc-1 oil well blowout.” Ecological Indicators 117: 106593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106593.
Sheppard, Jerry Paul, and Jesse Young. 2022. “An essential stupidity-based review of the Deepwater Horizon
disaster.” Business Horizons. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.02.002.
Silva, C. T., J. R. L. Mariolani, E. J. Bonet, R. F. T. Lomba, O. L. A. Santos, and P. R. Ribeiro. 2004. “Gas
Solubility in Synthetic Fluids: A Well Control Issue.” SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
Skalle, P., A. L. Podio, and J. Tronvoll. 1991. “Experimental Study of Gas Rise Velocity and Its Effect on
Bottomhole Pressure in a Vertical Well.” SPE Offshore Europe.
Sleiti, Ahmad K., Gorakshnath Takalkar, Muftah H. El-Naas, Abu Rashid Hasan, and Mohammad Azizur
Rahman. 2020. “Early gas kick detection in vertical wells via transient multiphase flow modelling: A
review.” Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 80: 103391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2020.103391.
Speight, James G. 2015. “Chapter 9 – Environmental Impact.” In Subsea and Deepwater Oil and Gas Science
and Technology, edited by James G. Speight, 257-303. Boston: Gulf Professional Publishing.