Real Time Application of Bearing Wear Prediction Model Using Intelligent Drilling Advisory System

Abstract

The real-time prediction of bearing wear for roller cone bits using the Intelligent Drilling Advisory system (IDAs) may result in better performance in oil and gas drilling operations and reduce total drilling cost. IDAs is a real time engineering software and being developed for the oil and gas industry to enhance the performance of complex drilling processes providing meaningful analysis of drilling operational data. The prediction of bearing wear for roller cone bits is one of the most important engineering modules included into IDAs to analyze the drilling data in real time environment. The ‘Bearing Wear Prediction’ module in IDAs uses a newly developed wear model considering drilling parameters such as, weight on bit (WOB), revolution per minute (RPM), diameter of bit and hours drilled as a function of IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors) bit bearing wear. The drilling engineers can evaluate bearing wear status including cumulative wear of roller cone bit in real time while drilling, using this intelligent system and make a decision on when to pull out the bit in time to avoid bearing failure. The wear prediction module, as well as the intelligent system has been successfully tested and verified with field data from different wells drilled in Western Canada. The estimated cumulative wears from the analysis match close with the corresponding field values.