Real-Time Well Engineering: A Powerful Enabler of Drilling Systems Automation Behind the Scenes

Abstract The progress of drilling systems automation has accelerated over the last decade. A myriad of applications dealing with process optimization, wellbore protection, and automated directional drilling have been deployed in a more frequent and stable manner and have become mainstream in some regions. The deployment of drilling automation applications alongside traditional operations has created significant value in terms of avoiding non-productive time (NPT), reducing invisible lost time (ILT) and optimization of drilling performance to deliver more accurate well placement while maintaining wellbore and equipment integrity. While drilling automation on its own involves a large deal of modeling and data processing, it rests on the shoulders of well planning and drilling engineering. Traditionally, well planning and drilling engineering activities take place in a pre-well context to define a reference for the upcoming well. However, since drilling automation applications operate in real-time, the context provided by well planning and drilling engineering activities has been taken into the real-time realm. As a result, well planning constantly evolves while drilling to recalculate wellbore trajectories that are compliant with magnetic interference, anti-collision and overall tortuosity. These updated wellbore trajectories are the basis for automated directional drilling. Likewise, drilling engineering simulations involving physics-based digital twins of the wellbore are updated with live feed of sensor data to produce context for advisory and closed-loop control services for wellbore protection. For instance, real-time time drilling engineering produces safe operating envelopes (SOE) for surface parameters, estimates cuttings transport in the wellbore, and calculates reference parameters to automate certain processes at the rig site, such as the pump-startup. The role of drilling engineering and well planning in enabling drilling automation applications is of utmost importance. This paper discusses three main areas of well engineering (well planning plus drilling engineering) and the associated drilling automation applications that benefit from it. The first area is well planning as the basis for automated directional drilling. The second touches upon hydraulics modeling as the reference for real-time advisory services dealing with pressure management, hole cleaning, and tripping monitoring. The last area of focus is torque & drag modeling as a roadmap to monitor hazards downhole and to provide an SOE to ensure the mechanical integrity of the equipment.