Intelligent drilling advisor

• US 8,121,971 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BP Corporation North America Incorporated (BP PLC)
• Original Assignee: BP Corporation North America Incorporated (BP PLC)
• Inventors: Edwards, Michael L., Gongora, Cesar A., McGriffy, David, McNeill, John, Shafer, Donald F., Tolleson, Chris, Wight, David, Iyer, Ganesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Paulinho E
• Application Number:
  US12/261,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20090132458A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/00 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

An information integration environment identifies the current drilling sites, and drilling equipment and processes at those current drilling sites. Based upon that identification, and upon data received from the drilling sites, servers access and configure software agents that are sent to a host client system at the drilling site; these software agents operate at the host client system to acquire data from sensors at the drilling site, to transmit that data to the information integration environment, and to derive the drilling state and drilling recommendations for the driller at the drilling site. These software agents include one or more rules, heuristics, or calibrations derived by the inference engine, and called by the information integration environment. In addition, the software agents sent from the information integration environment to the host client system operate to display values, trends, and reliability estimates for various drilling parameters, whether measured or calculated.

Claims

1. A method of assisting drilling of a borehole at a drilling site, comprising:

identifying, at a first computer system, drilling conditions at the drilling site, the drilling conditions comprising at least one of a parameter indicative of a layer of the earth in which the drilling occurs and a parameter indicative of at least one item of drilling equipment used in the drilling;

identifying, at the first computer system, at least one software agent having one or more formulations applicable to the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to perform at least one of acquiring physical measurements during the drilling at the drilling site;

forwarding the physical measurement to the first computer system; and

providing a drilling recommendation at the drilling site;

forwarding, by the first computer system, the at least one software agent to the second computer system at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the second computer system;

receiving, at the first computer system, the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent executing on the second computer system;

identifying one or more new formulations based on the physical measurements received from the at least one software agent; and

modifying, by the first computer system, the at least one software agent to include the one or more new formulations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to identify a drilling state in response to the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter indicative of the layer of the earth is provided from a lithology model applied to the drilling site.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the drilling conditions at the drilling site comprises:

receiving, from the second computer system, links to a database in which parameters indicative of items of drilling equipment and the lithology model are stored; and

accessing the database to obtain the parameter indicative of the at least one item of drilling equipment and the lithology model.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to process the physical measurements depending on a noise level within the physical measurements.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to process, separately, portions of the physical measurements based on the noise level.

7. The method of claim 4, the method further comprising:

providing to the at least one software agent an extent of processing based on the physical measurements received.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the extent of processing is based on the noise level.

9. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

deriving, from the physical measurement acquired by the at least one software agent, an estimate of a drilling parameter based on a formulation applicable to the drilling site; and

forwarding the estimate to the second computer system for display at a visual display.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein forwarding the estimate comprises:

forwarding the estimate to the at least one software agent for displaying a trend of one or more drilling parameters at the visual display.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein forwarding the estimate comprises:

forwarding the estimate to the at least one software agent for determining a current drilling recommendation.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

creating at least one new software agent having the one or more new formulations; and

forwarding the at least one new software agent to the second computer system to replace the at least one software agent.

13. The method of claim 1,

wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

modifying, remotely by the first computer system, the one or more formulations.

14. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

storing the the physical measurements in a database at the first computer system.

15. The method of claim 14, the method further comprising:

determining, from the physical measurements, a change in a drilling state at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is modified in response to the change in the drilling state.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more new formulations are associated with the change in the drilling state.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more software agents operate in a network of persistent, autonomous, goal-directed, sociable, reactive, non-prescriptive, adaptive, heuristic, distributed, mobile and self-organizing agents for providing recommendations toward drilling optimization.

18. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

devising the one or more formulations based on one or more of a database of sensed physical measurements, a database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and a knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

19. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising:

receiving inputs from a user regarding the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein devising uses the inputs in combination with one or more of the database of sensed physical measurements, the database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and the knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the inputs from comprise an input indicating a decision to ignore a current drilling recommendation.

21. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising:

storing the one or more formulations in the knowledge base.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying the one or more new formulations comprises:

devising the one or more new formulations using the physical measurements in combination with one or more of the database of sensed physical measurements, the database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and the knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

23. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising:

receiving, from a user, a verification or non-verification of the one or more formulations.

24. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

devising the one or more formulations based on a best well ontology, the best well ontology comprising encapsulated formulations of steps to be taken to drill a best well corresponding to the drilling conditions.

