Reducing Consumed Energy while Drilling an Oil Well through a Deep Rig Time Analysis

As time goes by, increase in world energy demand forces oil and gas companies to drill deeper in order to produce more oil and gas for balancing world’s offer and demand. This requires drilling layers with various characteristics and dealing with more drilling problems as drilling progresses. Reduction of drilling problems can help drillers to reduce their cost effectively. Rig time break down of more than 300 wells in one south west Iranian oil field has been analysed to determine effective parameters on non-productive time amount. Results show that the most common drilling problems always have been experienced by drilling engineers are Equipment failure, stuck pipe and lost circulation which expose huge expenses to the oil companies. Several factors while drilling will govern how severe mud loss and stuck pipe would occur. These actually make analytical modelling of lost circulation or pipe sticking to somehow complicated. Hereby, employing artificial intelligence can be a leeway with proven capability and accuracy. In this research, operational parameters in Maroun oilfields are introduced to artificial neural networks to predict lost circulation severity, stuck pipe position and stuck pipe severity before happening. Results are well-matched with reality. Key words: Energy; Drilling problems; Lost circulation; Stuck pipe; Rig time analysi