Published: 11/20/2013
Published: 11/20/2013
An operator drilling horizontal wells in Western Siberia had been using PowerDrive X6 rotary steerable system (RSS) with a drill bit from another manufacturer in 6 1⁄8-in lateral sections. Using this BHA design in multiple wells, the drilling team had achieved an average ROP of 15 m/h. The operator asked Schlumberger to find a way to increase ROP in the next well to maximize drilling performance. One challenge in accomplishing this task would be to overcome rig limitations, including a topdrive system that inhibited the flexibility of drilling parameters to increase ROP.
Because the underpowered rig limited the options for adjusting drilling parameters to make improvements, the team focused on BHA optimization. Schlumberger proposed replacing the other bit with a custom drill bit designed by the IDEAS platform from Smith Bits, a Schlumberger company, specifically to meet requirements for the BHA, lithology, and planned trajectory. The platform was used to select a directional MDi416 fixed cutter PDC bit, then analyzed and simulated the downhole conditions to ensure optimal performance before drilling operations even started.
In the first well drilled using the PowerDrive X6 RSS BHA with the MDi416 bit, the team achieved all drilling objectives, including those for performance improvement. Average ROP was increased from 15 m/h in previous wells drilled with another manufacturer's bit to 34 m/h with the custom drill bit designed using the IDEAS platform. This boost in drilling performance saved the operator approximately 1 day of drilling time off the average for previous wells in the field.
Challenge: Increase ROP in horizontal sections while taking rig limitations into consideration
Solution: Optimize BHA design by replacing other manufacturer’s bit with one custom-designed using the IDEAS integrated drillbit design platform, which analyzes and simulates the bit performance in downhole conditions to ensure optimal design
Results: Improved drilling performance by switching to customized drill bit that increased ROP to 34 m/h
