The objective of this paper is to discuss Saudi Aramco's Drilling RTOC (Real-Time Operating Center) experience in developing personnel, establishing process workflow and acquiring technologies to deliver wells safely and effectively. The paper starts by describing the IT infrastructure that facilitates rapid information flow from drilling sites to the RTOC. Then it discusses the process workflow, which includes pre-drill collaborative planning, real time predictive modeling, and 24/7 monitoring services to provide accurate response to real time trends for successful management of drilling risks, and therefore reduction of nonproductive time (NPT). Finally, overall achievements of 2008-2009 and a case study of one monitored and optimized well is presented.
This paper describes the current data architecture that Saudi Aramco has recently implemented for real-time drilling and completions (D&C) information. This new architecture enables us to make wider use of our monitoring and collaboration centers through a common approach. It also allows us to leverage the evolving WITSML standard more effectively in our drilling operations.Saudi Aramco uses many different service organizations to deliver its global drilling and completions agenda. In the past, this has resulted in a lack of stability and standardization in real-time information flow. We have been unable to share data and expertise readily between different operating centers. Applying a common approach to information access on a global basis has enabled us to streamline our operations and make wider use of emerging analysis, monitoring and collaboration technologies.Real-time technologies have been utilized to capture, monitor and analyze drilling data from rig sites so that critical decisions can be made real-time in order to help reduce and eliminate borehole problems, thus reducing non-productive time. That includes high-tech rigs, business continuity solutions for real-time information, collaboration tools and real-time data visualization systems.Our aim has been to implement a standard D&C information architecture. Our adoption of WITSML was the vehicle which allowed this to happen. However, we still believe that over the next years it is likely that there will be much more of a challenge to support open connectivity between different vendors and services supporting the increasing drilling and completions functions.
After the setup of a real-time drilling data feed from the Rig site to the operations center, the obvious question is - How good is the data that is being streamed? Real-Time rig sensor data could be an effective input for drilling optimization, However, the confidence in the results of these analysis or interpretations is directly associated to the trustworthiness of the data acquired. Measuring the quality of the data has been a difficult issue for many years. This paper shows the approach used by a large oil & gas operator to measure the quality of the information received from the rig providers, which is obtained from the sensors installed on every rig. The Real Time Data Quality is measured by analyzing six different parameters: completeness, uniformity, sensibility, resolution, structure and format. The combination of these six indexes provides a deep understanding of the level of the quality of the data received, as well as the elements to be improved. Various KPIs including Footage KPI, Data QC Availability and Data QC Channels, are generated by the powerful engine of Automated Rig Activity Measurement (ARAM) to check the data quality of different vendors. Starting from having a check on data availability, these KPI's are capable of analyzing every row of time based data in real-time. Data generated by a proprietary system for these KPI's is also being used in a Real Time Data Quality Dashboard. This measurement provides the drilling engineers with a systematic way to filter analysis results based on data of poor quality by specifying their acceptable data quality range. This daily analysis also allows the operator to identify Rigs that are performing better and rigs that needs to be pushed for higher quality data.
This paper highlights the tremendous impact of real-time data transmission and visualization on hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracing." Here, we will focus on tight reservoirs. Utilizing the advanced real-time visualization system with high-resolution data transmission enables the frac engineers to achieve promising results, and ensures effective decision making and data substantiation from real-time fracing centers at their base offices. Saudi Aramco adopted single-viewer visualization solutions to support a wide range of different operations with a single system through which Aramco users can simultaneously monitor various activities, including drilling and post-drilling activities with ease. This solution was approved to support the high supremacy of hydraulic fracking operation and their requirements by attaining the high speed of data transmission and visualization at the rate of minimum one-second data. The data transmitted all the way from the rig site to the base monitoring centers and displayed on customizable templates to meet the requirements of the data visualization with real-time calculations. The importance of real-time monitoring micro-seismic data is the key tool to determine the frequency of hydraulic fracturing during frac operations. This type of operation needs to be verified with the simulation models, and the whole range of complex operations is made possible with the advance technique to transmit real-time data. This real-time data was used for monitoring and treating wells at the most required rate of data availability at the base where complete optimization teams utilize different simulation applications to connect direct real-time data feeds, which are used to capitalize on the industry-standard well data transmission protocol (WITSML).
The advancements in tools and technology with the variety of data available in drilling industry has increased drastically. It is quite important to manage them in the best form so that we could effectively use this for several constructive purposes such as planning, execution and post processing analysis in drilling. For many years data has been majorly classified as static and real time where Real time from sensors lives feed is often visualized for operational decision making. Static information such as casing design, tubular design, well head design, BOP design are often stored as static files at database level. It is often a tedious process for a drilling expert to replicate a similar design in engineering that he had created before for reference modelling or analysis. This is mainly due to the fact that the data is often not available in a flexible format. To address such issues Saudi Aramco has decided to build a Drilling Engineering schematics package that serves in visualizing all of the available drilling data types. These data types significantly assist us to uncover many uncertainties such as when the data is captured or analyzed. The system is designed is in flexible format such that it could be accessible for all users across the same platform. Industrial format WITSML and Representational State transfers web services are used together to construct a data converter that converts any form of data into WITSML objects. These WITSML objects are then referenced using an image library set of components before they reach the final output for users. The system will be so useful for the drilling professionals for design and analysis as it can detect anomalies in the data such as casing, Cementing, Bottom Hole Assembly to name a few.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.