Publications

The exploration well was drilled offshore East Indonesia with a water depth of 1947m by the ultra-deep water 6th generation drillship West Capella. As with many ultra-deep-water operations, considering the operating spread-rate around one MUSD per day, the team involved put extra focus on both minimization of invisible-lost-time (ILT) and prevention of non-productive-time (NPT).

This paper describes the functional details of the technology, as well as the human-system and processes required for the successful, value-added deployment. At the core of the deployed technology was a digital twin. A hybrid physics-based and data-driven model of the section that during operation was continually fed with surface and downhole sensor data. This digital twin served as an extension of the digital pre-well plan, able to deploy the same models in a transient manner and have the system continually compare expected values (model outputs) to actual measured value to allow early identification of divergences which could be indicative of sub-optimal parameters, or dangerous approaching NPT events.

While the advisory system provides automated alarms and persecuting remedial and mitigation advice the most key component was making sure that this information reached the correct stakeholders in a timely fashion to allow them to act. The paper will describe the measures taken to ensure this including deployment of multiples human-machine-interfaces (HMI) at wellsite and use of a large-scale instant messaging group (Microsoft Teams) that linked wellsite with multiple remote users and centers.

Despite the technology implemented to several other regions, in particular the Eni Indonesia well represents two firsts. Firstly, it is the first deployment of this scale in the Indonesian market, and secondly it is the first scale and commercial use of the technology integrated with a managed pressure drilling system (MPD) in Asia Pacific.

At a micro-KPI, the following achieved targets as follow: reduction in ILT through increased tripping speeds, no major hydraulics related NPT events, performed more efficient and safer
tripping speed. At a macro level, the exploration well successfully reached the target depth at 5025m MD, drilled, and tested within the authorized AFE and 5.5% NPT. The well represents the first commercial use of drilling automation applications applied to MPD deployments in the Asia Pacific Region.