Improving Drilling Efficiency Using Event-Time Analysis to Better Understand Wellbore Stability

摘要

Analyzing offset wells is an indispensable step in designing new wells and corresponding drilling programs. Understanding past events and issues is at the core of the learning process necessary to augment operational efficiency. Large amounts of data, much of it unstructured, are used during this process. These datasets, if not handled properly, can at best substantially dampen the learning curve and at worst produce incorrect conclusions. A methodology by which events are classified and analyzed by time has been developed and applied to critical wellbore stability situations. This innovative approach overcomes large unstructured dataset issues and supports the geomechanical modeling necessary to accurately determine wellbore failure mechanisms. The same methodology can be applied to other wellbore issues, proving to be an effective and new method to approach drilling optimization situations. The well history is displayed in a single view by combining the drilling operations with wellbore events in chronological order and aligning them with relevant depth-based data. Results for actual wells are presented along with the benefits of the new methodology.