Design of an Automated

Drilling-Prediction System

D ata-mining processes are

fundamental in obtaining
the predictive benefits of real-time
systems and have been progressing
from descriptive to predictive
optimization methods. These
methods are enhanced by real-time
Second, the status of a particular event or
well is constantly changing as key drill-
ing factors change, and monitoring en-
gineers must review all data in detail be-
fore manually defining the new status of
a system. Third, a complete update of a
general well-operations status report is
nentially more meaningful and more ef-
ficient for monitoring purposes. Because
real-time data are properly related to
drilling-program and well-correlation
data, it is possible to develop models for
predicting future outcomes through new
software systems that automatically re-

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and historic data. Advanced sensor time consuming. The operations status late, set apart, and announce a potential
technologies, improved data-quality for a set of wells being drilled and moni- drilling challenge.
control, wellsite information-transfer tored can change dramatically from one
standard-markup-language (WITSML) minute to the next and therefore requires Application of the Traffic-Light
data advantages, and virtual real-time the constant participation of an engineer. Methodology
drilling-optimization concepts have Such a report should be automated to de- To reduce the time engineers invest de-
been assimilated into the design and rive maximum benefit from the best real- ciding where to focus their attention
implementation of prediction systems. time and historic data. on conventional real-time consoles, the
event or well status is defined by intuitive
Drilling-Data Mining colors used on the system interface. They
Introduction The drilling industry is aware of the im- are predefined as green for stable, or on
As technologies evolve and the WITSML portance of pattern analysis and past the program; yellow for alert, or near the
standard allows data exploitation by performance of correlation wells. It has limits of the program; and red for critical,
many specialized applications, more- looked to similar drilling-well experienc- or outside of the program. This applies to
accurate and reliable drilling data are es to predict the probability of a particu- a particular drilling aspect and to a gen-
available at real-time operation centers lar event or drilling outcome. This has eral drilling-operations dashboard able
(RTOCs) to analyze and mitigate drilling been achieved effectively with human in- to reflect the status of several wells being
issues. This enhances and speeds up the tervention, despite the fact that multiple drilled concurrently.
drilling-optimization process, and allows data families that needed to be taken into The criterion and color definition
a small group of highly skilled drilling en- account were difficult to access for differ- are automatically applied by the system
gineers to support several wellbore con- ent reasons. as new real-time values, and trends are
structions simultaneously. As well complexity has increased, constantly renewed and compared with
However, the traditional tasks of computer data-processing technolo- relevant historic information. The status
monitoring drilling parameters are still gies, telemetry instrumentation, and can be modified manually by the moni-
constrained by the constant need for ­real-time data-acquisition systems have toring engineers if necessary.
human intervention. First, the particu- advanced, providing the ability to use
lar field-operations knowledge gained by computer power to choose and examine More-Accurate Alerts
RTOC monitoring engineers is very valu- an increasing volume of more-­complex Traditionally, alerts have been prepared
able but fragile, because it requires the data. This has enabled discovery of pre- by monitoring engineers at RTOCs. How-
continued participation of team mem- viously undetected drilling patterns ever, most of them were triggered by en-
bers. To ensure that nothing is over- from correlation wells and known po- gineers’ data visualization or alarms dis-
looked, that knowledge should be gath- tential events from ongoing drilling played by the real-time systems. This is
ered and used by an intelligent system. programs, making real-time data expo- inefficient, because it demands signifi-
cant time from monitoring engineers to
validate the accuracy of the alarm before
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
an alert is posted.
of paper SPE 163709, “Design of an Automated Drilling-Prediction System— Therefore, alarms in the c­ omputer-
Strengthening-While-Drilling Decision Making,” by Samuel R. Pérez Bardasz, driven system were automated under the
SPE, Edwin David Hernández Alejadre, and Armando Almeida León, Petrolink, premise that all should be as accurate
prepared for the 2013 SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, and important as the data make possi-
Texas, USA, 5–7 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. ble. Hence, algorithms were ­developed

