DRILLING MANAGEMENT
Increasing Drilling Efficiencies Through Analysis
of Real-Time and Historic Drilling Data
Estimated spending on drilling and
completions was more than USD 250
billion in 2008. With rig costs esti-
mated to consume 37% (or USD 92.5
billion) of that spending, every effort
to reduce drilling time has a direct
effect on the bottom line. Estimates
of nonproductive time (NPT) ran from
15 to 40%, or USD 14 to 37 billion,
depending on well type and operator.
The causes were varied and includ-
ed technical and nontechnical chal-
lenges. Obviously, any effort made
to reduce NPT will affect bottom-
line spending.
Introduction
The oil and gas industry spends mil-
lions of dollars each year collecting
vast amounts of drilling data, yet
has not made effective use of these
data to improve drilling performance.
Drilling analysis is a proven technique
for improving the return on invest-
ment of drilling operations, but com-
prehensive drilling analysis has not
been a regular part of well planning
and operations.
So why is it that comprehensive
drilling analysis is not a consistent
part of drilling best practices? In part,
perhaps, because of the culture. One
author suggested that 95% of drilling
activities are operationally focused,
This article, written by Assistant Tech-
nology Editor Karen Bybee, contains
highlights of paper SPE 128722,
“Increasing Drilling Efficiencies Through
Improved Collaboration and Analysis
of Real-Time and Historical Drilling
Data,” by Catheryn Staveley, SPE,
and Paul Thow, SPE, Schlumberger,
originally prepared for the 2010 SPE
Intelligent Energy Conference and
Exhibition, Utrecht, The Netherlands,
23–25 March. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
For a limited time, the full-length paper is available free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
82
placing emphasis on doing, rather
than planning or analyzing. Many
people in drilling operations thrive
on operating by “gut instincts” and
succeeding through heroic efforts.
While experience dealing with unex-
pected events is crucial for success in
an environment where uncertainty
exists, surely it would make more
sense to be taking pride in telling sto-
ries about the well where everything
went according to plan. Furthermore,
while most companies have health,
safety, and environmental policies
that are “zero-tolerance,” an accep-
tance of waste and inefficiency as
being inevitable in drilling operations
continues. It is difficult to imagine
another industry that would accept
60% waste when it is widely known
that something as simple as better
planning can improve drilling results.
Two other key obstacles to integrat-
ed drilling analysis are the inability
to manage the volumes of data that
potentially could be used in drilling
analysis and the historical limitations
of traditional well-planning software.
The vision for integrated drilling anal-
ysis includes the ability to:
• Visualize and correlate low- and
high-density data.
• Allow effective sharing of cross-
discipline expertise.
• Provide continuous real-time up-
dates.
This integrated approach includes
technologies to overcome data-man-
agement challenges and well-planning
limitations, and to implement multi-
disciplinary work flows to help facili-
tate planning and analysis across an
asset team.
Data Problem
The first step is defining and scop-
ing the drilling project, followed by
data selection and quality control.
This data selection and quality con-
trol is one of the most difficult stages
in drilling analysis. Simply increas-
ing the amount of data often means
nothing more than adding irrelevant
“noise.” Large amounts of data are
available—a situation that likely will
increase as new technologies, such as
wired drillpipe, become adopted more
widely. However, determining which
data are relevant is not a simple task,
which often leads to a trial-and-error
approach to data selection.
Building an effective data set from
the wide variety of available data
sources is both time consuming and
frustrating. Data exist in multiple
formats and from multiple vendors,
such as rig contractors, mud loggers,
measurement while drilling (MWD)/
logging while drilling (LWD), wire-
line, and others. Data quality, par-
ticularly with manually reported data,
is often an issue. There is a natural
tendency to want to avoid report-
ing negative news, and values tend
to be either a quick glance at a dial
or, worse yet, hand-picked to match
planned values.
Often data must be retrieved from
storage facilities, and may exist only
on paper or outdated media, such as
51/4-in. floppy disks, which may be
difficult to read using today’s technol-
ogy. Daily operations reports, end-of-
well reports, and various other vendor
reports must be sifted through manu-
ally to generate a digest or synopsis.
This process can take several weeks or
even months and generally is finished
when time runs out, rather than when
a satisfactory level of knowledge has
been achieved.
Limitation of Tools
The majority of the drilling software
tools available focus on planning a
single well. Existing tools rely on
JPT • SEPTEMBER 2010
import of geological data, often with-
out direct liaison with the owners
of this information. This means that
many decisions are made using out-
of-date information or data that are
out of context from original analysis.
Other petroleum-engineering soft-
ware tools, such as production analy-
sis and reservoir simulators, typically
focus on multiple wells, combining
historical and current data, simula-
tion, and analysis.
In implementing a drilling-analysis
solution, it was determined that one
of the challenges was that of effective
integration of the various types of
drilling data: low-density data, such
as daily drilling reports and bottom-
hole-assembly (BHA)-run summaries;
high-density data, such as real-time
drilling data and wireline logs; and
information from other disciplines,
such as geology and geomechanics.
