Informed Drilling: Integrated GIS Tools for Well Planning

Abstract

The analysis process for well planning that is carried out by oil and gas companies is an expensive operation in terms of effort and time. The issue is further amplified with the large number of wells to be planned and drilled. This is partly because of the necessity of examining multiple scenarios, and partly because of the increased daily simultaneous well drilling operations. The planned wells of different categories all have to pass through multiple planning workflows. One complicated step in the planning analysis process is the calculation of several well attributes prior to drilling. Attributes like fluid level, pressure, salinity and structure tops are analyzed in well planning in order to set up drilling specifications. This paper introduces an automated solution to streamline the current lengthy analysis process. It is also capable of handling large number of well planning workflow requests with less resources as compared to the conventional way. We have developed an integrated GIS solution that automatically calculates specific drilling attributes for planned wells. It can also be plotted on a map utilizing ESRI’s GIS solutions. This process saves tremendous amount of time by automating calculations and preparations allowing for more workflows to be carried out. Moreover, it integrates an interactive GIS map that is loaded with specialized GIS tools designed for Geologists and Petroleum Engineers to facilitate informed drilling decision making. The system utilizes more than 38 GIS grids to calculate and subsequently deduce the attributes required. A Geoprocessing tool has been developed using ArcGIS and JavaScript to carry out the workflow. Data for the attributes are extracted from the grids using ArcGIS API, while the extensive processing is done in the client side using JavaScript. This approach gives a great performance advantage over server processing that is carried by ESRI’s ArcGIS Server due to extensive IO operations. The system also utilizes interactive hydrographs to monitor existing groundwater wells. Water level, salinity and temperature trends are charted on an interactive map to aid the drilling decision making. This system enables well planning workflows to be carried out more efficiently while adding more insights utilizing cutting edge GIS technology.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90332 © 2018 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa, November 4-11, 2018