Exxon Production Research Company

Michele M Thomas

Yuh-Hwang Tsao

Eugene A Sikirica

Marco Rasi

William E Kline

Albert T Wang

The current invention is a method for modeling the probability of a drill string becoming stuck within a given time frame and a method for applying the model to a well being drilled to reduce the probability of sticking. The model is constructed by performing canonical discriminant analysis on engineering parameters derived from observations taken in historical wells and creating a canonical space with the resulting canonical functions. Posterior probabilities of sticking are then calculated from the historical observations and mapped into the canonical space. To apply the model to a particular well being drilled, the values of the previously derived engineering parameters are calculated from observations in the well being drilled, multiplied by their corresponding canonical coefficients, and summed to obtain a canonical point representation for drilling in that well. This canonical point representation is then mapped into the canonical space to obtain the probability of sticking. The probability of sticking is then compared to probabilities experienced in the past under similar drilling conditions. If the probability of sticking in the well being drilled is found to be higher than average historical probability, it can be reduced by implementing remedial measures that are suggested by simple inspection of the values of the engineering parameters.

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Midland, TX, United States of America

Michele M Thomas