Improving Drilling Efficiency

Don StowersEditor, OGFJ

Faster drilling changes the economic threshold for certain fields, reservoirs
As drilling costs soar, it behooves E&P companies to improve their efficiencies in order to
maximize their rate of return on their investment - particularly when rig day rates are at an
all-time high.
Exxon Mobil Corp. is among several oil and gas companies that have achieved impressive
gains in drilling efficiency with what it calls its fast drill process, or FDP. The company
tested the process in 2005 by drilling more than 500,000 feet of hole in a broad range of
conditions in Qatar, Nigeria, Australia, Nova Scotia, South Texas, and Sakhalin Island.

ExxonMobil engineers use an integrated suite of technologies to drill and

complete complex extended-reach wells, such as this one on Sakhalin
Island, Russia. The rig can reach more than five miles offshore. It helps
improve profitability by minimizing the need for expensive offshore
installations. Photo courtesy ExxonMobil

In so doing, the company improved the rate of penetration (ROP) by 50% to 100% and cut
total well times by as much as 35%.

FDP is a new
way of looking
at drilling and
workflow, says
Fred Dupriest,
technical advisor,
drilling
technical, for
Dupriest
ExxonMobil
Click here to Development
enlarge image Co. Its a rigbased decisionmaking process. Half of the
process is a new application of
technology, and half is
improving workflow
efficiencies. FDP trains us to
watch for inefficiencies.
Traditionally, the focus has been
on finding a better drill bit, says
Dupriest. The drill bit isnt always the problem - how we use the bit is important, he says.
For instance, we have learned that most impact damage to drill bits is due to vibration
damage - not wear damage. Obviously we knew this was a problem, but we
didnt know the extent of it. Instead of needing a better bit, we found we
needed a better hole-clearing process.
M. W. (Mike) Krall, vice president, drilling, for EM Development, adds,
With FDP, you dont just change bits - you re-engineer the whole system.
Krall noted that FDP is the industrys first comprehensive ROP design
Krall
process that impacts all phases of planning and drilling activities. MSE
(mechanical specific energy) surveillance is used to illuminate ROP
limitations in the drilling system and (watch for) the opportunity to drill faster, he says.
Krall emphasizes that FDP is designed to drill faster - not work faster. This is not about
compromising safety, he says. To date, we havent had any accidents associated with the
FDP.

Click here to enlarge image

The optimization process developed by ExxonMobil achieves this breakthrough
performance by using real-time, computer analysis of the drilling systems energy
consumption. This analysis, in turn, helps improve the management of the factors that
determine drilling rate, such as weight on the drill bit, rotary speed, and torque. The result
is significantly faster drilling rates and reduced downtime.
The company has used FDP in many of its operating areas, and the process improves
performance in hard and soft rock, deep and shallow wells, high- and low-angle wells in a
variety of mud weights. It has shown comparable success in exploration, delineation, and
production wells, according to a company spokesman.
A key benefit of the FDP is that it quantifies the hidden cost of slow drilling. Drill rates
have historically been evaluated by comparing performance to other wells in the same area.
However, there has been no method to confirm that the comparison well was, itself, a highperforming well.

FDP allows ExxonMobil to make design

changes to achieve the objective theoretical
performance in a given well. Much of the
performance improvement achieved comes
from this ability to objectively justify
design changes needed to extend previous
performance limits.
The FDP is the latest in a series of
competitive, differentiating practices
developed by ExxonMobils drilling
organization to reduce costs and allow wells
to be put on production faster than
previously possible, says Mark Albers,
president of EM Development.
With FDP, our drilling technical
organization bridges the gap between
science and operational practices to get the
right technology in the hole, he adds. The
team works with our operating group to
make the connection between the
engineering fundamentals and the real
world of drilling wells. They identify the
relevant science, create unique operating
practices based on proven principles, and
develop training processes to deploy these
practices across our global organization as
fast as possible.
Collateral benefits of FDP include
Click here to enlarge image
operating efficiencies from completing and
cementing a quality well bore and more
uniform bore-hole sizes, resulting in significant savings in operating tools.
Following FDPs successful field testing, ExxonMobil plans to implement the proprietary
process worldwide. To date, FDP has been implemented in about 50% of ExxonMobils
worldwide drill teams, says Dupriest. He expects all wells to be drilled with this ROP
design process by year-end 2006.
We have 16 teams worldwide right now, including one US team, and we are about half
done with implementation, says Dupriest. We work with each team to develop a tailored
approach to their situation. We have outstanding people working for us, so we teach them
how things work and then get the heck out of the way.
This initiative follows several other recent advances by ExxonMobil, including worldwide
deployment of fracture closure stress practices for managing lost returns in low-integrity

formations, integrated hole quality and wellbore stability practices for drilling extendedreach wells, and the development of comprehensive deepwater completion practices.
ExxonMobils FDP process is but one example of major gains in drilling efficiency, says
Oil & Gas Journal drilling editor Nina Rach, who believes 2006 will be a year of significant
improvements.
I expect to see record-breaking footage in fields around the world as operators begin to
optimize their drilling operations by analyzing mechanical specific energy (MSE) and using
MSE surveillance to eliminate bit inefficiencies, she says. This will change some of the
assumptions in technical limit drilling.
With regard to downhole vibration, which has been identified as a major bit-related
problem and engineering challenge, Rach notes, In February, Halliburton Co. will present
results of a real-time downhole torsional vibration monitor. Kerr-McGee Corp. is using
real-time pressure-while-drilling data to help optimize ROP and hole-cleaning. ExxonMobil
is training hundreds of contractors in FDP, and the new approach is sure to trickle down
through the industry.$