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • SEPTEMBER 2013 147

DM163709.indd 147 8/13/13 7:23 AM

 s­pecifically to assess a limited set of mum revolutions per minute; minimum/ This console is complemented with
the most recent data points for tempo- maximum rate of penetration (ROP); a depth-based well-correlation panel
ral trends, and to compare them with and minimum/maximum pump pres- that provides gamma-ray, resistivity, and
those expected on the basis of the drill- sure, flow rate, torque, type, diameter, lithology-column information that en-
ing program and correlation wells from and total flow area. These parameters hances the decision-making process to
the WITSML database. This reduces the are filtered, related into a database, and trigger an alert.
number of false alarm emissions com- displayed on a console. If a real-time Adding a degree of importance to
ing from data-point outliers that some- value is outside of the range defined by each one of the described-in-detail in-
times are part of a log curve or from a the program, the system will send au- formation tracks, it is possible to de-
data-transmission failure (such as noise). dible and visible alarms. This is com- fine a general-parameter status by use
Algorithms have been intentionally de- plemented and supported by a depth- of complex algorithms, resulting in a
signed to avoid system alarms being trig- based plot on which real-time data of traffic-light expression. Each data fam-
gered if the transmission system is miss- ROP, resistivity, and gamma ray are ily is used as a macro or rule that speci-
ing family data at a certain time or depth visibly compared. fies how a certain input sequence should
interval, if one value is outside of the pro- This information is complement- be mapped to a replacement input se-

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gram range, or if a block of received data ed with downhole-drilling-­ equipment quence, and how much impact it should
is outside of the range at a depth or time features if available, either from a have on the general well status. It is
where it is expected to be that way. ­conventional-motor or a rotary-­steerable important to mention that other fam-
Alarms are triggered taking into ac- system. The data taken into account are ily data such as trajectory or cementing
count two data sources (real-time stream maximum tool temperature, hours of data can be taken into account for the
and historic database). Thus, alerts rep- motor life, and motor brand and model. anticipation of drilling issues and fast,
resent warnings derived not only from An indicator of formation temperature accurate alert generation.
surface potential issues or imminent vs. motor temperature completes the in- Thereafter, two other well-status
downhole threats being identified in real formation immediately available to the screens enter the process: one that takes
time, but also from potential wellbore is- monitoring engineer before an alert into account the set of events such as
sues identified through correlation wells is posted. kicks, total loss, and friction and torque
or as predefined in the drilling program. Drilling-fluids aspects taken into issues that occurred on the correla-
Because this process requires data account include program values for tion wells; and one that takes into ac-
­
to be compared by a unique computer density, plastic viscosity, yield point, count the current well-operation status.
­
application, the drilling-data standard salinity, water/oil fraction, filtration, These provide easy-to-read key informa-
­
WITSML was put in place, as well as a sys- emulsion stability, equivalent circulat- tion to the monitoring engineer, who is
tem of measurements for downhole and ing density, loss, and gasification. All now able to focus more on data-trend
surface parameters—the set of units that program values are uploaded to the sys- analysis than on data validation and
operators use. Similarly, new features re- tem, where specific algorithms are ap- data-trend identification. It is impor-
lated to the fluids data displayed were de- plied to compare them with real-time and tant to mention that the automated sta-
veloped for the pre-existing application. near-­real-time fluid data. This results in tus can be edited manually by the mon-
All drilling-program data must be avail- a display that quickly shows which pa- itoring engineers if the status shown
able in a standardized format to be up- rameter requires attention; each has a is not what the operator or the rigsite
loaded to the system. traffic-light indication. staff confirms.
More-accurate automated alarms Rock-formation and lithology-­
maximize the decision value of the alerts column information can be compared General RTOC Dashboard
that are finally prepared by the monitor- using the real-time data stream and static Ironically, RTOC status reports are not
ing engineers. data stored in the system. Data available commonly available in real time. In-
from correlation wells and from the drill- stead, this task is performed from time
Anticipating Events ing program are matched with logging- to time, depending on the operator com-
and Trouble Zones while-drilling data and near-real-time pany’s interests, because it demands full
The design of an automated drilling-­ lithology data, if available. The era, for- attention of monitoring engineers for
prediction system was started by cover- mation, and lithology description are re- significant periods of time. All real-time
ing drill-bit performance, fluid changes, lated to measured depth below the rotary plots must be reviewed by the monitor-
and varying rock formations. These three table, to true vertical depth below mean ing engineers around a specific time,
points have data in the form of a program sea level, and to measured depth and looking for deviation from the plan as
as well as in real time. measured bed thicknesses. Once these trends change for the wells being moni-
Drilling performance has a direct static data are related with the real-time tored at the RTOC. Combining the three
relation to drill-bit efficiency. Therefore, data, a traffic light is displayed on the main statuses of all wells monitored at
drill-bit information is used to moni- console, indicating at least whether, for the RTOC into a unique automated dash-
tor the well, taking into account start/ a specific measured depth, the rock era, board makes the status-report update
end depth; casing-stage diameter; ini- formation, and lithology match those in an efficient task requiring almost no
tial/final weight on bit; minimum/maxi- the program. human intervention. JPT

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