Apparatus and methods for uninterrupted drilling

A system for determining whether an increase in differential pressure during drilling comprises a transient increase, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processor for performing operations comprising:
• receiving values for differential pressure (ΔP) for a wellbore during slide drilling operations;
• determining if an increase in ΔP exceeds a threshold therefor;
• determining if an increase in torque or toolface error accompanies the increase in ΔP;
• responsive to determining that an increase in torque or toolface accompanies the increase in ΔP that exceeds the threshold therefor, determining that a corrective action is indicated;
• and
• responsive to determining that an increase torque or toolface does not accompany the increase in ΔP that exceeds the threshold therefor, determining that a corrective action is not indicated.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions comprising:

• one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a drill rig system, cause the drill rig system to perform operations comprising:
• during slide drilling of a wellbore, monitoring, by a control system, a plurality of the following:
• differential pressure (ΔP), torque, and toolface error;
• upon detecting an increase in ΔP that exceeds a threshold therefor, determining, by the control system, whether a corresponding increase in torque has occurred or a corresponding toolface error has occurred;
• and
• responsive to the detection of the increase in ΔP and the corresponding increase in torque or toolface error, determining, by the control system, a corrective action is indicated.