DRILLING MANAGEMENT

Increasing Drilling Efficiencies Through Analysis

of Real-Time and Historic Drilling Data

Estimated spending on drilling and placing emphasis on doing, rather This data selection and quality con-
completions was more than USD 250 than planning or analyzing. Many trol is one of the most difficult stages
billion in 2008. With rig costs esti- people in drilling operations thrive in drilling analysis. Simply increas-
mated to consume 37% (or USD 92.5 on operating by “gut instincts” and ing the amount of data often means
billion) of that spending, every effort succeeding through heroic efforts. nothing more than adding irrelevant
to reduce drilling time has a direct While experience dealing with unex- “noise.” Large amounts of data are
effect on the bottom line. Estimates pected events is crucial for success in available—a situation that likely will
of nonproductive time (NPT) ran from an environment where uncertainty increase as new technologies, such as
15 to 40%, or USD 14 to 37 billion, exists, surely it would make more wired drillpipe, become adopted more
depending on well type and operator. sense to be taking pride in telling sto- widely. However, determining which
The causes were varied and includ- ries about the well where everything data are relevant is not a simple task,
ed technical and nontechnical chal- went according to plan. Furthermore, which often leads to a trial-and-error
lenges. Obviously, any effort made while most companies have health, approach to data selection.
to reduce NPT will affect bottom- safety, and environmental policies Building an effective data set from
line spending. that are “zero-tolerance,” an accep- the wide variety of available data
tance of waste and inefficiency as sources is both time consuming and
Introduction being inevitable in drilling operations frustrating. Data exist in multiple
The oil and gas industry spends mil- continues. It is difficult to imagine formats and from multiple vendors,
lions of dollars each year collecting another industry that would accept such as rig contractors, mud loggers,
vast amounts of drilling data, yet 60% waste when it is widely known measurement while drilling (MWD)/
has not made effective use of these that something as simple as better logging while drilling (LWD), wire-
data to improve drilling performance. planning can improve drilling results. line, and others. Data quality, par-
Drilling analysis is a proven technique Two other key obstacles to integrat- ticularly with manually reported data,
for improving the return on invest- ed drilling analysis are the inability is often an issue. There is a natural
ment of drilling operations, but com- to manage the volumes of data that tendency to want to avoid report-
prehensive drilling analysis has not potentially could be used in drilling ing negative news, and values tend
been a regular part of well planning analysis and the historical limitations to be either a quick glance at a dial
and operations. of traditional well-planning software. or, worse yet, hand-picked to match
So why is it that comprehensive The vision for integrated drilling anal- planned values.
drilling analysis is not a consistent ysis includes the ability to: Often data must be retrieved from
part of drilling best practices? In part, • Visualize and correlate low- and storage facilities, and may exist only
perhaps, because of the culture. One high-density data. on paper or outdated media, such as
author suggested that 95% of drilling • Allow effective sharing of cross- 51/4-in. floppy disks, which may be
activities are operationally focused, discipline expertise. difficult to read using today’s technol-
• Provide continuous real-time up- ogy. Daily operations reports, end-of-
This article, written by Assistant Tech- dates. well reports, and various other vendor
nology Editor Karen Bybee, contains This integrated approach includes reports must be sifted through manu-
highlights of paper SPE 128722, technologies to overcome data-man- ally to generate a digest or synopsis.
“Increasing Drilling Efficiencies Through agement challenges and well-planning This process can take several weeks or
Improved Collaboration and Analysis limitations, and to implement multi- even months and generally is finished
of Real-Time and Historical Drilling disciplinary work flows to help facili- when time runs out, rather than when
Data,” by Catheryn Staveley, SPE, tate planning and analysis across an a satisfactory level of knowledge has
and Paul Thow, SPE, Schlumberger, asset team. been achieved.
originally prepared for the 2010 SPE
Intelligent Energy Conference and Data Problem Limitation of Tools
Exhibition, Utrecht, The Netherlands, The first step is defining and scop- The majority of the drilling software
23–25 March. The paper has not been ing the drilling project, followed by tools available focus on planning a
peer reviewed. data selection and quality control. single well. Existing tools rely on

For a limited time, the full-length paper is available free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

