Patent ID: 7896105

Claim:
A method of producing hydrocarbons comprising: (a) identifying a field having hydrocarbons; (b) drilling at least one well to a subsurface location in the field to provide fluid flow paths for hydrocarbons to a production facility, wherein drilling is performed by: (i) estimating a drill rate for one of the at least one well; (ii) determining an efficient drilling methodology; (iii) obtaining mechanical specific energy (MSE) data and other measured data during the drilling of the one of the at least one well; (iv) using the obtained MSE data and other measured data to determine one of a plurality of limiters that limit the drill rate; (v) adjusting the drilling operations to mitigate the one of the plurality of limiters; (vi) iteratively repeating steps (i)-(v) until the subsurface location has been reached by the drilling operation; and (c) producing hydrocarbons from the one of the at least one well.