Chapters authored
Drilling Performance Optimization Based on Mechanical Specific Energy Technologies
Mechanical specific energy (MSE) has been widely used to quantify drilling efficiency and maximize rate of penetration (ROP) in oil and gas wells drilling. In this chapter, MSE models respectively for directional or horizontal drilling and rotating drilling with positive displacement motor (PDM) are established based on the evaluation of virtues and defects of available MSE models. Meanwhile methods for drilling performance prediction and optimization based on MSE technologies are presented. Field data presented in this chapter indicates that the developed MSE models estimate MSE values with a reasonable approximation in the absence of reliable torque measurements, the method for optimizing drilling parameters can estimate optimum WOB values with different RPM to drill a specific formation interval with PDM. It also show that the optimum WOB is low for rotating drilling with PDM compared with the conventional drilling without PDM, increasing WOB does not always increase ROP but is more likely to decrease ROP. The drilling performance prediction and optimization methods based on MSE technologies could be effectively used to maximize ROP and allow operators to drill longer and avoid unnecessary trips, and is worthy to be applied and promoted with highly diagnostic accuracy, effective optimizing and simple operation.
Part of the book: Drilling