This application claims the benefit of European Patent Application No. 11 008 154.4, filed Oct. 7, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.
The invention relates to a method for managing drilling pipes, drilling tools, well tubing, and the like for ground drillings, particularly for accessing deposits of fossil fuels or geothermal reservoirs.
In order to explore and access petroleum and natural gas deposits generally ground drilling is required to considerable depths, because the drills must penetrate low-lying layers of rock or the operation occurs off-shore. The same applies for drilling in order, for example, utilizing natural geothermal water reservoirs for energy generation or accessing CO2-deposits.
In all these cases the drilling heading is generated by a drill bit or the like, which is located at the tip of a drill string, with the drill string comprising drilling pipes or an assembly of drilling pipes increasing in length when the drilling heading advances. The drive of the drill bit or another drilling tool occurs here from the earth surface or perhaps from a drilling platform, thus from the surface of the water, with either the drill string serving for the mechanic transmission of the drilling forces or a drilling liquid being pumped into the well, which hydraulically drives the drill bit. Generally, the drill string comprises steel pipes as the drill string so that the drill cuttings developing during the drilling process can be removed by the fluid conducted through the drill string upwards or out of the well. Frequently, a well hole casing is inserted to line the well coaxially in reference to the drill string.
In order to insert the drill string into the well, which becomes increasingly longer with the progress of the drilling process, parts of the drill string, pipeline parts, and the like each typically having a length of 12-20 m are provided in the proximity of the well and successively inserted into the well, with each part newly inserted into the well being fastened to the respectively previous part. The latter commonly occurs via threaded connections at the end of the parts.
Ground drilling normally starts in the vertical direction so that generally a drilling tower is erected, which lowers the individual string parts and the like vertically into the well. A pipe handler ensures the automatic engagement of horizontally aligned parts of the drill string, pipeline parts, etc. and ensures the pivoting of the grasped parts into a vertical position above the well, where it is accepted by the well hole—feeding device at the drilling tower.
The longer the drill string the more important it becomes to keep the time as short as possible for providing and inserting the individual parts to be inserted into the well. Here, the time for handling parts within the period of the overall drilling progress is multiplied here by the fact that from time to time it is necessary to pull the entire drill string out of the well, in order to, for example, replace a worn or damaged drill bit, and thereafter the drill string must once more be inserted into the well by reassembling it part by part. The life of the drill bit can be limited in difficult geological conditions to a few hours so that the pulling out, taking apart, reassembly, and reinsertion of the drill string must be repeated several times, with the number of parts to be handled growing with the progression of the drilling process.
In addition to the time required for handling the individual parts of the drill string, which should be kept as short as possible, it is also important to store the individual parts of a drill string pulled out of a well in an orderly fashion so that they can be reinserted into the borehole in an unchanged sequence. This is particularly of great importance when the drill string requires intermediate parts with particular features or tools at certain positions.
The present invention is therefore based on the objective to provide a method for managing the parts to be inserted into a well with the support of an electronic data processing system, which particularly reduces the time required for handling the individual parts of a drill string and for assembling them.
This objective is attained in a method as well as an application according to the invention, preferred embodiments of which are described below.
According to the present invention therefore an automatic storage system is provided, particularly comprising stacking bays and/or shelves and at least one shelf operating device to feed a well hole—feeding system with drilling pipes, drilling rods, lining pipes (casings), intermediate parts, drill bits, and the like and/or for restoring respective parts removed from the well hole. Using such automatic storage, resupply, and restorage devices particularly drilling rods, drilling pipes, and lining pipes can be warehoused in a sorted and unambiguously positioned fashion, supplied to the well hole—feeding system, which usually comprises a pipe handler, at the right point of time, and when required be returned to the unambiguously identified and saved positions, from where they can then automatically be fed to the well in the correct sequence.
For this purpose, within the scope of the present invention an electronic data processing system (computing system) is used, in which information is stored regarding the inventory and the updated storage location of parts to be inserted into the well, such as drilling rods, drilling pipes, lining pipes, intermediate parts, drill bits, and the like. Further, information is stored in the computing system regarding the position of installation and/or the sequence of installation of all parts inserted into the well. This way, the computing system is capable to control an automated storage, feeding, and restorage system used according to the invention.
Alternatively or additionally the computing system can also disclose to the user only when and wherefrom which part to be inserted into the well should be fed to the well hole—feeding system, because the computing system knows the storage location of the respective parts and can compare this to the bore list in which it is determined which parts shall successively form the drill string.
It is particularly advantageous to combine a control of an automatic storage, feeding, and restorage device with a display function, in which a drilling list is processed. The user then receives a prompt to feed a certain part from a certain storage location to the well hole—feeding system, if said part cannot be provided in the automatic storage, feeding, and restorage device and/or cannot be handled by said device. The latter particularly applies to drill bits, tools, intermediate parts, and the like. They are then provided in a manual warehouse, with here it being advantageous that their precise location is also known to the computing system according to the invention; this way even in manual operation here a lot of time is saved and/or, more importantly, when returning (the parts) after being pulled out of the well and reinserting them into the drill string the storage of the manually handled parts occurs at a location predetermined by the computing system and can therefore be found by it at a later time.
