Guest Editorial: What Do We Want From Our Wells: Drilled Fast or Drilled Right?

Abstract

Guest editorial I have been proud to be a member of DSATS, SPE’s Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section, for many years, currently serving as a board member. I think DSATS can be rightly proud of what it has achieved, and it is good to see drilling rig automation increasing as the industry realizes its benefits—solving problems including rigsite safety and consistency, and creating opportunities such as more efficient operations and, there-fore, cheaper wells drilled more quickly. We don’t talk so much about downhole automation of the drilling process, specifically directional drilling, even though it too is gradually progressing. What problems might it solve and what opportunities might it create? I am going to argue that the opportunity is huge, if only we look in the right place. The opportunity is not only to reduce the cost of drilling the well but also to increase its value. A recent commentary on lifting costs from US basins published in JPT (August 2019) mentioned multiple ways of reducing drilling time and saving money (including driving down service company pricing, which may well not be a suitable solution) in order to reduce the break-even oil price. But it did not mention the other side of the equation—increasing the value of the well once drilled by maximizing ultimate recovery. How can automation of directional drilling increase the value of the well? In my role with DSATS, and in collaboration with other SPE technical sections, I was fortunate to lead the subcommittee organizing a special session at the 2018 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE). The theme of the session was “The Automation of Well Placement.” We heard from experts on directional drilling and surveying, and to create some tension in the ensuing panel session, we looked for an expert in production. Shauna Noonan, now SPE President, filled that role for us and gave the room valuable insight into some of the damage we can do if we ignore wellbore quality and tortuosity in our quest for speed. Many others have written about the cost of poor well quality: drilling cost in terms of torque and drag, and stuck pipe; potential issues with cementing and running completions; failures of production equipment, including rods and electrical submersible pumps; and production problems such as liquid holdup from vertical undulations in the lateral. According to 2016 data from the US Energy Information Administration, the typical cost of a US onshore well is between $4.9 million and $8.3 million. Based on analysis of operator investor relations presentations, typical ultimate recovery from a Permian Basin well is between 500,000 and 750,000 bbl. If we increase the cost of the well slightly by drilling more carefully and not trying to drill as fast as possible, do we increase its value by a larger amount? Is it a good tradeoff? I am convinced that we do, and that it is—but who knows? I do not believe that we have the numbers, or consensus, to decide.