Patent ID: 7857047

Claim:
A method of producing hydrocarbons comprising: (a) performing drilling operations to form a wellbore extending to a subsurface location in a field to provide fluid flow paths for hydrocarbons to a production facility, wherein drilling is performed by: (i) determining a drilling methodology; (ii) obtaining mechanical specific energy (MSE) data and other measured data during the drilling operations; (iii) using the obtained MSE data and other measured data to determine the existence of at least one founder limiter; (iv) obtaining lithology data for the wellbore; (v) examining the lithology data for the wellbore; (vi) identifying a primary founder limiter of the at least one founder limiter based on the lithology data; (vii) adjusting drilling operations to mitigate the primary founder limiter; and (b) producing hydrocarbons from the wellbore.