One of the major sources of lost times in Iranian oil fields is stuck pipe which may occur due to differential sticking forces, inadequate hole cleaning and the consequent formation of cuttings beds in high angle wells, chemically active formations and inadequate mud weight leading to wellbore instability, fractured/faulted formations, and over-pressured formations. There are various methods of dealing with stuck pipe to prevent or alleviate it.
Therefore; in this paper, the data corresponding to more than 1000 stuck pipe occurrences and cases have been gathered in several fields and formations in Iran. Using statistical modeling and categorization, the stuck pipe occurrences have been attributed to the related drilling data including drilling mud properties, wellbore geometry, stuck pipe depth, description of stuck freeing operations and associated time. Thus, the effect of different parameters on stuck pipe have been analyzed statistically with the objective of presenting effective ways of mitigation or prevention or at least alleviation of stuck pipe occurrences in oil and gas drilling in Iran.