Well construction management and decision support system
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsGinger Vinyard Hildebrand, Chunling Gu Coffman, Rustam Isangulov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for wellbore construction management includes measuring at least one drilling operating parameter during drilling of a wellbore. At least one well state parameter is calculated from the measured drilling operating parameter. A difference between the calculated well state parameter and a predetermined value of the well state parameter is determined. When the difference exceeds a selected threshold a modified well plan is calculated comprising at least one drilling task to enable construction of at least part of the wellbore to conform to the modified well plan. The at least one drilling task is displayed to a user.
Claims38
A well construction control system, comprising:
- drilling operating parameters of a wellbore being drilled through subsurface formations;
- a computer system configured to accept an input signal from survey instruments of a drill string measuring at least one of the drilling operating parameters, wherein the survey instruments have limited accuracy in determining a geodetic position of the wellbore;
- the computer system configured to accept as input a predetermined configuration of the wellbore when completed that comprises a geodetic trajectory for the wellbore,
- the computer system configured to calculate at least one wellbore state parameter from the at least one of the drilling operating parameters and predetermined wellbore state parameters from the predetermined configuration, wherein the wellbore state parameters comprise a geodetic wellbore parameter;
- wherein the computer system is configured to:
- calculate, using the calculated at least one wellbore state parameter and the limited accuracy of the survey instruments, a modified well plan that comprises at least one task for a corrective action, wherein the at least one task comprises an adjustment to an interval for a directional survey that uses the survey instruments and that is performed while drilling of the wellbore is stopped, wherein the interval depends on the limited accuracy of the survey instruments, decreases with increased risk, and increases with decreased risk, and
- to generate at least one command to operate at least one automatic drilling unit control according to at least one of the drilling operating parameters for the at least one task of the modified well plan.
A method for wellbore construction control, comprising:
- measuring, using survey instruments of a drill string, at least one of a plurality of drilling operating parameters during drilling associated operations of a wellbore according to a well plan that comprises a geodetic trajectory for the wellbore, wherein the survey instruments have limited accuracy in determining a geodetic position of the wellbore;
- calculating in a computer a well state parameter from the at least one of the plurality of drilling operating parameters wherein the well state parameter is a geodetic wellbore parameter;
- in the computer, calculating a difference between the calculated well state parameter and a predetermined value of the well state parameter, the predetermined well state parameter calculated from the well plan;
- in the computer, determining that the difference exceeds a selected threshold and, in response, calculating in the computer, using the calculated at least one well state parameter and the limited accuracy of the survey instruments, a modified well plan that comprises at least one task for construction of at least part of the wellbore to conform to the modified well plan;
- wherein the at least one task comprises adjusting an interval for a directional survey that uses the survey instruments and that is performed while drilling of the wellbore is stopped, wherein the interval depends on the limited accuracy of the survey instruments, decreases with increased risk, and increases with decreased risk;
- and
- generating in the computer at least one command to operate at least one automatic drilling unit control according to the at least one task.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.