Automatic Drilling Fluids Monitoring

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Taugbøl ◽  
Bengt Sola ◽  
Matthew Forshaw ◽  
Arild Fjogstad

Abstract The drilling fluid is the primary barrier against well control incidents when drilling a well in conventional mode and the drilling fluid properties must be correct at all times to prevent well control incidents. Automatic drilling fluid monitoring through automated measuring techniques combined with real time data transfer into control center with 24/7 surveillance substantially improves this control compared to conventional methods relying on manual measurements with long sampling intervals. New measurement devices have been introduced to the industry which measure the drilling fluid properties of all fluid going into the well as well as fluid coming out from the well. Properties measured are among others density and a full rheology profile. The data are transferred to users on the rig as well as directly to onshore operation centers. This highly improves the fluid engineering, enabling a more precise diagnostician and treatment in real time. This also improves efficiency when performing displacements from one fluid system to another. This paper will present new units for automatic drilling fluids measurements and its use in offshore drilling. The surveillance of fluid properties and the use of data at an onshore operation center will be presented. The drilling fluid properties are also detrimental for drilling parameters such as ECD (equivalent circulating density), surge and swab pressures and hole cleaning properties and the added data will improve any estimation of such parameters. The paper will present experiences from use of these data into advanced real time hydraulic measurements and models for automatic drilling control and explain how this can improve safety in the drilling operations as well as improve the drilling efficiency.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjit Roy ◽  
Saiyid Z. Kamal ◽  
Richard Frazier ◽  
Ross Bruns ◽  
Yahia Ait Hamlat

Abstract Frequent, reliable, and repeatable measurements are key to the evolution of digitization of drilling information and drilling automation. While advances have been made in automating the drilling process and the use of sophisticated engineering models, machine learning techniques to optimize the process, and lack of real-time data on drilling fluid properties has long been recognized as a limiting factor. Drilling fluids play a significant function in ensuring quality well construction and completion, and in-time measurements of relevant fluid properties are key to automation and enhancing decision making that directly impacts well operations. This paper discusses the development and application of a suite of automated fluid measurement devices that collect key fluid properties used to monitor fluid performance and drive engineering analyses without human involvement. The deployed skid-mounted devices continually and reliably measure properties such as mud weight, apparent viscosity, rheology profiles, temperatures, and emulsion stability to provide valuable insight on the current state of the fluid. Real-time data is shared with relevant rig and office- based personnel to enable process monitoring and trigger operational changes. It feeds into real-time engineering analyses tools and models to monitor performance and provides instantaneous feedback on downhole fluid behavior and impact on drilling performance based on current drilling and drilling fluid property data. Equipment reliability has been documented and demonstrated on over 30 wells and more than 400 thousand ft of lateral sections in unconventional shale drilling in the US. We will share our experience with measurement, data quality and reliability. We will also share aspects of integrating various data components at disparate time intervals into real-time engineering analyses to show how real-time measurements improve the prediction of well and wellbore integrity in ongoing drilling operations. In addition, we will discuss lessons learned from our experience, further enhancements to broaden the scope, and the integration with operators, service companies and other original equipment manufacturer in the domain to support and enhance the digital drilling ecosystem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 50-50
Author(s):  
Ergun Kuru

Design and development of optimal drilling-fluid systems, as well as their proper maintenance while drilling, are essential components of any successful drilling campaign. As the oil and gas industry is drilling in more-challenging areas (e.g., unconventional shale oil/gas wells, deepwater offshore wells, and deep high-pressure/high-temperature sour gas wells), the demand for more-accurate real-time assessment of the downhole state of the drilling fluids during drilling operations increases. Recent developments in drilling systems automation provide a multitude of opportunities to have real-time monitoring of drilling-fluid properties and early diagnosis of drilling-fluid-related complications that might arise while drilling. Coupled with closed-loop control of surface and downhole drilling-fluid properties, automated monitoring of fluid properties would allow rig personnel to make timely corrections to the drilling-fluid program, which eventually would lead to more-cost-efficient and safer drilling operations. This feature provides examples of such new technologies that can be used as part of the automated drilling-fluid monitoring system, allowing real-time control of drilling-fluid rheological properties (i.e., density and viscosity) and management of solids content with potential benefits of real-time management of equivalent circulating density, effective hole cleaning/cuttings transport, increasing drilling rate, and reducing nonproductive time, resulting in safer wells drilled at minimum costs. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 199101 - Field Results of a Real-Time Drilling-Fluid Monitoring System by Sérgio Magalhães, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, et al. SPE 200990 - Intelligent Pressure-Control System for Managed-Pressure Drilling by Zhao Hui Song, Engineering Technology Research Institute of XDEC, et al. SPE 203389 - Real-Time Measurement of Drilling-Fluid Rheology and Density Using Acoustics by Paul Ofoche, Texas A&M University, et al.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1644
Author(s):  
Camilo Pedrosa ◽  
Arild Saasen ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Jan David Ytrehus