Within the scope of the present invention it is further preferred for the computing system additionally to have information saved regarding the additional availability of parts removed from the well. This particularly relates to the drill bit or another drilling tool, however it is also advantageous for the computing system to save (events), for example when a defective thread is given, and the two parts concerned must be removed from the drill string in order to allow replacing or repairing them.
This has the particularly advantageous effect in another preferred further development of the method according to the invention, that the computing system notifies (the operator) when the inventory of parts available to insert into the well requires the repairing of parts or a resupply of new parts. This way it is prevented that the drill team surprisingly is faced with the situation that no operational drill bit is available or further drilling is prevented because the drill string cannot be extended any further.
Further preferred within the scope of the present invention additional information is provided in the computing system regarding newly supplied and/or ordered parts to be inserted into the well, which are not yet included in the actual inventory. The information of presently unavailable parts being repaired or located at the maintenance station can be saved within the scope of the computing system. As a result a type of warehousing management system is provided for the parts to be used for a drill string, preferably in combination with a manual warehouse, designed as known from prior art, and an automated warehouse and/or an automatic storage, feeding, and restorage device.
According to another aspect of the present invention an order list is prepared with the type and the number of the parts projected to be inserted into the well and saved in the computing system. Simultaneously information regarding the inventory and the present storage location of the parts to be inserted into the well is stored in the computing system, such as drilling rods, drilling pipes, lining pipes, intermediate parts, drill bits, and the like and perhaps also their availability. According to another aspect of the present invention the computing system based on the present invention can perform a comparison of the order list with the inventory and the present storage location of the parts to be inserted into the well. This way, the existing material as well as preferably its storage location are allocated to the individual items of the order list. This particularly leads advantageously to the computing system being able to display when for processing the order list a repair of parts, a supply of new parts, and/or reorganization or resorting of the warehoused positions is necessary. The latter may represent for example that a certain shipment of several boxes or pallets delivered, containing new parts, can be entered into the automatic storage system in order to ensure the processing of the order list as efficiently as possible. If applicable, it may also allow rearranging of a storage bay or storage shelf in order to ensure processing the order list as fast as possible.
Within this additional aspect of the present invention it is finally advantageous for the order list, if applicable, also allows updating during the drilling operation, which then perhaps may lead to a rearrangement, reorganization, or reordering of parts.
An example for the implementation of the method according to the invention is described and explained in the following based on the attached drawings. Shown are:
The storage bay 4, here used as a storage, feeding, and restorage device, is shown enlarged in
The storage operating device 8 essentially comprises, as known per se, a portal crane 10 with a load traverse and grasping elements 11 particularly adjusted to the storage bay 7. It is horizontally displaceable on two driving rails 12 in order to bring the drilling pipes 3 from each position of the storage bay 4 out of the storage position 6 and to allow returning it thereto. An only indicated protective fence 13 protects the automatic storage bay 4 from unauthorized access.
The connection of the data bus 25 to the server 21 can thus serve for the server 21 always knowing the respectively updated inventory of parts to be inserted into the well and can display this accordingly at the terminal 24. In order to ensure the respective data the server 21 and the stand-by-server 22 are connected to mirrored hard drives 29 as well as a printer 29. If applicable, the server 21 may additionally be connected to the internet so that a remote monitoring or problem solving of potentially occurring problems can be performed online by the system generator.
The terminal 24 processes a list when applying the method according to the invention, in which the individual, unambiguously identified and positioned drilling pipes are listed in a predetermined sequence as well as perhaps the position of intermediate parts and tools. Positions of this list relating to the drilling pipes 3 stored in the storage bay 4 are automatically supplied by the automatic control of the storage bay operating device 8 to the pipe handler 5, while positions in the list relating to parts which are stored in the manual storage spaces 26, 27 generate a stop as well as the generation of an instruction to the operator of the terminal 24 to feed the respective parts to the well hole—supply system and to confirm the performance of this instruction.
If it is necessary to remove the drill strand from the well and here successively disassembly it into its individual parts the server 21 processes the list backwards. During the subsequent restart of the drilling process it is then extremely advantageous that the individual parts are all deposited in a defined position and the server 21 knows these individual positions.
The present exemplary embodiment is furthermore embodied such that the server 21 knows the position of all individual parts provided to be inserted into the well, thus for example also the drilling pipes, stored at a different location on the drilling platform or drilling island, and for example not yet moved into the automated storage bay 4.
The method according to the invention also offers advantages when supply pipes are inserted into the well because in the computing system then even after many years the information is available which part is precisely located at what position of the conveyer strand.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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11008154.4 | Oct 2011 | EP | regional |