Real-Time Cement Blend Design for Wellbore Stress Adaptation

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

The existing methods for designing cement blends in oil and gas wells are not adaptable to real-time changes in drilling operations, leading to potential delays and increased costs due to unplanned deviations in wellbore trajectories or wellbore environments.

Innovation Solution

A method that continuously evaluates drilling data to determine the stress state of the wellbore and optimizes the cement blend and pumping procedure in real-time, dividing the wellbore into depth segments and updating the design based on real-time datasets, ensuring the cement blend's mechanical properties exceed the stress state, and incorporating laboratory verification.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a fixed cement blend design is used for primary cementing, then the cementing operation can be completed with a predetermined formulation, but the design cannot adapt to real-time changes in wellbore conditions or drilling trajectories

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveadaptability to real-time drilling changesVSAvoidcomplexity of real-time evaluation system

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by continuously evaluating drilling data and determining wellbore stress states in real-time during the drilling operation, enabling proactive adjustment of cement blend designs before cementing occurs. This allows the system to anticipate and adapt to changing wellbore conditions rather than reacting after the fact.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring drilling datasets, comparing actual wellbore conditions against the cement blend design criteria, and using this information to dynamically adjust the cement formulation. The feedback loop ensures the cement design remains optimized for current wellbore stress states and drilling trajectories.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If the drilling operation is interrupted to redesign the cement blend, then the cement can be tailored to current wellbore conditions, but non-productive time and operational costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvereliability of zonal isolationVSAvoidnon-productive time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system maintains continuity of useful action by continuously evaluating drilling data and updating cement blend designs without interrupting the drilling operation. The real-time processing of drilling datasets allows the cement design to evolve continuously alongside wellbore conditions, eliminating stops and delays associated with traditional redesign processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs self-service by automatically processing drilling data, determining stress states, and generating optimized cement blend formulations without requiring external intervention or drilling interruptions. The automated system serves itself by continuously adapting the design based on incoming data streams.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Productivity

If a simplified cement design approach is used, then the design process is faster and less complex, but the cement blend may not adequately meet the specific stress conditions of the wellbore

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvespeed of cement blend designVSAvoidprecision of cement mechanical properties

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system replaces traditional mechanical and manual cement design methods with automated computational processing of drilling data. By substituting manual analysis and iterative design processes with automated algorithms that process drilling datasets and calculate stress states, the system achieves both high speed and high precision in cement blend formulation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically changes parameters by adjusting cement blend formulations based on real-time wellbore stress state parameters derived from drilling data. The system modifies key cement properties such as strength, viscosity, and setting time to match the specific stress conditions encountered during drilling, achieving precise tailoring without sacrificing design speed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS20230185979A1System to Correlate Suitable Slurry Designs with Petrophysical While-Drilling Measurements in Real Time

Publication Date: 2023.06.15 HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC

AI summary

A method of designing a cement blend for a wellbore isolation barrier from datasets indicative of drilling a wellbore. The drilling datasets may include drilling equipment data, bottom hole assembly data, and mud system data. A drilling path record comprising depth segments with averaged data values of drilling data can be generated by processing the drilling datasets. A design process can determine a stress state for each depth segment of the drilling path record and design a cement blend with mechanical properties exceeding the stress state. The design process can determine an optimized cement design comprising the cement blend for each depth segment of the drilling path record.