Development of well complexity calculator and its integration into standard well engineering management system/well delivery system

Abstract

Oil and gas well drilling is the most important and complex task for oil and gas exploration. It is not necessary that design and execution complexity remain the same for two different wells even in the same field. It is possible to have a very complex well to drill after a very straightforward simple well being drilled earlier in the same field. Making correlation or comparison of any of the two or more than two oil and gas drilling wells is an ongoing debate in the petroleum industry. Generally, companies compare the oil and gas drilling wells on a single or two parameters, for example: time versus depth, directional trajectories, well cost and/or other single factors in disengagement of one another. In order to compare two different types of oil and gas drilling wells, having distinctive design, drilling and fluid program and challenges, a scientific rating system is required, which can relate various wells with one another. In this research paper, a calculator named Well Complexity Calculator has been developed to measure the complexity of the oil and gas well drilling by using different parameters. All these parameters are commonly affecting the drilling program and its execution. Secondly, a methodology is designed for integration of Well Complexity Calculator into standard Well Engineering Management System/Well Delivery System for better execution of drilling program. Fifty-one (51) oil and gas drilling well complexity parameters have been utilized to develop Well Complexity Calculator, where they are categorized into three main complexities types named Design Well Complexity, Geological Well Complexity and Project Well Complexity. Design and Geological Well Complexities combine to form Drilling Well Complexity, and then Drilling Well Complexity and Project Well Complexity combine to form Well Complexity. Median, Mode and Monte Carlo simulation techniques were chosen to develop the calculator where Median showed best suited results and was accordingly chosen for the final calculator. Sixty-six (66) actual oil and gas wells’ camouflaged drilling data were used to analyze and fine tune the developed Well Complexity Calculator. Output complexities of these wells were falling in different complexity levels. Moreover, it was seen that the number of low, high and medium complexity wells was different for Design, Geological, Project, Drilling and Well Complexities which is in line with the real-world scenario.The findings and the output Well Complexity Calculator can be very useful at any stage from initial planning to close-out of a well. Without the application of a system like Well Complexity Calculator, wells are categorized as low, medium or high complexity based on either two to three major parameters or based on qualitative assessment of team involved in the project. Here, step-by-step procedure is developed and explained by which any company involved in Drilling and Well Operations can develop their own Well Complexity Calculator and then accordingly integrate it into their Well Engineering Management System/Well Delivery System.