Real-time drilling optimisation – driving drilling excellence

Abstract

Here we explore a real-time solution that anticipates drilling events and avoid delays caused by such issues as poor hole cleaning, higher torque and drag, swab and surge, stuck pipe, lost circulation, formation damage and wellbore instability. This is important if drilling optimisation is a major technical and corporate goal or if you wish to go beyond the traditional approach of collecting real-time data only to monitor operations. The presented state-of-the-art ‘real-time drilling optimisation’ solution creates a dynamic, real-time picture of the entire wellbore and key drilling variables and parameters using advanced, tightly coupled thermodynamic, hydraulic and mechanical drilling models and trend analysis applications to anticipate potential drilling issues in real-time while drilling. The solution can also be used to perform scenario based ‘what-if’ analysis and ‘look-ahead’ simulations of drilling operation with the purpose to analyse outcome of alternative operating scenarios. This is an effective solution that simplifies real-time data analysis by using trends and deviations between modelled and actual data to predict changing wellbore conditions and developing a digital twin of a wellbore. This paper includes robotic drilling automation, aimed at reducing invisible loss time, enhancing drilling efficiency and safety by applying operational safeguards to the drilling control system, providing automatic safety mechanisms and enabling automatic sequences. This paper highlights technical cases demonstrating how this analytic solution not only auto-detects symptoms (which can lead to drilling events or hazards, invisible loss time and non-productive time) but also optimises drilling performance through simulation well ahead of time, thus driving drilling efficiency.