Emerson Exchange 365

Over the past several months we’ve been highlighting the recorded versions from the Well Pad Automation Webinar Series. These have included:

• Best Practices for Well Pad Automation
• Key Considerations for Improving Production Separation
• On the Level about Better Tank Management
• Optimizing Well Pad Custody Transfer of Liquid Hydrocarbons

The final webinar in the series which I’ll highlight today is Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Your Drilling Operations with Better Measurements.

Emerson’s Laura Schafer shares how measuring critical fluids in real-time supports drilling operations in many ways—enabling remote drilling expertise, identifying early warning of well control issues and drilling fluid loss, and providing better information for safe and efficient operations.

When the webinar was recorded this past fall, oil prices were at $85 per barrel. With the continued drop in prices over the past several months, improving efficiency becomes even more important.

Laura cited one statistic on the cost of mechanical downtime in deep water drilling operations:

Anytime the BOP [blowout preventer] is down for repairs, or even if it’s simply going through planned maintenance, progress on the well stops. However, the million-dollar deepwater spread rate won’t stop; that keeps churning regardless of the BOP’s condition, he [David Payne, Chevron VP of drilling and completions] explained. “Out in deepwater, 10% to 15% mechanical downtime on a rig is not uncommon at all. With a $1.2 million spread rate a day, that figures out to $100,000 to $200,000 a day on average that’s gone because we can’t keep drilling,” he said.

She compares traditional approaches for density and wellbore volumetric mud balance through the use of manual sampling, pump strokes, flow paddles, and pit/tank volume and level measurements. By converting these measurements over to real-time flow, density, and conductivity measurements through the use of Coriolis flow and density measurement, early warning of abnormal conditions becomes possible. Also drilling operations including mud circulation, sweeping, and drilling fluid swapping becomes more efficient, especially if the information is available remotely if a local expert is not available at the well pad or offshore platform.

Watch the webinar recording to see how these real-time measurements improve safety and efficiency across the drilling operation.

You can connect and interact with other oil and gas experts in the Oil & Gas group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

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