Real-Time Monitoring and Diagnostics Applied to False Kick Detection

Abstract

Abstract Kicks are one of the main safety concerns in drilling operations, especially offshore, since they could lead to a blowout if not detected as soon it starts. Sometimes kick indicators can be smoothed and it might be difficult to determine if there is a real kick or another physical event taking place within the well. The fluid temperature effect might be misinterpreted as a kick migration, generates a false alarm, and stop operations until there is enough evidence that it is not a kick, due to the severe consequences that it can lead in a real occurrence. These thermal effects can be considered inherent to the operation, given that it is natural to deep wells reach higher temperatures in the subsurface and thus the fluid could experiment an expansion associated with an increase in pressure. The proposed calculation presented in this work acts in a way to reduce the time used to evaluate these specific situations in real-time and allows a safety operation resume. After development tests, the new false-kick module was included in a drilling digital twin software, currently in use by a drilling engineers’ team, on a 24×7 service inside the client Real-Time Operation Center (RTOC). While performing tests at the homologation server/database, the results were in agreement with the expectations, proving that around 40 minutes of rig time could be saved for each false kick detection. These results add value to the operations as it provides more sensitive information to be taken into account while evaluating a kick scenario and shortens the time frame reaction to deal with an inconclusive pressure/flow check. The novelty is the usage of a drilling digital twin to include a false kick analysis, enabling it to detect whether just a thermal effect occurred instead of a real kick. The numerical simulation already runs robust data monitoring, evaluating a big amount of data in real-time, and the new feature helps reducing operation risks to resume operations faster.