Real-time solutions provide a critical decision support and collaboration platform that enable better decisions throughout the well construction and production lifecycle. Operators, drilling contractors, and service companies use these real-time capabilities to improve operations service quality, monitor efficiencies, understand formation geology, and enhance overall reservoir knowledge. Real-time operating centers are typically staffed with domain experts; they can provide surveillance to support less experienced wellsite personnel, provide advice and guidance, and support remotely performed operations. Data systems must acquire, process, aggregate, distribute, and present relevant real-time information quickly and accurately to ensure a rapid assessment of the current situation. However, their effectiveness depends on adequate real-time service quality and standardized data delivery. Many factors can contribute to either poor data quality or inconsistent, untimely data distribution. In addition to the most obvious technology limitations, such as available bandwidth, latency, or overall system performance, many nontechnical influences can also negatively affect performance. All too often, technology is relied upon to provide these solutions, and the human factor is taken for granted or ignored. These human factors can include failing to set pre-job expectations, setup and configuration, monitoring protocols, or communication protocols. Other human factors issues can include a lack of data standardization or established governance regarding the management of the data and its underlying quality. This paper presents a case history that describes how the collaborative effort between a major NOC and service company was used to substantially improve the value delivered from consistent real-time data and service quality. Specifically, this paper addresses the identification of the problem, root cause analysis, and specific remedies that were implemented, as well as clear real-time key performance indicators that could be used to measure and monitor improved performance.

The high costs and high potential risks associated with drilling deepwater wells have prompted the development of an advanced computerized mud logging system. This paper highlights select technologies within the system and its application to three core areas of operation—circulating, making connections, and tripping—to provide early identification of fluid influxes and losses, thus helping ensure safe and efficient well delivery. The advanced mud logging system includes a kick-detection system, flowback monitoring, trip monitoring software, and mud accounting software based on a new methodology. The kick-detection system uses advanced flowmeters to enable stricter control of the drilling process; fluid influxes or losses are detected by integrating the variance for predicted and measured flow and alarming, with as little as a barrel gained or lost. Flowback monitoring uses sophisticated algorithms in conjunction with the same high-accuracy flowmeters to monitor influxes while making connections. These algorithms drive a complex alarm system tuned to trigger on minimal flow variance, pit volumes, and the rate of modification of each compared to a historical baseline. Additionally, trip-monitoring software automates the tracking of pipe displacements in real time to warn of a well control event, instead of relying on spreadsheets or handwritten calculations. Mud accounting software tracks drilling fluid balance across the entire pit system for redundant influx and loss detection and accounts for volume changes based on circulating rates. Application of the advanced mud logging system in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) provided earlier detection of well control events—up to 10 minutes earlier than conventional well monitoring techniques. Flowback monitoring demonstrated the ability to identify minimal flow when making connections, which would be difficult to detect by visual inspection. The ability to trend flowback profiles consistently has allowed operators to reduce the pump's off time while making connections in less than 5 minutes, without jeopardizing the ability to confirm a static well. Additionally, the advanced system enables drilling operations to proceed without increasing mud weight and exacerbating wellbore damage during a ballooning event. This paper presents a case study in which the history of well control events documented in the literature was reviewed to help identify areas of improvement.

Mud logging gas detection and chromatography have been traditionally used as indicators of hydrocarbon occurrence and wellsite safety. However, the application of mud logging gas as a reliable reservoir characterization tool had previously been hindered by its semi-quantitative nature, noticeably the inability to get repeatable responses in all environments so that the analysis can be used as a trusted analytical tool, regardless of gas trap operating conditions and surface environments.A new gas extraction system, Constant Volume Gas Trap (CVGT TM ), is now available at wellsite and has been successfully run worldwide. Equipped with several innovative features, CVGT not only improves mud gas extraction efficiency, but also reduces the effects of environmental and operation conditions on quantitative gas measurement. Coupled with high accuracy and a fast cycle gas chromatography system, CVGT gas ratio analysis provides a cost-effective approach to evaluate reservoir fluid types, contacts, and other critical information needed for subsequent fluid sampling, testing, and development programs.Several applications of gas ratio analysis are presented that complement other reservoir characterization tools and approaches. Vigorous data QC are enforced to reduce the effects of any non-reservoir fluid contributions. Most suitable ratio cutoffs are determined for the target reservoirs. These cutoffs are determined through a variety of factors, in particular the known reservoir fluid properties from offset wells in the area. C1/sum(C1~C5), and the combined use of gas wetness ratio (GWR) and light heavy ratio (LHR) have proved to be the most valuable out of all the gas ratios investigated. Together with total gas and gas chromatography, these ratios and ratio combinations are able to indicate the occurrence of reservoir zone, the types of fluid in it, and the fluid contacts. Fluid types defined from ratio analysis are correlated with LWD/wireline data, particularly the resistivity, cross-over of neutron and density, and pressure gradient analysis. This ultimately leads to better reservoir characterizations with regards to its vertical connectivity, compartment and caprock efficiency, etc.

Rig counts are a critical business barometer for the drilling industry, suppliers, and the investment community. Rig count trends are governed by exploration and production spending, which is influenced by the current and future prices of oil and gas and reflects the true strength and stability of the industry. They also serve as the foremost indicator of demand for products and services used in drilling, completing, producing, and processing of hydrocarbons. Historically, there has been a primary source of rig counts within the industry. This system is the most accurate because it counts only wells actually drilling for oil and gas. However, as the industry has become increasingly more sophisticated, so has the need for new advancements in the rig count methodology.Addressing this need, a new process has been developed to expand the capabilities of the existing "active" rig count system. This new process has, among other things, enabled checks and balances and audit trails, enhanced data accuracy even further, provided better means of communication, and has adapted to the rapid changes in technology. The transformation from a "rows and columns" visual depiction of data to an interactive mapping visualization has significantly increased the systems' ease of use as well as provided a multitude of ways to view and access the data and to produce necessary reports. Furthermore, future enhancements are planned for weather analysis, benchmarking/comparison of rig efficiencies and realtime bit inventory tracking, and the ability to download performance information for real-time optimization of drilling parameters/bit selection. Although the new interactive mapping system is in its infancy, it has been well received.The authors of this paper will present a detailed description of the new method and how it continues to address the need for reliable reporting of rig activity information. This will include an overview of the future systems and enhancements.