25. The method of claim 24, the method further comprising:

modifying the encapsulated formulations corresponding to the best well ontology based on the physical measurements.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein devising the one or more formulations comprises:

utilizing a lithology model associated with the at least one of a parameter indicative of a layer of the earth in which the drilling occurs.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the lithology model represents a plurality of layers in the earth in which the drilling occurs by way of metalayer representations, and wherein the metalayer representations comprise information regarding material properties of a given layer, values indicating a top depth and a bottom depth of the layer at the drilling location, and information regarding a method of drilling through a given layer.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence or absence of a drilling dysfunction based on the physical measurements and is configured to displays a recommendation for improving drilling efficiency.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the recommendation includes increasing a weight-on-bit and increasing revolutions per minute of a drill string.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the second computer system and display the recommendation without human input.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a first recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a second recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display drilling recommendations until detecting the absence of the drilling dysfunction.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence of a loss of circulation event based on the physical measurements and is configured to display a first recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein detecting the presence of a loss of circulation event comprises:

evaluating a fluid loss model at a current depth of drilling, to return a maximum limit on expected fluid loss;

estimating a current fluid loss in the drilling;

responsive to the estimated current fluid loss exceeding the maximum limit; and

indicating the presence of the loss of circulation event.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the loss of circulation event, a second recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display recommendations until detecting an absence of the loss of circulation event.

38. A system for assisting drilling of a borehole at a drilling site, comprising:

a memory storing instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method comprising;

identifying drilling conditions at the drilling site, the drilling conditions comprising at least one of a parameter indicative of a layer of the earth in which the drilling occurs and a parameter indicative of at least one item of drilling equipment used in the drilling;

identifying at least one software agent having one or more formulations applicable to the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to perform at least one of acquiring physical measurements during the drilling at the drilling site forwarding the physical measurement; and

providing a drilling recommendation at the drilling site;

forwarding the at least one software agent to a computer system at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the computer system;

receiving the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent executing on the computer system;

identifying one or more new formulations based on the physical measurements received from the at least one software agent; and

modifying the at least one software agent to include the one or more new formulations.

39. The system of claim 38, further comprising:

deriving the one or more formulations based on the drilling conditions at the drilling site.

40. The system of claim 38, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to identify a drilling state in response to the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent.

41. The system of claim 38, the method further comprising:

receiving, from a user, a verification or non-verification of the one or more formulations.

42. The system of claim 38, the method further comprising:

receiving a decision to ignore at least one drilling recommendation provided by the at least one software agent; and

modifying at least one of the one or more formulations based on the decision to ignore the at least one drilling recommendation.

43. The system of claim 38, the method further comprising:

deriving the one or more formulations based on a best well ontology comprising encapsulated formulations of steps to be taken to drill an optimum well, at the drilling site, corresponding to the drilling conditions.

44. The system of claim 43, the method further comprising:

modifying the encapsulated formulations corresponding to the best well ontology based on the physical measurements.

45. The system of claim 43, wherein the one or more formulations comprises:

utilizing a lithology model associated with the at least one of a parameter indicative of a layer of the earth in which the drilling occurs.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein wherein the lithology model represents a plurality of layers in the earth in which the drilling occurs by way of metalayer representations, and wherein the metalayer representations comprise information regarding material properties of a given layer, values indicating a top depth and a bottom depth of the layer at the drilling location, and information regarding a method of drilling through a given layer.

47. The system of claim 38, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to process the physical measurements depending on a noise level within the physical measurements.

48. The system of claim 38, the method further comprising:

deriving, from the physical measurement acquired by the at least one software agent, an estimate of a drilling parameter based on a formulation applicable to the drilling site; and

forwarding the estimate to the computer system for display at a visual display.

49. The system of claim 38, the method further comprising:

devising the one or more formulations based on one or more of a database of sensed physical measurements, a database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and a knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

50. The system of claim 49, the method further comprising:

receiving inputs from a user regarding the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein devising uses the inputs in combination with one or more of the database of sensed physical measurements, the database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and the knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

51. The system of claim 38, wherein the at least one software agent forms a network of persistent, autonomous, goal-directed, sociable, reactive, non-prescriptive, adaptive, heuristic, distributed, mobile and self-organizing agents for providing recommendations toward drilling optimization.

52. The system of claim 38, wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

creating at least one new software agent having the one or more new formulations; and

forwarding the at least one new software agent to the second computer system to replace the at least one software agent.

