A Simulation Environment for Automatic Managed Pressure Drilling Control

Drilling automation initially gained acceptance in the oil & gas industry as a solution to increase rigsite safety. While safety-related drilling automation has been implemented, many companies are beginning to recognize that drilling automation offers possibilities of performance enhancement also. There has been a rapid increase in the number of wells being drilled, primarily in unconventional reservoirs with the diminishing of easy oil. In unconventional plays, managed pressure drilling has been gaining importance because of its many advantages. Pressure balance through a choke manifold is the principle of Managed Pressure Drilling. Automatic choke control, as opposed to manual operation on field, provides better control on the operations. Different control methodologies (viz. PID, MPC etc.) can be designed to implement the control system. It is important to test the designs on a simulator to determine the optimal methodology before implementing it on the field. A Drilling Simulator designed in LabVIEW with in-built control design and simulation functions solves this purpose.