Technology Update: Well Construction Performance Service Bridges Planning-Execution Gap To Boost Efficiency
Authors: Hbaieb Slim , Converset Julien , Foster Jason , Arevalo Yezid 
Published: April 2018

Technology Update

Less than a decade ago, the key to optimizing wellbore economics centered mainly on drilling faster and improving rates of penetration (ROP). Improved drilling techniques, innovative bottomhole assembly (BHA) and bit technology, and advanced methods for measuring downhole dynamics gaged by key performance indicators (KPIs) enabled operators to push the limits of technology.

Well planning, a critical aspect in optimizing well construction, leverages lessons learned and best practices, along with powerful modeling and simulation software platforms. Yet, even the best well plans experience deviations that result in missed opportunities to drill and trip faster or operate the rig more efficiently, without compromising safety or wellbore integrity.

Historically, these gains have not been captured in real time, but more likely, at best, have been identified in a post-well analysis. Limitations in computing power and lack of data processing automation have meant experts could only monitor one well or rig at a time.

Moreover, the drilling phase, where ROP has a significant impact, often accounts for less than 25% of the full well construction cycle.

Opportunities for efficiency gains have remained unexplored within the rest of the cycle—including running casing, pulling riser, tripping in and out of the hole, making connections, and testing the blowout preventer (BOP).

A new approach overcomes these challenges by taking a holistic view of the well construction cycle to bridge the gap between planning and execution. It brings well construction into a new digital era that makes better use of data and enhances collaboration, achieving greater efficiency and safety from planning through execution.

Currently operating on multiple onshore and offshore wells globally, the OptiWell well construction performance service gives operators access to the best available surface, downhole, and logging data and multidiscipline expertise to monitor and analyze all operations, processes, and downhole conditions in real time. The service transforms the large volume of sur-face and downhole data into actionable information, reducing nonproductive time (NPT) and invisible lost time (ILT) while increasing drilling performance and improving operation- al efficiency. 

The service closes the loop by identifying inefficiencies and proposing new workflows and procedures that challenge technical limits to increase performance and reduce risk in every area of well construction. Global operations are monitored and analyzed remotely by experts from drilling, mud logging, geomechanics, and other domains located in in-house service centers, who collaborate with a customer’s onsite well operation analysts.

The well construction performance service can be scaled to enable only the workflows needed for a specific well or section. Operators can target KPIs and implement the service for a specific project or a general efficiency improvement campaign by focusing on specific areas of the operation that are not meeting objectives. Workflows can be adapted from a single-well exploration campaign to a multirig, multiwell field development campaign.