What Do We Want From Our Wells:Drilled Fast or Drilled Right?

摘要

I have been proud to be a member of DSATS,SPE's Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section,for many years,currently serving as a board member.I think DSATS can be rightly proud of what it has achieved,and it is good to see drilling rig automation increasing as the industry realizes its benefits-solving problems including rigsite safety and consistency,and creating opportunities such as more efficient operations and,therefore,cheaper wells drilled more quickly.We don't talk so much about downhole automation of the drilling process,specifically directional drilling,even though it too is gradually progressing.What problems might it solve and what opportunities might it create? I am going to argue that the opportunity is huge,if only we look in the right place.The opportunity is not only to reduce the cost of drilling the well but also to increase its value.A recent commentary on lifting costs from US basins published in JPT(August 2019)mentioned multiple ways of reducing drilling time and saving money(including driving down service company pricing,which may well not be a suitable solution)in order to reduce the breakeven oil price.But it did not mention the other side of the equation-increasing the value of the well once drilled by maximizing ultimate recovery.