Hydrostatic Pressure Loss Due to Gas Cut Mud

When you get gas-cut into your drilling mud, it will reduce mud weight causing hydrostatic pressure decrease. The concept of this calculation is to calculate pressure based on pit gain. You can calculate hydrostatic pressure loss with this following equation.

The following equation is used for calculation:

Hydrostatic pressure decrease = (Mud gradient ÷ Annular Capacity) x pit volume gain

Where:

Hydrostatic pressure decrease in psi

Mud gradient in psi/ft

Annular Capacity in bbl/ft

pit volume gain in bbl

Note: if you would like to understand about mud gradient and annular capacity, please check out the following links:

Calculate mud gradient

Calculate annular capacity

Please follow this example for more understanding.

Mud weight = 13.0 ppg

BHA diameter = 6 inch

Hole diameter = 8.5 inch

Pit volume gain = 15 bbl

Mud gradient = 0.052 x mud weight = 0.052 x 13 = 0.676 psi/ft

Annular capacity = (8.52 – 62) ÷ 1029.4 = 0.0352 bbl/ft

Hydrostatic pressure decrease = (0.676 ÷ 0.0352) x 15 = 288 psi.