53. The system of claim 38, wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

modifying, remotely by the first computer system, the one or more formulations.

54. The system of claim 38, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence or absence of a drilling dysfunction based on the physical measurements and is configured to displays a recommendation for improving drilling efficiency.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the second computer system and display the recommendation without human input.

56. The system of claim 54, wherein the recommendation includes increasing a weight-on-bit and increasing revolutions per minute of a drill string.

57. The system of claim 54, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a first recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a second recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

59. The system of claim 38, wherein wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence of a loss of circulation event based on the physical measurements and is configured to display a first recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

60. The system of claim 59, wherein wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the loss of circulation event, a second recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

61. The system of claim 59, wherein detecting the presence of a loss of circulation event comprises:

evaluating a fluid loss model at a current depth of drilling, to return a maximum limit on expected fluid loss;

estimating a current fluid loss in the drilling;

responsive to the estimated current fluid loss exceeding the maximum limit; and

indicating the presence of the loss of circulation event.

62. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions that executable by one or more computers to perform a method comprising:

identifying, at a first computer system, drilling conditions at the drilling site, the drilling conditions comprising at least one of a parameter indicative of a layer of the earth in which the drilling occurs and a parameter indicative of at least one item of drilling equipment used in the drilling;

identifying, at the first computer system, at least one software agent having one or more formulations applicable to the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to perform at least one of acquiring physical measurements during the drilling at the drilling site;

forwarding the physical measurement to the first computer system; and

providing a drilling recommendation at the drilling site;

forwarding, by the first computer system, the at least one software agent to the second computer system at the drilling site, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the second computer system;

receiving, at the first computer system, the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent executing on the second computer system;

identifying one or more new formulations based on the physical measurements received from the at least one software agent; and

modifying, by the first computer system, the at least one software agent to include the one or more new formulations.

63. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62,

wherein the at least one software agent is configured to process the physical measurements depending on a noise level within the physical measurements.

64. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, the method further comprising:

deriving, from the physical measurement acquired by the at least one software agent, an estimate of a drilling parameter based on a formulation applicable to the drilling site; and

forwarding the estimate to the second computer system for display at a visual display.

65. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

creating at least one new software agent having the one or more new formulations; and

forwarding the at least one new software agent to the second computer system to replace the at least one software agent.

66. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein modifying the at least one software agent comprises:

modifying, remotely by the first computer system, the one or more formulations.

67. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to identify a drilling state in response to the physical measurements acquired by the at least one software agent.

68. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, the method further comprising:

devising the one or more formulations based on one or more of a database of sensed physical measurements, a database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and a knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

69. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 68, the method further comprising:

receiving inputs from a user regarding the drilling conditions at the drilling site, wherein devising uses the inputs in combination with one or more of the database of sensed physical measurements, the database of well properties, drilling hardware types, and the knowledge base of previously generated formulations.

70. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, the method further comprising:

devising the one or more formulations based on a best well ontology, the best well ontology comprising encapsulated formulations of steps to be taken to drill a best well corresponding to the drilling conditions.

71. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 70, the method further comprising:

modifying the encapsulated formulations corresponding to the best well ontology based on the physical measurements.

72. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence or absence of a drilling dysfunction based on the physical measurements and is configured to displays a recommendation for improving drilling efficiency.

73. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 72, wherein the recommendation includes increasing a weight-on-bit and increasing revolutions per minute of a drill string.

74. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 72, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to execute on the second computer system and display the recommendation without human input.

75. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 72, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a first recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

76. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 75, wherein wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the drilling dysfunction, a second recommendation for resolving the drilling dysfunction.

77. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 76, wherein wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display drilling recommendations until detecting the absence of the drilling dysfunction.

78. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 62, wherein wherein the at least one software agent is configured to utilize the one or more formulations to detect a presence of a loss of circulation event based on the physical measurements and is configured to display a first recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

79. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 78, wherein detecting the presence of a loss of circulation event comprises:

evaluating a fluid loss model at a current depth of drilling, to return a maximum limit on expected fluid loss;

estimating a current fluid loss in the drilling;

responsive to the estimated current fluid loss exceeding the maximum limit; and

indicating the presence of the loss of circulation event.

80. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 78, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display, responsive to detecting the presence of the loss of circulation event, a second recommendation for resolving the loss of circulation event.

81. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 80, wherein the at least one software agent is configured to display recommendations until detecting an absence of the loss of circulation event.