Professor Sigbjørn Sangesland at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and partner in FWC together with CEO Dag Vavik participated and presented a paper at the IADC Managed Pressure Drilling and Underbalanced Operations Conference in Galveston. The paper “Loss of Circulation an Indication of Hydrocarbon Influx?” discuss the challenges with the current state of art in kick detection. An influx of hydrocarbon are generally associated with a gain or increase in the active volume. However, in deep water the relative warm gas influx will typically be cooled down due to the colder drilling fluid circulated in the drilling riser annulus reducing the gas expansion.
If gas hydrates are formed you may even observe a loss of circulation or abnormal reduction in the active pit volume. The complete paper are published by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and can be downloaded from OnePetro.