Intelligent drilling surveillance through real time diagnosis

Abstract

Drilling a well is a complex process which needs to be monitored continuously to ensure that the well will reach its goals. For this purpose mud logging is performed with sensors installed on the rig. However, the direct use of these data is not sufficient to know precisely the state of the drilling process. Processing and interpretation are needed. IFP and Geoservices have collaborated for many years in a research program dedicated to mud logging data interpretation. A system has been designed to inform the driller about the problems encountered while drilling. The focus of this paper is to present the system called GetSMART, which aims at the detection while drilling of the main abnormal vibrations and hydraulic malfunctions. The system is based on the diagnosis trees methodology, which allows one to take into account the empirical knowledge of the driller to analyze the signals coming from sensors or physical models and also to generate alarms. Some results obtained onfield malfunctions real cases show the interest and the Pertinence of the GetSMART system. In the future, others diagnosis trees (i.e. wellbore stability) will be introduced in this system. Copyright © 2004, Institut français du pé trole.