American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2022 - 73

SpecialReport: Drilling Assemblies
" When something unusual happens,
the cloud makes it easy for the entire
team to collaborate in real time, " he says.
" A drilling engineer at the office, the
company man on the rig and a drilling
superintendent in town all can see the
same data as they discuss the next step. "
Mo Kamyab, Corva's senior technical
lead for research and development, says
other apps can help operators refine drilling
parameters. " These apps include the Offset
Driller's Roadmap, which looks at numerous
key performance indicators for each formation
in offset wells to see which parameters
deliver the best performance. That
information can be used to optimize parameters
during a bit run and plan parameters
for future wells, " Kamyab outlines.
Cheatham says the apps automate as
much analysis as possible to support realtime
decisions. " For example, one app
produces heat maps for ROP or mechanical
specific energy based on drilling parameters,
and color codes performance from
red to yellow to green. Optimum drilling
parameters are clearly indicated as the
target, " he illustrates.
While the impact of the platform's
real-time and post-job insights varies from
well to well, it can be substantial, Cheatham
assures. " Our customer success team consistently
sees a 28% increase in ROP when
drillers adopt the platform, " he reports.
" It takes time to fully leverage the platform's
capabilities, but many operators quickly
get used to tracking connection and trip
times so they can compare rigs and try to
improve. On average, this process yields
a 20% reduction in flat time. "
Data Quality
According to Kamyab, the platform
delivers consistent results largely thanks
to the effort Corva puts into data quality.
" We have a 24/7 operational team that
makes sure data is accurate and reaches
the platform quickly enough for our realtime
apps to guide decisions, " he relates.
In addition to technical issues, such
as calibrating drill string weights to
provide real-time torque and drag, Kamyab
says the quality assurance team identifies
and corrects missing or inaccurate data.
For example, the team may need to call
the rig crew if the hook load sensor gets
re-zeroed during a run. Over time, Kamyab
says the team has automated routine corrections
so it can manage by exception
and dive into complex issues as needed.
" One of the most exciting additions
to Corva's platform is our development
center that allows users to create their
own apps, " Kamyab comments. " Because
we take care of importing and checking
the data, external developers can focus
on creating and testing algorithms. "
According to Cheatham, " Our vision
is to create an app store for oil and gas
that is comparable to the ones on iPhone
or Android devices. Someday, we would
like to see a variety of apps for use cases
such as optimizing hole cleaning, predicting
drilling dynamics or automating
directional drilling. "
The apps users create can be restricted
to their company or made available to the
public at a cost or as free tools or products,
Cheatham notes. As of early April, he
says the platform hosts more than 80
drilling apps, more than 45 completion
apps and about five geoscience apps.
The dev center also has helped Corva
improve or introduce in-house apps more
quickly, Cheatham adds. " In October
2021, we began developing a suite of
well design apps that turn historical data
into actionable insight. Using the center
doubled the development team's speed
to deployment, " he relates.
" We also have created an app that compares
the vibration readings from MWD
tools and rotary steerable systems with
vendors' recommended thresholds and
limits, " Cheatham continues. " In addition
to giving drillers an easy way to consider
equipment health as they make decisions,
the app constrains recommendations from
the drilling guidance app we are testing.
If that app knows a certain differential
pressure, weight on bit and RPM caused
vibration to exceed the thresholds, it will
eliminate those parameters from consideration
in future recommendations. "
Addressing Flat Time
When engineers look for ways to improve
drilling efficiency, they often focus
on technical aspects such as drill bit selection,
drilling parameters and BHA
components, says Todd Blackford, a partner
at Partners in Performance. " Getting
these technical elements right is only one
side of the drilling efficiency puzzle, " he
argues. " The other key is speeding up
ancillary activities to maximize how much
of each day the rig is turning to the right. "
Trips constitute a common source of
flat time, he observes. " As the rig is
pulling pipe out of the hole and stacking
it, each stand of pipe needs to be disconnected, "
Blackford notes. " That process
may take only 20 seconds, but on a 10,000
Through Corva's cloud-based platform, drilling teams can access valuable information
in real time, including broomstick plots for hook load and torque, as well as drilling parameter
recommendations based on offset data. Corva says companies that adopt the
platform consistently see 28% increases in their rates of penetration.
APRIL 2022 73

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2022

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