Best-Practice Control Sequences for Automated Borehole Operations
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Solution Overview
Problem
The energy industry faces challenges in consistently and efficiently implementing best operating practices during operations like drilling and production, due to the complexity and variability of earth formations, which can lead to sub-optimal performance and potential hazards.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that utilize a processor to retrieve and execute standardized sequences of instructions based on industry-accepted best practices, allowing for automatic performance of operations like drilling and reaming, with the ability to modify procedures based on specific conditions and parameters, ensuring timely and consistent implementation of best practices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If standardized sequences are automatically executed, then operational efficiency and consistency are improved, but adaptability to specific formation conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the degree of automation based on operational context. Standardized sequences are executed automatically for routine operations, while the system provides decision support and recommendations when non-standard conditions are detected, allowing the level of automation to adapt to specific formation conditions and operational needs
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where operational data from earth formations is continuously monitored and fed back into the decision-making process. This allows the system to learn from actual formation conditions and adjust the execution of standardized sequences or generate modified procedures that adapt to specific geological circumstances
2Reliability
If complex decision-making is automated, then human error is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The decision-making system is segmented into modular functional components, each handling specific aspects of operational control. Standardized sequences are pre-programmed as discrete, reusable modules that can be independently executed, while higher-level decision support functions handle exceptional cases, reducing overall system complexity through functional decomposition
Solution Approach 2:
Complex decision logic is prepared in advance through pre-programmed standardized sequences and decision rules. Rather than requiring real-time complex processing during operations, the system has predetermined response protocols ready for execution, reducing the computational complexity required during actual operational decision-making
Data Source
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AI summary
An embodiment of a method of performing an energy industry operation includes storing one or more sets of instructions at a storage location accessible by a controller configured to control aspects of an energy industry operation, the one or more sets of instructions retrieved from a library of sets of instructions, each set of instructions prescribing a standard procedure for performing a process forming part of the energy industry operation, the standard procedure based on best operating practices developed from previously performed operations independent of the process to be performed. The method also includes deploying a carrier in a borehole in an earth formation and performing an energy industry operation, monitoring the operation and, in response to detecting a condition associated with the process, automatically retrieving the set of instructions corresponding to the process, and automatically performing the process by the controller according to the retrieved set of instructions.