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About Engineering…
Drilling efficiency improvements, require a holistic and systematic evaluation of drilling systems. This condition must be supported by effective data interpretations, thereby ensuring identification of project/application challenges. Appropriate procedures, developed through testing and validation protocols, are needed to ensure consistencies in the evaluation processes. These expectations must be backed by deep and grounded understanding of performance drilling’s engineering elements. Evaluation protocols, when tested, proven, and consistent, with foundations in physics, promote faster development of efficient drilling systems. Additionally, such standardized and consistent processes promote remediation of anticipated challenges in the project planning phase.
Formation Drillability
Project planning and execution must be tied to rock mechanics analysis. This investigation must establish the rock’s contributions to drilling difficulty, based on its geologic and mechanical properties. Field data analysis, shows that formation induced drilling difficulty, has stronger dependency on formation drillability, that it does on formation hardness. Hardness is an input in formation drillability analysis (SPE/IADC 57558)
bha dESIGN & MODELING
BHA designs must accommodate required drilling parameters ranges, based on applications types and performance expectations. They must also be analyzed to ensure design compliance considering tubular sizes, lengths, and cross-sectional areas. Additionally, they must be modeled at project specific parameter ranges to minimize tubular deflections, slopes, and displacements. These considerations improve directional performance and effective drilling parameters transfer, while establishing appropriate dynamic conditions for efficient drilling. (SPE/IADC 173140 and SPE/IADC 199631)
DRILLING MECHANICS
Drill bit types – PDC, Roller Cone, and Impregnated – have different rock failure mechanisms. Consequently, drilling parameter requirements, responses, and behaviors are different for these tools. Bits and Reamers also have different parameter requirements and responses. These dissimilar attributes must be understood, because of their implications on durability, efficiency, aggressiveness, vibrations, downhole tool reliability, etc. (SPE/IADC 39310 and SPE/IADC 84354)
DRILLING DYNAMICS
Forces and movements, generated during the drilling process, create conditions and behaviors that usually compromise efficiency and overall drilling performance. Several conditions and factors, initiate and/or intensity these undesirable events, also referred to as vibrations. Different vibration modes – axial, torsional, lateral, stick-slip, and whirl – are developed during the drilling process. It is important to define, characterize, identify the specific modes, and establish their sources so that appropriate vibrations control solutions and strategies (preventative and mitigative) can be developed in the planning and execution phases of projects. (SPE?IADC 163565 and SPE/IADC 91423)
ACTIONABLE LOOK BACK
Drilling efficiency enhancements, must be supported by actionable lookbacks. This effort must identify execution risks and uncertainties based on planning provisions. Questions relating to why specific conditions were encountered, resulting effects, and whether such situations were anticipated in the planning phase must be addressed. (SPE/IADC 50557)
