Ammar M.Alali, 2021, Hybrid data driven drilling and rate of penetration optimization

Oil and Gas production may be more profitable and safer if we improve drilling operations. The rate of penetration (ROP) measures the drill bit's speed as it penetrates the rock. Poorly chosen ROP may undermine a drilling fluid's carrying capacity and deliver drilled cuttings to the surface, resulting in poor hole cleaning and compromising the wellbore integrity, which might result in halting drilling operations.

As a general rule, higher ROP numbers are favorable since they imply faster drilling and lower cost.

The paper, "Ammar M.Alali, 2021, Hybrid data driven drilling and rate of penetration optimization," uses parameters Weight-On-Bit (WOB), Pump Flow Rate (GPM), and Rotary Speed (RPM) to optimize the drilling operations by maximizing the rate of penetration, and minimizing Non-Productive Time (NTP).
They proposed a two-phase method that uses (1) historical drilling data from other wells to learn from and then (2) allows real-time changes during drilling for further efficiency optimization.

For testing, they took a planned well in an onshore field to validate the proposed method. The experiment demonstrates an improvement in ROP of 25%. This enhancement can result in a 15% savings per foot.

Link for the paper
Link for the LinkedIn post

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