Case Study

Shell U.K. Limited Enhances Well Planning and Cross-Discipline Collaboration

Published: 04/20/2011

Case Study

Shell U.K. Limited Enhances Well Planning and Cross-Discipline Collaboration

Published: 04/20/2011

Shell U.K. Limited’s G&G team and reservoir engineers were routinely using the Petrel workflow for drilling, but the drilling engineers were not.

Schlumberger proposed implementing a single multidiscipline solution to be used by all. The power of Petrel seismic-to-simulation software enables collaboration by all parties—including geologists, geophysicists, drillers, reservoir engineers, and production engineers—in the same shared earth model. Schlumberger demonstrated that the solution would be very useful for the drilling engineers and that including them in the unified workflow would benefit the entire team.

Using a single workflow process powered by Petrel software improves the planning workflow as well as optimizing well placement and drilling operations.

Solution requirements

Shell U.K. Limited articulated its requirements, which included the following points:

Facilitate data/knowledge transfer across the whole subsurface team.
Help the drilling team to work in a proactive mode using real-time data.
Promote remote experts’ involvement in operations and decision-making process.
Support both proprietary Shell technology and third-party technology.
Enable using a single database for all applications.

Shell U.K. Limited Enhances Well Planning and Cross-Discipline Collaboration

Three-dimensional drilling model and KPI analysis.

To test implementing the process for all its disciplines, Shell U.K. Limited carried out a project to generate 3D models for various individual drilling parameters, extract synthetic logs, and determine the optimal drilling window. The project created 3D models for unconfined compressive strength, weight on bit, rate of penetration, drilling rate, time to drill, and drilling events.

The Shell U.K. Limited subsurface team and Schlumberger Information Solutions carried out the project, collaborating with personnel from Schlumberger Drilling & Measurements, Geoservices, and Smith Bits.

ROP-WOB prediction versus real-time acquisition.

Success

The project was accomplished in 11 days, delivering great added value in a short time. The Petrel drilling workflow helped the drilling team to work in a proactive mode and better anticipate problems that could lead to nonproductive time or less-than-optimal reservoir contact. It also enhanced collaboration between disciplines, including the drilling engineering staff, because it provided a common collaboration platform for the subsurface team. The platform offers

powerful drilling parameter predictions with automation capabilities
well path optimization and drilling time estimation
KPI analysis capabilities.

Real-time monitoring.

During the execution phase, real-time data was superimposed on the modeled data, which showed very good agreement, indicating that models were quite predictive of the actual reservoir drilling conditions.

Schlumberger Information Solutions

Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS) is an operating unit of Schlumberger that provides software, information management, IT, and related services. SIS collaborates closely with oil and gas companies to solve today’s tough reservoir challenges with an open business approach and comprehensive solution deployment. Through our technologies and services, oil and gas companies empower their people to improve business performance by reducing exploration and development risk and optimizing operational efficiencies.

E-mail sisinfo@slb.com or contact your local Schlumberger representative to learn more.

Location

Offshore

Details

Challenge: Fully integrate workflow so that the drilling and G&G teams can access all information to collaborate and better anticipate drilling issues.

Solution: Use Petrel drilling workflow to gather knowledge and lessons learned to perform well planning and optimization tasks. The following modules were used.