Drilling underground wells is important for extracting energy, such as geothermal heat, harvesting natural resources, and storage of CO2 and Hydrogen. Safe and energy-efficient drilling operations are important for sustainable exploitation and to minimize the risk of emissions and damage to the environment. Digitization and new automation solutions for drilling operations led to major cost reductions and reduced energy consumption in the last decade. An important part of this transition has been to use real-time measurement from operations to make better decisions along the way. Advanced software and instrumentation for monitoring and managing drilling operations have been developed to enable drilling of wells that would otherwise be too demanding, to increase safety, and to make better and more cost-effective use of natural resources.
A challenge when using new automation solutions for drilling is that parts of the drilling process are inadequately instrumented. This particularly applies to measuring the flow rate out of the well during drilling operations. Today's measurements can have as high uncertainty as 10%, and in some cases even higher. Accurate measurements of this variable at all times are essential for early warning, advisory, and control systems.
A new device for measuring the flow rate is now under development. Previous research shows that the device achieves an accuracy of down to 1%. This project aims to verify that the device handles realistic conditions with a design that is adapted to existing drilling rigs.
