Many oil and gas reservoirs in the United States are mature and becoming increasingly depleted of hydrocarbons, which makes for more costly drilling. While the formations above and below these producing zones typically have much higher pore pressures and require high fluid density to stabilize them, exposure of a depleted zone to this high-density fluid can result in significant loss of whole drilling fluid and differential sticking. Uncontrollable drilling fluid losses are at times unavoidable in the often-large fractures characteristic of these formations.