From land rigs to semisubmersibles, closing the loop opens the door to a flexible set of drilling capabilities that improve safety of personnel, environment, and equipment while optimizing economics. In each drilling operation the key to success is the use of versatile closed-loop drilling methodologies to meet varied operational and economic objectives.

In Arctic conditions, the challenges are to overpass potential risk of environmental spills and optimize AFEs through mitigation of NPTs. Rotating control devices (RCD), which has secured a strong position in the industry, will be a considerable source to hit above targets. RCDs—whether as a top on the BOP stack or as an integral part of a riser system — is a safe and easy way to monitor pressure within the closed loop and divert the drilling fluids safely from the rig floor.

Integration of RCD in conjunction with early kick/loss detection and control systems through manipulation of surface backpressure, allows access to more accurate real-time downhole data, resulting in the ability to better manage downhole pressures. Changing choke settings results in a rapid modification of bottomhole pressure throughout the wellbore without the cost and effort of changing mud weight.

The closed loop method cuts across operational and economic applications to enable, for instance, the drilling of previously undrillable.

About Author:

Stanislav Kulikov, Weatherford

 

Stanislav Kulikov, Ph.D., Project Manager for MPD and DwC, author of about 20 articles and a book titled ‘Nondestructive inspection in Drilling’. He has been holding various positions with Weatherford for over 7 years./p>

Stanislav graduated from Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Computer Science as a design engineer in 2006. He has worked in oil and gas industry for over 10 years.