Automated Oil and Gas Drilling

1. Automated Oil and Gas Drilling Paul Kendall Dec 6, 2010

2. What has petroleum based products in it? • What happens when raw material prices go up? • Is there an oil shortage? • Hydrocarbons occupy a vital role in our life and will continue to be important for many more years to come. We need technological innovations to continue to overcome challenges and obstacles. Why You Care

3. Where are we at now? Companies seek to improve efficiency and repeatability while reducing risk Current heavy use of semi-automated and locally automated drilling systems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV3iYWgJowg Power slips, spinning wrenches, pneumatic slips, lifts, hoists, etc. What do they accomplish? What do they lack?

4. Where is industry going? Monitoring several operations from one facility with highly skilled personnel Completely control the drilling from this facility Significantly reduce the number of personnel at the drill site. Continuously striving for increased reliability, precision, accuracy, and safety. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFRYmgciGaU - herrenknecht EXAMPLE: Schlumberger Cambridge Research in England adjusted drilling parameters on a drilling rig in Texas nearly 5000 miles away.

5. Dangerous environments • Complicated trajectories • Difficult drilling conditions • Where improved performance is critical (precision, repeatability, reliability, accuracy, etc.) Who uses it? Where is it used?

6. Sideways drilling

7. Elaborate Remote Drilling Control Centers

8. Biggest Consumers and Vendors Big Players Chevron ConocoPhillips ExxonMobil Shell XTO Vendors VisiWear Eaton and National Oilwell Byklor Company PowerDrive Varco Wildcat

9. Cost? Small $10 million Bigger $500 million Offshore requires drilling rig rental. The Kristin, commission in October 2005 had an initial capital investment of 2.5 billion euros (3.5 billon dollars at the 2005 exchange rate)

10. Standards All applicable standards covered to date Overview of U.S. Legislation and Regulations Affecting Offshore Natural Gas and Oil Activity How much at what depth How much at what distance from shore Shoreline slope and other geological factors What type of vegetation is on the shore What type of ecosystem is on the ocean floor near shore and at drilling site Estimates of leak damage and containment ability Etc.

11. Required Supporting Technology? Real time surface to hole communication. (Is this even possible over 5000 miles?) Reliable satellite telecommunications Stable intranet system “Face-to-face” communication between control and rig personnel. Advanced computation power to simultaneously run modeling software Fast data acquisition and storage (MWD measuring while drilling) which can later be accessed remotely anywhere in the world (DCS) Real time annular pressure data Rotary steerable systems (i.e. PowerDrive) Mutiparameter control system

12. Rotary Steerable Systems

14. Advantages Computer modeling from a central hub (star type network) Better control of WOB (weight on bit), torque, rpm, braking, pump pressure, and ROP (rate of penetration) From Helmerich and Payne on a south Texas drill, Model and real life data comparison for geologist and engineers Better working conditions for its workers Fewer technical experts needed (important due to current circumstances) “Faster response time to changes facilitated fine-tuning, which produced smother applications of the bit to the formation. This reduced vibration, extending the life of the tools, bits, and supporting equipment. This technology produced more consistent drilling practices than were possible with humans at the controls.” “companies have found it easier and more beneficial to hire and retain employees if they could work from an office environment, doing the same tasks remotely. For example, technicians can now test and analyze equipment performance from the safety of an office.”

15. Limitations Cost – currently only operating in extremely dangerous or very difficult operations Facilities – networks, computer hardware and software support… Connection failure Time lag between commands being issued and the remote system actuations . For example, when setting the bit on the bottom of the hole after a connection has been made. If the process were controlled remotely with a joystick, by the time the signal indicating that the bit had set on the bottom reached the remote driller and the subsequent stop command was issued and returned, the bit would have already crashed into the bottom of the bore hole

16. Summary Drilling is dangerous, labor (by machine or human) intensive, and expensive. Automated drilling systems decrease the risk to rig personnel, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Operating these systems remotely is the next progression in a maturing oil and gas industry, allowing operators to utilize their most qualified experts at any location to monitor and control drilling operations. It is the desire of everyone to avoid human casualties and lost capital.

17. Technical Paper Aldred W., Belaskie J., Isangulov R., 2005, Edmondson B., Crocket B., Changing the Way We Drill, Oilfiel Review

18. References Glass B., Cannon H., Branson M., 2006, Nasa-Ames Research Center, DAME: Planetary-Prototype Drilling Automation BakerHughes.com http://www.bakerhughes.com/products-and-services/drilling-and-evaluation/drilling-systems-/directional-drilling-services/rotary-steerable-and-automated-systems Weatherford.com http://www.weatherford.com/weatherford/groups/web/documents/weatherfordcorp/www019190.pdf  U.S.Legislation and Regulations http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/feature_articles/2005/offshore/offshore.pdf