Well construction management and decision support system

A system for use with a drilling rig, comprising:

• a bottom hole assembly comprising a measuring while drilling (MWD) system that takes survey measurements comprising positional information of the bottom hole assembly in the wellbore during a drilling operation, wherein the bottom hole assembly is part of a drill string and coupled to a drill bit, and wherein the drilling operation comprises adding pre-joined segments of drill pipe and drilling to elongate the wellbore using the pre-joined segments of drill pipe according to a recommended rate of penetration generated by a real-time rate of penetration optimization process;
• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing a plurality of instructions for execution by the processor, the plurality of instructions comprising instructions for:
• receiving survey measurements from the MWD system of the bottom hole assembly during the drilling operation at a first depth;
• using the survey measurements, determining the position of the bottom hole assembly at the first depth at the time the survey measurements were taken;
• determining an uncertainty of the position of a bottom hole assembly within the wellbore at a first depth during a drilling operation;
• determining an uncertainty of a position within an existing, separate wellbore at the first depth;
• using the uncertainty of the position of the bottom hole assembly and the uncertainty of the position within the existing, separate wellbore, calculating a risk of collision between the bottomhole assembly and the existing, separate wellbore at the first depth;
• and
• limiting the rate of penetration of the wellbore to a predetermined maximum value and increasing the frequency with which surveys are taken in response to determining that the collision risk is above a threshold, wherein increased frequency surveys comprise one or more measurements taken by the bottom hole assembly within the wellbore at every time a single segment of drill pipe is added to the drill string, wherein the single segment is less than 90 feet in length, and wherein, after addition of the single segment, rotation of the drill bit recommences to lengthen the wellbore.

A method comprising:

• receiving survey measurements from a bottom hole assembly comprising a measuring while drilling (MWD) system at a first depth during a drilling operation to create a wellbore, wherein the bottom hole assembly is part of a drill string and coupled to a drill bit, and wherein the drilling operation comprises adding pre-joined segments of drill pipe and drilling to elongate the wellbore using the pre-joined segments of drill pipe according to a recommended rate of penetration generated by a real-time rate of penetration optimization process;
• using the survey measurements, determining the position of the wellbore at the first depth at the time the survey measurements were taken;
• determining an uncertainty of the position of the wellbore at the first depth during the drilling operation;
• determining an uncertainty of a position within an existing, separate wellbore at the first depth;
• using the uncertainty of the position of the wellbore and the uncertainty of the position within the existing, separate wellbore, calculating a risk of collision between the wellbore and the existing, separate wellbore at the first depth;
• and
• limiting the rate of penetration of the wellbore to a predetermined maximum value and increasing the frequency with which surveys are taken in response to determining that the collision risk is above a threshold, wherein increased frequency surveys comprise one or more measurements taken by the bottom hole assembly within the wellbore at every time a single segment of drill pipe is added to the drill string, wherein the single segment is less than 90 feet in length, and wherein, after addition of the single segment, rotation of the drill bit recommences to lengthen the wellbore.