Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Society
lADC/SPE 39328
of Petroleum
Engineers
Trampini, AGIP
*IADC Members
Copyright
1998, lADC/SPE
Drilling Conference
specifications or requirements.
Drilllng Conference
held in
Abstract
The Rotary Closed Loop Drilling System (RCLS) was
developed as a joint venture project between a major oil
company and a leading service company. A long term research
and development program within the service company was
supported by the Italian oil company over the past five years.
The resulting drilling system is capable of steering a wellpath
while the drill string continues to rotate, so penetration rates
are not sacrificed while slide drilling, as is necessary when
using conventional steerable technology. Furthermore, this
unique system has several integral downhole sensors, enabling
two-way communication between the downhole system and
surface, while also providing FEMWD data. In addition,
several automated drilling finctions enable the system to steer
independently. During this operation, surface personnel are
able to intervene at any time through direct control using a
downlink signal. This paper will provide a detailed insight into
the projects engineering strategy during the development. The
paper also presents a review of the first year of field
application, mainly in the Adriatic Sea offshore Italy, which
concluded the prototype period. The philosophy of the pilot
field application program is briefly described and an overview
is given of the ongoing engineering efforts, as well as the
considerable fiture development potential.
Current steerable motor systems have been providing stateof-the-art technology for directional drilling applications
during the last decade. Only recently have individuals in the
industry recognized certain limitations of this technology in
chilling extended reach and complex well profiles. Within the
framework of a research program between a major Italian oil
company and an oilfield service company with leading
directional drilling competence, the vision of a steering-whilerotating directional drilling system with certain automated
control fi.mctionswas turned into a rapid development process.
This technologys high potential demand led to tie decision
to pursue this project in a highly-accelerated way. The time
between initiating the RCLS program and running the first
successful field operation in a test well was no more than 18
months. This rapid approach required that development
continue while prototype tools underwent field testing.
Therefore, the prototype testing period was organized into two
separate application sequences. The first stage, in early 1996,
used a special test well to verify the basic concept and identifi
major items for improvement. After this hurdle was cleared,
the remainder of the year was used to run the prototype tools in
commercial wells. This was done exclusively in Italy, and most
of the wells were located offshore in the Adriatic Sea.
Introduction
Todays drilling environment is characterized by the triple
constraints concept. This means that any drilling program
needs to be executed on time, within budget, and according to
lADC/SPE
FRANCO DONATI, ET AL
39328
Engineering
Strategy
306
b)
c)
PROVEN BY EXTENSIVE
FIELD APPLICATION
IN
a)
CONCEPT
lADC/SPE
FRANCO DONATI, ET AL
Antonella 11
39328
12
ENGINEERING
5
CONCEPT
PROVEN BY EXTENSIVE
FIELD APPLICATION
IN
clearly evident.
309
lADC/SPE
FRANCO DONATI, ET AL
39328
Regina 2 Dir
Basic Tool
Configuration
Mm/
flOX Sub
Reeewolr
astmst
[ml
vorttil~dbn[m]
Nevigatien
o
Top
Stebilleer
Alternatw
I Puleer Sub
High Sl&
D*
.
&
<1
Magnitude
41nlmwlmim
14CQ
Iw
tw
Clotilde
ANTONELLA
Ii DIR
...
.Im
I
.U4
.W
.m
.m
~m
~..
[.1
c-vu..
V.nw
OXO-aow
ANTONELLA
[.1
IuOlm
12 DIR
I
I -.
-,-
..
IADCISPE 39328
FRANCO DONATI, ET AL
Fiwre 7
Corivent.
Fiw
AvmEc
Steerable BHA
Anlowlh
Rotaty BHA
AutoTrek
WCII,
ANTONELLA
PLATFORM
81/2 PHASE
reentry
llDir A
llDir A
Vertical
reentry
Vertical
STIFF
4493
4649
156
20
STIFF
4676
4736
59
7.5
12
Table 1
312
POOH
forcore
TD