Drilling-analysis implementations
often tend to be focused on just one
form of this wide knowledge base, and
are not oriented toward automatically
maintaining these data through real-
time updates. Furthermore, many orga-
nizations have not yet adopted technol-
ogies with these real-time capabilities.
Overview of an Integrated
Approach to Drilling Analysis
Seeking to address what was felt to be
a gap in the drilling-analysis process,
types of functionality were defined.
Some examples include:
• Correlation and calculation of
drilling and geomechanical properties
such as mechanical specific energy
(MSE) and rock strength
• BHA- and bit-performance cor-
relation
• Earth-model integration
• Histogram drilling parameters,
including distribution curve functions
• Ability to record and play back a
set of work-flow steps
• Filtering of data by depth and
other log values
• Ability to implement additional
displays, calculations, and domain
objects
• Real-time integration of data
In addition, it was determined that
key visual displays needed to include:
• Well-section correlation
• 3D views
• Crossplots
• Histograms
• Composite plots.
JPT • SEPTEMBER 2010
Enabling the results in real time
is considered to be highly valuable
because it would provide the capabil-
ity to develop and monitor key perfor-
mance indicators, such as current rate-
of-penetration (ROP) performance as
a function of ROP distribution. Real-
time functionality also would allow
optimizing well placement within the
reservoir (geosteering), improving the
accuracy of the Earth model, and
optimizing drilling as it is occurring.
Typically, analysis of real-time data
takes place using an integrated multi-
disciplinary approach, and this led to
examination of use of Earth-modeling
software to achieve project objectives.
Geoscientists have long used, in
modeling reservoirs, many of the
techniques that the project sought to
apply to drilling analysis. Although
these tools lacked specific drilling-
domain data, it was possible to incor-
porate these data, either through use
of open software development plat-
forms or by compromising on the way
in which the data were incorporated.
For example, the project team has
been able to extract the daily sum-
mary from the drilling report and
incorporate it as a series of comments,
and they were able to completely
integrate drilling events and risks as
custom objects. Moreover, by using
the same set of tools for multiple
disciplines, the team has been able to
expand the available knowledge to all
disciplines involved in the field-devel-
opment process. Additionally, by tak-
ing an Earth-model-based approach,
the team found that they were able
to provide much better predictive
capabilities, through the ability of the
software to help the team see beyond
the bit.
Implementing an Integrated-Drill-
ing-Analysis Approach Creating the
Knowledge Base. The first step in
implementing the drilling-analysis
system is to create a drilling knowl-
edge base. The drilling knowledge
base is used for historical drilling data
collected on a rig, such as surface
parameter data and MWD/LWD data.
Other data, such as outputs from real-
time viewing software, wireline logs,
bit records, BHAs, drilling risks and
events, best practices, lessons learned,
and any other information valuable
to drillers, are loaded into the drilling
knowledge base.
83
Well Planning. After the drilling
knowledge base is populated for
the project, it can be displayed with
respect to other wells in a field and
correlated by time, depth, and for-
mation, in both 2D and 3D displays,
which is unique from a drilling per-
spective. By combining these data as
described, detailed offset-well analysis
can be performed and used for future
well planning. Numerous calculations
can be performed such as uncon-
fined compressive strength, MSE,
and unlimited crossplots, graphs, and
charts. ROP estimations can be calcu-
lated on the basis of offset wells, and
optimal operating parameters, such as
bits and BHAs, can be identified and
uncertainty can be reduced dramati-
cally. New wells can be planned on the
basis of data from the closest or most
pertinent offset wells. Users can create
a stick diagram with all of their vendor
programs incorporated, along with
casing best practices for particular
formations or hole sizes, and display it
next to their best offsets for reference.
This can be used as a reference tool for
the well being planned.
Real-Time Capabilities. The value
of real-time data within the drilling
knowledge base is the ability to relate
what is being seen in real time with
patterns and events from the past. This
comparison can help make decisions
that could potentially cost or save mil-
lions of dollars. Real-time capabilities
also can provide a robust collaboration
tool where the office and rig simulta-
neously view all the past and current
drilling data within the context of the
Earth model by use of a web-hosted
application. Current parameters can
be displayed next to offsets along with
any other data relevant in a single
workspace as a collaboration tool for
morning calls or meetings. This is
an extremely effective tool because it
is updated automatically in real time
and requires minimal manipulation on
the part of the drilling engineers, thus
making them much more efficient.
This process can enhance morning
calls to rigs and enable drilling engi-
neers to make better decisions for the
day’s drilling program.
Conclusions
Pilot projects have shown multiple
applications where this integrated-
drilling-analysis approach facilitated
the drilling-optimization workflow and
the integration of more information
while reducing worker efforts. Worker
efforts are reduced by having all the
drilling data organized in one location
and correlated by well, formation, and
depth and in two or three dimensions;
by enabling engineers to plan around
drilling events by referencing the his-
torical data quickly and easily; and by
the ability to mitigate risks in real time,
enhanced by referencing the drilling
knowledge base. JPT

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