Challenge
Well design and drilling operation planning has for a long time suffered from siloed organizations and software systems. Although recent efforts attempt to streamline the process via digitalization, it is still challenging to achieve agile well planning and construction because of the difficulty of revising existing plans and programs based on operational observations or unexpected events.
Invention
The Automated Drilling Operational Plan (DrillOpPlan) introduces a probabilistic framework to automatically evaluate the design/plan candidates capturing uncertainty, performance and potential incidents using Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation platform that is being developed is a hybrid approach where physics-based models are enriched with learning techniques and historical data. This is crucial for effective uncertainty management and reduction of computational time.
The framework includes automated agents that simulate decision-making during operations. To represent the different levels of decision making, we consider a hierarchical structure of nested Decision Agents, each having access to a set of Mission Agents, responsible for the execution of a specific mission. .
Value
DrillOpPlan, as part of the workflow for planning, evaluates the most promising candidate wells from Automated Well Planning, automatically select the most promising drilling program and generate the associated drilling operational plan. This will save time and reduce resources necessary for having an updated drilling operational plan. DrillOpPlan can also be used as a stand-alone analysis tool in some situations, for example for validation purposes of the framework or as a post analysis tool of already drilled wells.
Status
The framework is used as a post analysis tool on a North Sea field case of a horizontal multi-lateral well.
Next steps
- Further develop Automation and Mission Agents
- The ultimate goal is to include operational plan optimization and have an iterative automated workflow from the planning phase to the execution phase.
Possible commercialization options
- Enable one or more players to commercialize the software.
Publications
- «A probabilistic Framework for the Risk-Based Evaluation of Drilling Plans”, B. Daireaux, A Ambrus, S. Moi, E. Cayeux, NORCE, SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition, Stavanger, Norway, March 2025, doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/223781-MS
