Petrobras / No processo de perfuração de poços de petróleo e gás o controle da pressão é uma importante tarefa. Se a pressão no interior do poço estiver abaixo da pressão de poros, um influxo da formação pode ocorrer, fenômeno denominado de kick. Se o influxo não for controlado pode ocorrer um fluxo descontrolado da formação para a superfície (blowout). As pressões de fechamento são utilizadas para calcular a pressão do reservatório, entretanto, o caráter viscoplástico do fluido de perfuração atenua as pressões medidas. No presente trabalho, é apresentada uma modelagem matemática e numérica para prever a propagação de pressão ao longo do poço durante um influxo de gás (kick). Considerou-se a compressibilidade e o comportamento viscoplástico do fluido de perfuração, modelando-o como Plástico de Bingham. O escoamento é considerado unidimensional, laminar, transiente, isotérmico e homogêneo. A solubilidade do gás no fluido de perfuração é desconsiderada e o gás é modelado como um gás real. O fluxo da formação para o interior do poço é tratado através da lei de Darcy. Os balanços de massa e de quantidade de movimento para a mistura formam um sistema de equações diferenciais parciais hiperbólicas, tendo como incógnitas a pressão e a velocidade, as quais são resolvidas pelo método das características. Consideram-se dois casos de estudo: o kick dinâmico e o kick estático. A obtenção dos campos de velocidade e pressão ao longo do poço é realizada através de um programa computacional desenvolvido em linguagem FORTRAN. Posteriormente, aferiu-se os resultados obtidos pelo modelo desenvolvido comparando-os com solução analítica e dados experimentais. Os resultados apresentam que quanto maior a tensão limite de escoamento, menor é a transmissão de pressão e que se a pressão do reservatório não for grande o suficiente, não há ganho de volume de fluido nos tanques de lama. / In the process of drilling oil and gas wells the pressure control is an important task. If the pressure inside the well is smaller than the formation pressure, an influx of the formation may occur, phenomenon denominated as kick. If the influx is not controlled there may be an uncontrolled flux from the formation to the surface (blowout). The closing pressures are used to calculate the formation pressure, however, the viscoplastic character of the drilling fluid reduces the pressures measured on the surface. This current work presents a mathematical and numerical modeling to predict the pressure propagation along the well during a gas influx (kick). The compressibility and the viscoplastic behavior of the drilling fluid were considered, modeling it as a Bingham Plastic. The flow is considered as one-dimensional, laminar, transient, isothermal and homogeneous. The solubility of the gas in the drilling fluid is disregarded and the gas is modeled as a real gas. The flux of the formation into the wellbore is treated by Darcy’s law. The balance equations of mass and momentum for the mixture result in a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations, having as unknowns the pressure and the velocity, which are solved by the method of characteristics. Two study cases were considered: the dynamic kick and the static kick. The pressure and velocity fields along the well are obtained by a computer program developed in FORTRAN language. Afterwards, the results obtained from the model developed were assessed by comparing to analytic solution and experimental data. The results present that the bigger the yield stress is, the smaller is the pressure transmission and that if the formation pressure is not high enough, there is no pit-gain in the mud tanks.

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform on April 20, 2010 resulted in the second largest oil spill in history. In this study, the distribution and chemical composition of hydrocarbons within a 45 km radius of the blowout was investigated. A complete set of hydrocarbon data were acquired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and from BP, including data from 16 research missions collected over eight weeks. The distribution of hydrocarbons was found to be more dispersed over a wider area in subsurface waters than previously predicted or reported. Several hydrocarbon plumes were identified including a near-surface plume (0.5 to 50 m), two small mid-depth plume (240 to 290 m and 850 to 880 m), and a large deepwater plume approximately 1,050 to 1,300 m below surface. Water soluble compounds were preferentially extracted from the rising oil in deepwater, and were found at potentially toxic levels both in and outside of areas previously reported to contain the majority of hydrocarbons. Data collected from different research missions were measured for a wide variety of chemical compounds, but not every sample was analyzed for the same chemical compounds. To overcome the challenge of variability in sample data, a non-parametric method of evaluating the percentage of detectable results, was used for all data analysis in addition to evaluation of total sample concentrations. The two analysis techniques yielded similar results. This approach may be useful in other studies in which samples are measured for varying number of compounds and have varying detection limits. The distribution and toxicity of hydrocarbons in sediments between August and October, 2010 was also investigated and was found to be fairly localized.