Advancements in Automation

Reducing drilling costs is essential to increase profit from new field developments and to increase oil recovery from existing fields. In some offshore field developments half of the total cost is related to well construction. High drilling costs are a major concern to the oil and gas industry. Drilling automation is seen as one of the key areas in drilling and well research and development to reduce costs and increase safety. However, when moving from machine control to process control, analysing and controlling downhole processes becomes equally important compared to machine control on the rig. This change in focus towards downhole processes is also emphasised by other needs, such as drilling trouble avoidance, optimisation of ROP, and extended-reach drilling. To succeed in this shift, students, researchers and engineers need access to drilling data that are easily accessible. Access to drilling data enables studies on downhole effects as well as demonstration of technology for process control in relevant conditions. An infrastructure is now being built at the International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS) providing realistic but simulated drilling data for students, researchers and engineers.