Data Exchange and Collaboration Realize Automated Drilling Control Potential
Authors: Feder Judy 
Published: January 2021

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 201763, “Exploiting the Full Potential in Automated Drilling Control by Increased Data Exchange and Multidisciplinary Collaboration,” by Kristian Gjerstad, SPE, and Ronny Bergerud, Sekal, and Stig Tore Thorsen, SPE, Equinor, prepared for the 2020 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, originally scheduled to be held in Denver, Colorado, 5-7 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

The complete paper describes challenges that must be overcome to reach the goal of drilling systems automation (DSA). The authors explore steps necessary to realize the full potential of performance-enhancing functionalities in automated drilling control (ADC) software, highlight current gaps, and present relatively easily achievable goals that can enable significant cost reduction and improvements in automation and safety. They also emphasize that automation is a multidisciplinary task, and that success requires collaboration between different sectors of the drilling industry.

Overview

The 19-page complete paper includes detailed technical discussion of topics ranging from the basic principles of an ADC system and practical challenges experienced with a model-based digital twin approach to suggested solutions and improvements. Each topic is divided into numerous related discussions. Because delving into each of these discussions is not possible in this synopsis, these have been outlined, with a few supporting points included for each.

The Potential of ADC Systems

Dedicated software applications - referred to by the authors as ADC systems - for protecting the well, increasing safety, automating repetitive operations, and optimizing the drilling process, have been available for some time. Several projects in which sophisticated ADC systems evaluate downhole conditions to assist the driller with judgments and decisions have been reported, with promising results including noticeable improvements in cost savings, reduced incidents, and improved safety. However, the number of rigs with sophisticated ADC systems running actively in real time is not high, and even on rigs where an ADC system is in use, the potential of the system generally is not fully leveraged. One reason is that these ADC systems are based on models of the drilling process running in parallel with the real process, with each requiring the exact same inputs in real time to work optimally. Many of these inputs are entered manually because the instrumentation, equipment, and infrastructure needed to automate the data transfer are not in place. The inputs that are automated may not be sufficiently accurate or reliable, so manual interactions are needed. Experience shows that even on relatively new rigs with modern instrumentation, a large untapped potential exists.

An underlying reason for this lack of automated inputs is that different parties involved in establishing the required instrumentation and automated signal transfer are not well aligned. Thus, increased automation and repeatability can introduce increased staffing and cost for operating the ADC system. To overcome this paradox, better collaboration is required among the vendors in the complete production loop.