Continuous Circulation System:A Key to Non-Stop Drilling

Continuous Circulation System:A Key to Non-Stop Drilling

During drilling operations, it is obvious that a considerable amount of money is spent on drilling related problems; including lost circulation, stuck pipe, and excessive mud cost. In order to decrease the percentage of non-productive time (NPT) caused by these kind of problems, the aim is to introduce Continuous Circulation System (CCS) which was debuted with commercial successes offshore in Egypt and Norway. Over the past few years managed pressure drilling (MPD) has made it possible to drill reservoirs which has a narrow window between pore and fracture pressure gradients. Cycling the mud pumps off and on for connections affects the pressure and it is a major problem for MPD. This paper presents how was CCS developed in drilling industry and reduced these problems in order to its advantages rather than MPD. Then its applications is investigated and compared the performance of different companies, which are used CCS method on various rigs. At last, compability of continuous circulation system in Iran is checked to appreciate how can CCS improve drilling industry in west Asia.