Recently, Changqing Oilfield successfully completed the second open hole section of the first air-charged water-reduced drilling test well in the eastern gas field of the basin, marking a key breakthrough in the field of water-reduced and water-free drilling engineering and promoting the green and low-carbon development of the oilfield.
This test well is located in the extremely complex geological conditions of the Jinxī Rào Zōu Fold Belt in the Ordos Basin. During the construction, it often encountered problems such as severe leakage, multiple leakage layers, long plugging periods, and abnormal formation pressure. The technical team of Changqing Oilfield, after in-depth research and scheme argumentation, selected air-charged drilling technology as the optimal water-reduced solution.
During the on-site implementation, technicians precisely controlled the air injection volume to maintain the equivalent density of the drilling fluid within the safe range of 0.70 to 0.83 grams per cubic centimeter. After 203 hours of continuous operation, they safely drilled through multiple leakage layers, with a total footage of 930 meters and an average mechanical drilling rate of 7.32 meters per hour. Compared with adjacent wells, this technology significantly reduced the drilling fluid usage by 1,441 cubic meters and shortened the plugging period by 32 days, achieving the dual goals of water conservation and efficiency improvement as well as environmental protection.
This test also explored the supporting technologies such as measurement while drilling (MWD) and screw performance comparison under air-charged conditions, providing important practical basis for subsequent water-reduced and water-free drilling. In the next step, Changqing Oilfield will continue to focus on core technologies such as gas drilling and dry drilling, and fully promote the green and low-carbon development of oil and gas fields.