Advanced Drilling Simulation Environment for Testing New Drilling Automation Techniques and Practices

Abstract

Newly developed drilling automation systems locate a computer interface between commands issued by the driller and instructions transmitted to the drilling machinery. Such functions are capable of faster and more precise control than can be achieved by an unaided operator and thus can help drilling within narrow margins. To ensure that these systems work properly in all circumstances, an advanced drilling simulator has been developed to enable testing under a wide range of simulated conditions.The environment described in this paper uses hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation to verify that the automation techniques being tested respond correctly in real time. Rigorously validated physical models of the drilling process simulate the response of the well to the commands given to the drilling machines. Abnormal drilling conditions (e.g., packoffs, kicks) and equipment or machine-related problems (e.g., plugged nozzles, power shortage) are convincingly recreated.The drilling simulator models the behavior of surface equipment such as the activation of gate valves to line up different pits or the flow in the mud return. It simulates changes in the drilling fluid properties when mixing additives to the mud. It is therefore possible to focus training sessions on cooperation between different groups at the wellsite. This is particularly useful when planning the introduction of drilling automation that involves new work procedures as a result of automation and adaptation of the drilling team to a new operational environment.Drilling operations are becoming more and more complex. Automation has the potential to provide large improvements in efficiency and safety, but automation technologies must be implemented correctly at the workplace. Just as the aviation industry has used simulated environments for decades, drilling simulation environments are the key to the safe and successful implementation of drilling automation and the development of crew skills to face future challenges.

Drillstring Washout Diagnosis Using Friction Estimation and Statistical Change Detection

“…If Γ > 0 and Λ > 0 are fixed, it can be seen from (9) that there is a maximum value of K K, thus a minimum and maximum value of K x , with K K smallest for K x = I Nx . Furthermore, (9) shows that there is a lower bound on Γ −1 Λ as a function of K x , β(·) and λ(·), where increasing Λ and Γ gives higher noise magnification, while lowering them gives slower parameter updates. Since these estimates are used for detection, it is desirable with fast updates of estimated parameters after a change, giving requirements on the tuning matrices.…”

“…All of these will affect drilling operation. Simulation and detection of different downhole drilling incidents, including drillstring washout, were discussed in [9] with some tests on real data in [7]. There a high fidelity model was fitted to data and used to detect abnormalities.…”

Fault diagnosis of downhole drilling incidents using adaptive observers and statistical change detection

“…Small particles from the cuttings may restrict the flow through one or several of the nozzles, which will be seen as an increased pressure drop over the bit, and thus an increase in the pump pressure. Since the formation is not exposed to this pressure increase, the incident is not as severe as a packoff [9]. If pressure sensors are available on both sides of the bit, changes to the pressure drop can be used to indicate a plugging.…”

“…Simple hydraulics models and observers were used by [4,5], a high fidelity model was fitted to data in [9,10], and [11] applied a knowledge-modeling method. Due to measurement noise, a statistical cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm was tested on flow measurements in [2], and in [12], skewness of the statistical distribution was used to detect poor hole cleaning.…”

Developing Operational Procedures for Safe and Efficient Application of New Process Control Functionality on the Drilling Rig

“…The eLAD laboratory with the applied Virtual rig drilling simulator, described in detail in Cayeux et al (2012), has been created to test and validate new drilling systems both in normal and deteriorated conditions. It can also be used to develop work procedures, and train well-site drilling teams.…”