| Summary: | Abstract Knowledge of methane dissolution behavior in drilling mud is of major importance to early kick detection and well control operation in oil and gas drilling industry. In this work, methane solubility experiments in water‐based and oil‐based muds were conducted over wide ranges of temperature and pressure conditions. The influences of mud compositions and methane phases were investigated accordingly. It is found that methane solubility in water‐based mud is minimal and can be ignored. The data in oil‐based mud were analyzed using different equation of state and mixing rules. Our results show that the combination of our novel binary interaction parameter equations, Peng‐Robinson equation, and van der Waals2 mixing rule provides a very good representation of our data as well as those available in the literature. With the proposed model, the annulus methane solubility profile of a deepwater well in South China Sea was predicted, which provides a better understanding of the annulus flow behavior and further improve the safety of drilling operation.
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