The cuttings transport efficiency of various drilling fluids has been studied in several approaches. This is an important aspect, since hole cleaning is often a bottleneck in well construction. The studies so far have targeted the drilling fluid cuttings’ transport capability through experiments, simulations or field data. Observed differences in the efficiency due to changes in the drilling fluid properties and compositions have been reported but not always fully understood. In this study, the cuttings bed, wetted with a single drilling fluid, was evaluated. The experiments were performed with parallel plates in an Anton Paar Physica 301 rheometer. The results showed systematic differences in the internal friction behaviors between tests of beds with oil-based and beds with water-based fluids. The observations indicated that cutting beds wetted with a polymeric water-based fluid released clusters of particles when external forces overcame the bonding forces and the beds started to break up. Similarly, it was observed that an oil-based fluid wetted bed allowed particles to break free as single particles. These findings may explain the observed differences in previous cutting transport studies.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3592
Author(s):  
Naipeng Liu ◽  
Di Zhang ◽  
Hui Gao ◽  
Yule Hu ◽  
Longchen Duan

The accurate and frequent measurement of the drilling fluid’s rheological properties is essential for proper hydraulic management. It is also important for intelligent drilling, providing drilling fluid data to establish the optimization model of the rate of penetration. Appropriate drilling fluid properties can improve drilling efficiency and prevent accidents. However, the drilling fluid properties are mainly measured in the laboratory. This hinders the real-time optimization of drilling fluid performance and the decision-making process. If the drilling fluid’s properties cannot be detected and the decision-making process does not respond in time, the rate of penetration will slow, potentially causing accidents and serious economic losses. Therefore, it is important to measure the drilling fluid’s properties for drilling engineering in real time. This paper summarizes the real-time measurement methods for rheological properties. The main methods include the following four types: an online rotational Couette viscometer, pipe viscometer, mathematical and physical model or artificial intelligence model based on a Marsh funnel, and acoustic technology. This paper elaborates on the principle, advantages, limitations, and usage of each method. It prospects the real-time measurement of drilling fluid rheological properties and promotes the development of the real-time measurement of drilling rheological properties.


Author(s):  
Jan David Ytrehus ◽  
Ali Taghipour ◽  
Sneha Sayindla ◽  
Bjørnar Lund ◽  
Benjamin Werner ◽  
...  

One important requirement for a drilling fluid is the ability to transport the cuttings out of the borehole. Improved hole cleaning is a key to solve several challenges in the drilling industry and will allow both longer wells and improved quality of well construction. It has been observed, however, that drilling fluids with similar properties according to the API standard can have significantly different behavior with respect to hole cleaning performance. The reasons for this are not fully understood. This paper presents results from flow loop laboratory tests without and with injected cuttings size particles using a base oil and a commercial oil based drilling fluid. The results demonstrate the importance of the rheological properties of the fluids for the hole cleaning performance. A thorough investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the fluids was performed with a Fann viscometer and a Paar-Physica rheometer, and was used to interpret the results from the flow loop experiments. Improved understanding of the fluid properties relevant to hole cleaning performance will help develop better models of wellbore hydraulics used in planning of well operations. Eventually this may lead to higher ROP with water based drilling fluids as obtained with oil based drilling fluids. This may ease cuttings handling in many operations and thereby significantly reduce the drilling cost using (normally) more environmentally friendly fluids. The experiments have been conducted as part of an industry-sponsored research project where understanding the hole cleaning performance of various oil and water based drilling fluids is the aim. The experiments have been performed under realistic conditions. The flow loop includes a 10 meter long test section with 2″ OD freely rotating drillstring inside a 4″ ID wellbore made of concrete. Sand particles were injected while circulating the drilling fluid through the test section in horizontal position.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Chagas ◽  
Paulo R. Ribeiro ◽  
Otto L. A. Santos

Abstract The demand for energy has increased recently worldwide, requiring new oilfield discoveries to supply this need. Following this demand increase, challenges grow in all areas of the petroleum industry especially those related to drilling operations. Due to hard operational conditions found when drilling complex scenarios such as high-pressure/high-temperature (HPHT) zones, deep and ultradeep water, and other challenges, the use nonaqueous drilling fluids became a must. The reason for that is because this kind of drilling fluid is capable to tolerate these extreme drilling conditions found in those scenarios. However, it can experience changes in its properties as a result of pressure and temperature variations, requiring special attention during some drilling operations, such as the well control. The well control is a critical issue since it involves safety, social, economic, and environmental aspects. Well control simulators are a valuable tool to support well control operations and preserve the well integrity, verifying operational parameters and to assist drilling engineers in the decision-making process during well control operations and kick situations. They are also important computational tools for rig personnel training. This study presents well control research and development contributions, as well as the results of a computational well control simulator that applies the Driller's method and allows the understanding the thermodynamic behavior of synthetic drilling fluids, such as n-paraffin and ester base fluids. The simulator employed mathematical correlations for the drilling fluids pressure–volume–temperature (PVT) properties obtained from the experimental data. The simulator results were compared to a test well data set as well to the published results from other kick simulators.


2012 ◽  
Vol 614-615 ◽  
pp. 971-975
Author(s):  
Ping He ◽  
Zhi Jie Zhu ◽  
Hong Cheng Jiang

In a centralized control center SCADA system, thousands of real-time data are sent to SCADA, including real-time signal, telemetering and alarm information. The intelligent analysis and processing of alarm signals is an important requirement. This article from the design point of intelligent alarm rules, explore an internal reasoning knowledge base and the external definition of rules combined design algorithm. Practical application results show that, the algorithm to power a variety of abnormal and fault has better capture and analysis ability.


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