Accurate Drilling Data Interpretations Brought Significant Values to a Major Drilling Project

Abstract

With the launch of a mega drilling project in the Middle East, the drilling data during the execution stage was collected in two formats; Low-Frequency Data and High-Frequency Data. This paper explains the effective utilization of data in the performance enhancement scheme. The paper also demonstrates the combination of Low-frequency and High-frequency data can reveal the many secrets of the drilling operations and can open the many sides of drilling operations for improvements. Low-Frequency data was entered manually at the rig-site using an improved coding system to identify the activities start and end times. High-Frequency data was collected through real-time transmission from the different data streaming services at the rig-site. Both data forms were collected simultaneously using stringent rules and close follow-ups to make sure that data collection was free of any reporting mistakes and gaps. Later, the collected data was extracted for different types of analyses and interpretations. Low-frequency data was studied in a novel way to get the best analytical and critical outcome to make sure that the right areas for improvements were identified and actions were implemented for enhanced performance. Improved operations coding system helped the team to categorize the operations and failures in an effective way to set new standards in data analysis. More than 100 different types of analyses using the best data analysis technique, such as trailing average, normalization, trends, etc., were conducted based on the information collected during the execution phase, and many new KPIs were established with challenging milestones to be achieved in the prescribed period. High-Frequency data was split into different sets of KPIs to identify the multiple Invisible Lost Time (ILT) areas to boost the operational efficiency. Various performance enhancement schemes were developed based on High-frequency data. As a result, these schemes were proven to enhance the performance of the mega drilling project. This paper discusses the novel methods of drilling data analysis based on low and high-frequency data and shows the effectiveness of the data presented in a standardized format over a period. It deliberates how the teams were challenged to enhance the performance. Such detailed data analysis will bring valuable information for the industry to utilize the conventional database in modernized ways to get the best outcomes from the data analysis results.