82 JPT • SEPTEMBER 2010

import of geological data, often with- Enabling the results in real time
out direct liaison with the owners is considered to be highly valuable
of this information. This means that because it would provide the capabil-
many decisions are made using out- ity to develop and monitor key perfor-
of-date information or data that are mance indicators, such as current rate-
out of context from original analysis. of-penetration (ROP) performance as
Other petroleum-engineering soft- a function of ROP distribution. Real-
ware tools, such as production analy- time functionality also would allow
sis and reservoir simulators, typically optimizing well placement within the
focus on multiple wells, combining reservoir (geosteering), improving the
historical and current data, simula- accuracy of the Earth model, and
tion, and analysis. optimizing drilling as it is occurring.
In implementing a drilling-analysis Typically, analysis of real-time data
solution, it was determined that one takes place using an integrated multi-
of the challenges was that of effective disciplinary approach, and this led to
integration of the various types of examination of use of Earth-modeling
drilling data: low-density data, such software to achieve project objectives.
as daily drilling reports and bottom- Geoscientists have long used, in
hole-assembly (BHA)-run summaries; modeling reservoirs, many of the
high-density data, such as real-time techniques that the project sought to
drilling data and wireline logs; and apply to drilling analysis. Although
information from other disciplines, these tools lacked specific drilling-
such as geology and geomechanics. domain data, it was possible to incor-
Drilling-analysis implementations porate these data, either through use
often tend to be focused on just one of open software development plat-
form of this wide knowledge base, and forms or by compromising on the way
are not oriented toward automatically in which the data were incorporated.
maintaining these data through real- For example, the project team has
time updates. Furthermore, many orga- been able to extract the daily sum-
nizations have not yet adopted technol- mary from the drilling report and
ogies with these real-time capabilities. incorporate it as a series of comments,
and they were able to completely
Overview of an Integrated integrate drilling events and risks as
Approach to Drilling Analysis custom objects. Moreover, by using
Seeking to address what was felt to be the same set of tools for multiple
a gap in the drilling-analysis process, disciplines, the team has been able to
types of functionality were defined. expand the available knowledge to all
Some examples include: disciplines involved in the field-devel-
• Correlation and calculation of opment process. Additionally, by tak-
drilling and geomechanical properties ing an Earth-model-based approach,
such as mechanical specific energy the team found that they were able
(MSE) and rock strength to provide much better predictive
• BHA- and bit-performance cor- capabilities, through the ability of the
relation software to help the team see beyond
• Earth-model integration the bit.
• Histogram drilling parameters,
including distribution curve functions Implementing an Integrated-Drill-
• Ability to record and play back a ing-Analysis Approach Creating the
set of work-flow steps Knowledge Base. The first step in
• Filtering of data by depth and implementing the drilling-analysis
other log values system is to create a drilling knowl-
• Ability to implement additional edge base. The drilling knowledge
displays, calculations, and domain base is used for historical drilling data
objects collected on a rig, such as surface
• Real-time integration of data parameter data and MWD/LWD data.
In addition, it was determined that Other data, such as outputs from real-
key visual displays needed to include: time viewing software, wireline logs,
• Well-section correlation bit records, BHAs, drilling risks and
• 3D views events, best practices, lessons learned,
• Crossplots and any other information valuable
• Histograms to drillers, are loaded into the drilling
• Composite plots. knowledge base.

JPT • SEPTEMBER 2010 83

Well Planning. After the drilling formations or hole sizes, and display it and requires minimal manipulation on
knowledge base is populated for next to their best offsets for reference. the part of the drilling engineers, thus
the project, it can be displayed with This can be used as a reference tool for making them much more efficient.
respect to other wells in a field and the well being planned. This process can enhance morning
correlated by time, depth, and for- calls to rigs and enable drilling engi-
mation, in both 2D and 3D displays, Real-Time Capabilities. The value neers to make better decisions for the
which is unique from a drilling per- of real-time data within the drilling day’s drilling program.
spective. By combining these data as knowledge base is the ability to relate
described, detailed offset-well analysis what is being seen in real time with Conclusions
can be performed and used for future patterns and events from the past. This Pilot projects have shown multiple
well planning. Numerous calculations comparison can help make decisions applications where this integrated-
can be performed such as uncon- that could potentially cost or save mil- drilling-analysis approach facilitated
fined compressive strength, MSE, lions of dollars. Real-time capabilities the drilling-optimization workflow and
and unlimited crossplots, graphs, and also can provide a robust collaboration the integration of more information
charts. ROP estimations can be calcu- tool where the office and rig simulta- while reducing worker efforts. Worker
lated on the basis of offset wells, and neously view all the past and current efforts are reduced by having all the
optimal operating parameters, such as drilling data within the context of the drilling data organized in one location
bits and BHAs, can be identified and Earth model by use of a web-hosted and correlated by well, formation, and
uncertainty can be reduced dramati- application. Current parameters can depth and in two or three dimensions;
cally. New wells can be planned on the be displayed next to offsets along with by enabling engineers to plan around
basis of data from the closest or most any other data relevant in a single drilling events by referencing the his-
pertinent offset wells. Users can create workspace as a collaboration tool for torical data quickly and easily; and by
a stick diagram with all of their vendor morning calls or meetings. This is the ability to mitigate risks in real time,
programs incorporated, along with an extremely effective tool because it enhanced by referencing the drilling
casing best practices for particular is updated automatically in real time knowledge base. JPT

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84 JPT • SEPTEMBER 2010