Drilling Failures Identification: An Approach to Reduction of Non-Productive Time during Drilling in the Niger Delta

摘要

Due to the world's reliance on oil and gas as the major source of energy, drilling activities have become a recurring decimal. A challenge to this arises when environments such as deep-water, tectonically active areas and salt bearing formations are drilled. The cost of drilling a well in such environments is denominated in millions of dollars. The incidence of failures can increase this cost. These failures may come from the equipment, the formation or even from the well drilled itself. Despite recent moves by the industry to combat the challenge, failures remain, to this day, a 'necessary evil' in oil well drilling. This paper, therefore, provides a general overview of errors and failures durmg drilling and tripping operations in the oil industry. The overview involved determining the different ways a drilling equipment or formation component might fail (failure modes). It also determines the probability of each failure mode occurring, as well as the potential severity of consequences. The possible pointers to the failures as well as the possible causes of these failures are included in the overview. The overview may help during a thorough audit of failures that are encountered during a drilling operation. Developing a list of possible failures during drilling with a description of basic observatory signs and symptoms of their occurrence is the crucial first step in minimizing Non-Productive Time (NPT) during drilling operations.