An engineering approach to optimise rate of penetration through drilling specific energy

Continuous efforts are made in drilling engineering to identify and develop advanced tools and technologies to maximize rate of penetration (ROP). Optimization of ROP has a major impact on both the reduction of the cost in terms of cost per foot and well delivery. Numerous correlations, methods, designs, models, and tools for ROP optimization are available in literature but rarely are applied in drilling operations. This paper introduces a robust methodology aiming to optimize the rate of penetration without inducing any associated wellbore stability problems. The objective of this paper is to detail the methodology and the effectiveness of the technique introduced. We report performance indicators for a trial well drilled using the novel approach and compare the findings with a conventionally drilled offset well. The drilling parameters for a challenging horizontal hole section were collected and analyzed to evaluate their effect on ROP performance. The drilling parameters selected are from corresponding hole sizes, formation and mud types with respect to the offset well for a consistent comparison. The proposed approach contributed to an enhanced well drilling performance by more than 40% and was instrumental in mitigation of stuck pipe incidents. In this paper, we introduced and verified a novel technique to maximize the rate of penetration (ROP) by optimizing the drilling parameters (RPM and WOB). As long as the CCA is less than 0.05, the proposed workflow in this study can be used to determine an optimized ROP in conjunction with a minimized DSE yielding ideal RPM and WOB values thereby reducing the cost per foor drilled. Evidence of the efficiency of the proposed procedure is provided by comparing the ROP and DSE measured for a horizontal section drilled employing the technique with data for an offset well drilled in a non-optimized fashion. Compared to the latter case, we reported a 44% improvement in ROP and a 48% reduction in DSE.