In the current drilling climate, efficiency is king: do more with less. This motivation drives disruptive technological innovations in automation of the drilling process. Drilling automation can contribute to this efficiency specifically by automating the sliding process. The paper discusses a case history involving one operator's deployment and results of an automated sliding system. The goal for automating the sliding process was to reduce personnel on location, drive consistency, increase wellbore quality, and shift the focus from an ROP-focused mindset. The operator had initially used bit guidance software for approximately one year, which was a significant backbone component of the automated sliding system. The automated sliding software was installed and tested on the rig, and then deployed on a six-well pad for initial observation and analysis. After deployment, the automated sliding system successfully completed slides in all four surface sections on the pad. The first complete well on the pad, drilled to total depth, successfully completed slides in the vertical, curve and lateral sections. The rate of automated sliding exceeded initial goals, and the rig proceeded to drill several more wells at near-100% utilization rates. The automated decision-making system compiled detailed drilling set points and specifications used to form the most consistent and efficient method to drill the well, formation by formation. The total number of third party directional drillers was reduced, increasing overall safety and lowering costs. Automating the sliding process, with this degree of accuracy and lack of human intervention through automated decision-making, represents a significant step change in the drilling industry milestones on the road to full automation. Best practices regarding adoption and deployment of automation technology will contribute to ensuring success in the ever-increasing field of drilling automation.
The driller on the rig performs a number of complex tasks including engaging and disengaging the bit, determining subsurface bit location in real-time, orienting the toolface to steer the bit, adjusting pumps and rotary, and deciding set-points to maximize performance, all while managing the rig crew to ensure safe operations. There is always a potential for dynamic dysfunctions that, if not addressed quickly, could have destructive outcomes. Stick-slip, bit whirl, excessive downhole vibration, and oversteering can each quickly lead to problems. Human response time to address these phenomena varies greatly. Further, the methods in which drillers address these dysfunctions are not standardized. This human variability can increase well costs, decrease production potential, and increase safety risks. Under the direction of experienced drillers, a suite of software applications has been developed to provide a holistic, automated solution to many of the tasks previously performed manually by humans. Reducing human variability bridges the gap between past performance and maximum theoretical performance. Deployment of these "apps" within an autonomous drilling platform enables operators to easily study and improve the drilling process and, in turn, accelerate and improve well programs.Utilizing multiple automation technologies simultaneously improves consistency, reduces operating costs and lowers risk potential. Higher quality wellbores are delivered with maximum hydrocarbon production potential. New processes have been developed to deploy the apps in a coordinated way, changing roles both in the field and in 24/7 remote support centers. The apps automate or augment many processes, such as making connections, making slide/rotate decisions, determining bit position in relation to local geology, reengaging the bit to bottom, and controlling both rotating and sliding sequences in an efficient manner. Individual automation technologies have demonstrated measured benefits independently. However, the utilization of an entire suite of automation tools designed to work together within new workflows has demonstrated a substantially higher benefit potential to the operator not typically achievable by individual automation technologies in isolation. These human/machine workflows were refined in pilot deployments and are now being deployed at various levels across a uniform fleet of rigs. Individual tasks can be automated in relation to acquiring and analyzing data, making decisions, and implementing those decisions as part of the drilling processes. Automation empowers the operator by allowing significantly larger volumes of data to be digested and interpreted more rapidly than is possible by humans alone, while taking economic factors into account during the automated decision making. The deployment of the automation technologies presented in this paper requires novel work processes both in the field and in the office that are only possible across a uniform suite of rigs, demonstrating the value of scaling and leveraging expertise and experience.
Introduction The Intelligent Oilfield (IOF), also known as the Digital Oilfield of the Future (DOFF), encompasses a collaborative environment (CEs) for communication, data collection, reporting and monitoring, and knowledge & information sharing. These environments, or physical workspaces, are intended to help people make more informed decisions and to take the appropriate actions across the enterprise. In addition, it enables alignment, focus, and a common understanding to help prioritize opportunities. Innovations in various collaboration technologies are helping companies to make the intelligent oilfield a reality. One of the key implementation components currently attracting attention is the collaboration or remote surveillance center - a high-tech, communications, visualization, and audio-enhanced monitoring or control room. Although the facility is intended to create an atmosphere for improved communications, multifunctional work, and a means to help eliminate organizational barriers, the center itself is only the physical manifestation of the desired spirit of richer and increased human interaction. There are currently two differing philosophies for the implementation of these centers - an asset-based center that services a single asset and a central hub that services multiple assets. Each approach has its own particular merits and potential pitfalls. Although there is no single right answer, certain considerations are recommended before construction begins that could assist in determining the most appropriate approach for the given circumstances. Factors such as corporate culture and employee skill base can have a huge impact on the success of the final choice. Without such an evaluation, many efforts will continue to be burdened or opportunities will be deferred or lost. Collaboration Center Defined Webster's dictionary defines collaboration as:to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor, orto cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected. That said, the oil industry has been collaborating internally, such as a business unit with an R&D group, and externally, such as with suppliers, for years. What makes the recent CEs different from the collaboration in the past is the reliance on real-time data and information, with the intent of real-time analysis and decision-making, in a fixed, fit-for-purpose physical space. The degree of real-time action-taking, whether through remote control or other means, is much more variable for CEs, even within the same company. The collaboration of today is also about interacting for a common goal. The main theme or purpose for installing collaboration centers is for increased "situational awareness" - that is, the expedient understanding in an organization of what it is faced with and how to respond or exploit that particular situation. This alignment can be difficult given the autonomous nature of E&P organizational structures and governance models, combined with the numerous situations that require a globally diverse support network. Therefore, the new CEs not only represent a new physical workspace, but a new operating model that has many unintended consequences. As an enterprise considers the value of a collaboration center, there are various factors and consequences (intended and unintended) in design, installation, and operation. The center itself is merely the physical manifestation of a spirit of data, information, and knowledge sharing within an organization. It should be noted that the benefits of this collaborative spirit can, ideally, be achieved without the physical space by virtue of well-connected, collaborative workforce. But, the new CEs may be the valuable first step in an evolution that leads towards real-time collaboration anytime anywhere.
The XML based Wellsite Information Transfer Standard Markup Language (WITSML) wellsite data exchange format provides the hydrocarbon extraction industry with a bandwidth efficient, real-time drilling data management and exchange format. Drilling data can be supplied to the data consumer within seconds, regardless of their global location.With recent industry talk of the big demographic bulge or crew change being due within five years and ongoing difficulty in sourcing new recruits into the hydrocarbon extraction industry, the ability to take the data to the expert, rather than the expert to the data, provides both Oil and Service Companies with workflow challenges and opportunities.
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