Enhancing MPD Functionality: Successful Application of Adaptive Intelligent Drilling Software in Deepwater, Offshore and Onshore Operations

Abstract

Because of the inherent safety and time-saving capability of managed pressure drilling (MPD), its use is becoming progressively more common in drilling operations. More importantly, MPD is increasingly being considered for any other operations requiring precise pressure control to maintain wellbore integrity in constricted drilling boundaries. The essential need of such a comprehensive system led to the design of innovative MPD software in which integrated smart control logics and intelligent engineering modules manage downhole pressure accurately.

The continuing development of adaptive advanced MPD software, including user interface, integrated models, control algorithm, connection optimization, and detection modules, enable critical decision making for more efficient execution. This MPD software supports pre-engineering operation, post-job analysis, automation of real-time and pressure-sensitive tasks, multiple software engines evaluating limits, and multiple components being controlled in one place.

This paper will discuss the operational details of implementing the new adaptive MPD drilling software in different complex geological reservoirs. The integrated MPD drilling software platform is used in combination with interactive models and surface and downhole data measurement in a unified computing system to enhance real-time analysis of drilling performance. Additional software platform applications deliver the common integration baseline that enables pre-drilling, while-drilling, and post-drilling analyses. The integrated, automated MPD software has been successfully used in several onshore high-temperature/high-pressure (HPHT) wells, deepwater offshore wells (naturally fractured formation), and North Sea wells with narrow drilling windows (where both HPHT and wellbore stability were challenges). This paper discusses the applications and the newest developments in the MPD integrated software to automatically and precisely manage wellbore pressure. The results to be presented include the summary of the planning, while-drilling analysis, and post-drilling analysis of several case studies.