The Significance of Pro-active Online Monitoring with Stick-slip Mitigation

Abstract

Stick-slip is recognized as a major cause of drilling inefficiency and non-productive time (NPT) due to excessive bit wear, premature tool failure, drill string fatigue, and poor rate of penetration. The drilling industry is suffering from high well construction cost and are moving slowly toward automated well manufacturing. An important strategy is to reduce NPT, improve safety, and increase efficiency. Reduction of downhole vibration addresses all these issues.Surface based stick-slip mitigation systems have been available to the drilling industry for decades and are very effective when used correctly. However, history has shown that rig crews only use a fraction of its capability. The efficiency is trending downwards. There is potential for large performance gains with small changes to drilling practices. Real-time monitoring of selected key metrics showed to maximize the use of this tool and go beyond the limiters caused by stick-slip vibrations.The purpose of this paper is to inform operators and contractors about the positive performance effect with a remote monitoring system. It demonstrates a vibration mitigation tool significantly improved when guided by a remote operating center and enabled the user to stretch the limiters even more. Monitoring ensured correct tuning of the mitigation tool, correct use and identified problems before the rig saw it. Once the rig crew was comfortable with the new technique, they consistently drilled smoother in a stick-slip free environment. The system allowed more weight on bit without inducing further vibrations. It is possible to drill faster, but more importantly reduce the number of expensive bit/BHA trips to replace broken tools. Five case examples are discussed.

Identifying the Optimum Zone for Reducing Drill String Vibrations

“…Their monitoring system could identify stick slip before the crew at the surface could see it. This system allowed for increase in WOB without further increase in stick slip [14].…”

Data-driven indicators for the detection and prediction of stuck-pipe events in oil&gas drilling operations

“…In (Nybo and Sui, 2014) a clustering method is employed to recognize anomalies in the mud log data. Finally, some works are concerned with the prediction of stick-slip phenomena as well, see (Efteland et al, 2015).…”

A Data-Based Approach for the Prediction of Stuck-Pipe Events in Oil Drilling Operations

“…In [12] a clustering method is employed to recognize anomalies in the mud log data. Finally, some works are concerned with the prediction of stick-slip phenomena, as [13].…”