Wellbore operations monitoring & control systems & methods

• US 20060162962A1
• Filed: 01/26/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Varco I/P Incorporated (NOV, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Varco I/P Incorporated (NOV, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koederitz, William Leo, Tarvin, Terry Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 7,243,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 175/27
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 45/00 Measuring the drilling time or rate of penetration
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 49/003 by analysing drilling variables or conditions E21B49/005 takes precedence; systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions E21B44/00

Abstract

A method for a wellbore operation with a wellbore system, the method, in at least certain aspects, including acquiring with sensor systems data corresponding to a plurality of parameters, the data indicative of values for each parameter, each parameter associated with part of the wellbore system, and, based on said data, calculating a value for each of a plurality of mechanical specific energies each related to a mechanical specific energy for a part of the wellbore system; and, in some aspects, monitoring in real time the value of each of the mechanical specific energies; and, in certain aspects, using such determined values to alter, change, improve, or optimize operations.

Claims

1. A method for a wellbore operation with a wellbore system, the method comprising

acquiring with sensor systems data corresponding to a plurality of parameters, said data indicative of values for each parameter of said plurality of parameters, each parameter corresponding to part of the wellbore system,

based on said data, calculating a mechanical specific energy value for each of a plurality of mechanical specific energies each related to a mechanical specific energy for a part of the wellbore system, and

monitoring the value of each of the mechanical specific energies.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is any of drilling, milling, reaming, hole-opening, casing drilling, drilling with a downhole motor, coiled tubing operations, junk milling, milling-drilling, and managed pressure drilling.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of parameters includes any of WOB, ROP, bit rotational speed, torque at a bit, torque at surface, rotary rotational speed, and bit cross-sectional area.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

providing calculated mechanical specific energy values to alarm apparatus.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising

providing an alarm with the alarm apparatus based on the values of the mechanical specific energies.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising

providing calculated mechanical specific energy values to a control system for controlling the operation, and

controlling the operation based on said calculated mechanical specific energy values.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising

monitoring the values of calculated mechanical specific energy values and analyzing said values for indicating a problem with the wellbore operation.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising

determining at least one solution to the problem based on the values of the calculated mechanical specific energy.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising

providing confirmation that the at least one solution does not impede the wellbore operation.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising

monitoring the values of calculated mechanical specific energy values and analyzing said values for indicating a problem with the wellbore operation, and

based on said values determining which part of the wellbore system has the problem.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is a drilling operation and drilling is accomplished with a drill system which is any of a rotary drive system, a top drive system, and a downhole motor system.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising

analyzing said values of calculated mechanical specific energies to determine whether there is a change in energy consumption by the wellbore operation.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of mechanical specific energies includes surface, drillstring, and bit mechanical specific energy.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein surface mechanical specific energy is calculated using surface measured inputs and bit mechanical specific energy is calculated using downhole measured inputs actually measured downhole.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the values for mechanical specific energies are calculated using surface measured inputs.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein drillstring mechanical specific energy is calculated using a difference between surface mechanical specific energy and bit mechanical specific energy.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the change is an increase.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is an operation with a rotating bit and values for the mechanical specific energies are calculated according to the equation for Teale'"'"'s definition of mechanical specific energy.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is an operation with a rotating bit and values for the mechanical specific energies are calculated according to Equation II.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is an operation with a rotating bit and values for the mechanical specific energies are calculated according to Equation III.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising

providing in real time a display of calculated values of the plurality of mechanical specific energies.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein a control system controls the wellbore operation, the method further comprising

controlling the wellbore operation with the control system.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the control system includes a computer readable medium having instructions for any of:

providing an alarm if a pre-set value for a mechanical specific energy is exceeded;

controlling system apparatuses used in the wellbore operation;

conducting a diagnostic test of any of said system apparatuses;

storing calculated values; and

controlling the wellbore operation to execute a higher level strategy.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is a hole-opening operation and mechanical specific energies are calculated using a volume of drilled-out material.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the mechanical specific energies are calculated with Equation IV.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is a reaming operation for reaming an already-produced wellbore producing a reamed wellbore, and values for mechanical specific energies calculated for the already-produced wellbore are compared to values for mechanical specific energies calculated for the reaming operation.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is a milling operation and values of calculated mechanical specific energies are monitored and processed to indicate any of:

a change in mechanical specific energy as an item is first encountered by a mill;

a change or trend in mechanical specific energy behavior as increasing amounts of material are milled;

a drop in mechanical specific energy as a mill exits an item being milled; and

a value of mechanical specific energy that indicates a mill is encountering formation outside an item being milled.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the wellbore operation is managed pressure drilling and values of calculated mechanical specific energies are monitored and processed to indicate any of:

a pressure differential in a wellbore;

less energy required during drilling; and

confirmation that drilling is progressing as desired.

29. A computer-readable media having computer executable instructions for a wellbore operation with a wellbore system, the computer-executable instructions performing the following steps:

receiving from sensor systems data corresponding to a plurality of parameters, said data indicative of values for each parameter of said plurality of parameters, each parameter corresponding to part of the wellbore system,

calculating, based on said data, a mechanical specific energy value for each of a plurality of mechanical specific energies each related to a mechanical specific energy for a part of the wellbore system, and

transmitting to receiving apparatus signals indicative of the value of each of the calculated mechanical specific energies.

30. The computer-readable media of claim 29 wherein the receiving apparatus is a display system.

31. A computing unit configured to read and perform the computer-executable instructions on computer-readable media as recited in claim 29.