Automated Drilling Oil Gas Well

Automated drilling is one of the oil industry’s most important innovation targets.

The sources now being tapped, such as shale gas and coal-bed methane, require a very large number of wells, and automating the drilling process would be an obvious way to keep the costs under control, and also gets around a problem which many sectors of engineering are experiencing

Automated drilling would be faster, more efficient, and safer, as it reduces the number of workers on site.

Through sensors mounted on the drillbit, the system monitors the trajectory of the drill and its performance as it travels through the site geology, and controls its path to ensure that it meets the top hole precisely.

Automating drilling takes in three stages of autonomy:

• The first is to mechanise the drilling equipment, such as the machinery which connects lengths of drill pipe.
• The second is to monitor torque and weight on the drill bit, and control these parameters to achieve optimum rate of penetration and the route of the bore-hole.
• The third level is to automate the entire process, including the speed of the pumps controlling drilling mud.

The SCADAdrill computer system connects to the existing instruments and controls of a drilling rig.

It can thus operate the rig machinery and monitor all aspects of the drilling process.

In fact, the monitored parameters serve as the feedback control for the rig machines. In this way the orientation of the borehole is constantly checked as it is being drilled, helping to ensure that the well is drilled efficiently and that it reaches its target.