During the last decades, non-conventional solutions for more economical well bore drilling have been investigated. Big research efforts and budgets have been spent on alternative drilling methods; such as laser drilling or jet assisted drilling. Simplified assumptions predicted a big future for such technologies. However, to get a better and more realistic picture of the feasibility of such unconventional ways to drill rock, the ability to apply them in field scale applications needs to be questioned. In this paper a holistic energy approach to evaluate drilling alternatives is proposed. To evaluate the energy balance of the drilling system the amount of energy generated, e.g by the rig at surface, needs to be put in comparison with all system energy consumption to lead to an effective energy available to destroy rock at the bottom of the hole. To test this concept a small scale laboratory setup is used to compare different drilling methods under similar conditions. This paper presents a systematic approach using an energy concept to compare alternative drilling methods on a laboratory scale. In this first approach laser assisted spallation and conventional drilling were compared. As a by-product, also the optimum mode for spallation drilling, continuous versus pulse wave, will be presented.

The Barents Sea offers unique drilling challenges related to issues such as biogenetic gas in shallow formations, thermogenic gas seeps up to the seabed from underlying formations, shallow formations with abnormal pressure, shallow reservoirs, low-fracture-pressure formations in part of the overburden, and naturally fractured/karstified carbonate reservoirs. This paper discusses cementing challenges when drilling wells in the Barents Sea and the experience gained using managed pressure cementing (MPC) practices. When drilling the surface hole in potentially slightly overpressured formations, the riserless mud recovery (RMR) technique was used. For the first time on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), MPC was used when cementing the surface casing. RMR compensates for drilling the overpressurized zones without a riser and blowout preventer (BOP), and MPC allows for pressurization and monitoring of the pressure on the subsea wellhead toward the formation during the cement curing stage. Once the marine riser and BOP were installed, controlled mud level (CML) technology was used during drilling, running casing/liners, cementing operations, and other activities. CML enables manipulation of the fluid level in the riser and therefore helps optimize downhole pressure to avoid losses and maintain an overbalance. CML has proven to be particularly useful during cementing of liners in naturally fractured reservoirs and during setting of balanced cement plugs in an open hole. As a result, high circulation rates can be achieved and conventional high-density cement slurries can be used. MPC using either RMR or CML was employed for the first time in the Barents Sea. Examples of how cementing operations were planned and executed are described and results are presented.

Vibrations are caused by bit and drill string interaction with formations under certain drilling conditions. They are affected by different parameters such as weight on bit, rotary speed, mud properties, BHA and bit design as well as by the mechanical properties of the formations. During the actual drilling process the bit interacts with different formation layers whereby each of those layers usually have different mechanical properties. Vibrations are also indirectly affected by the formations since weight on bit and rotary speed are usually optimized against changing formations (drilling optimization process). Therefore it can be concluded that for optimized drilling reduction of vibrations is one of the challenges.A fully automated laboratory scale drilling rig, the CDC miniRig, has been used to conduct experimental tests. A three component vibration sensor sub attached to drill string records drill string vibrations and an additional sensor system records the drilling parameters. Uniform concrete cubes with different mechanical properties were built. Those cubes as well as a homogeneous sandstone cube were drilled with different ranges of weight on bit and bit rotary speed. The mechanical properties of all cubes were measured prior to the experiments. During all experiments, drilling parameters and the vibration data were recorded. Based on analyses of the data in the time and the frequency domain, linear and non-linear models were built. For this purpose the interrelations of sandstone and concrete mechanical properties, drilling parameters and vibration data were modeled by neural networks. Application of sophisticated attribute selection methods showed that vibration data in both, time-and frequency domain, have a major impact in modeling the rate of penetration.

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Drill string vibration and shock loads are known as destructive loads while drilling and are the reason for tool failure, lost time and reduction in rate of penetration. Vibrations of drill strings can be effected by bit and bottom hole assembly design, interaction of bit/formation and drilling parameters. To manage vibration, however, weight on bit and rotary speed are the only means that can be changed by the driller while making a hole. Therefore it has been always tried to define an optimum range for drilling parameters as key components of the vibration reduction and the rate of penetration management process. A fully automated laboratory scale drilling rig (CDC miniRig) and vibration sensor sub are used to monitor and record drilling parameters such as weight on bit, rotary speed and vibration of drill string among others. Based on different ranges of weight on bit and rotary speed, drilling data and vibration readings are analyzed and the effects of drilling parameters due to vibrations are better understood. Parameter ranges based on the experimental results leading to minimum vibration and optimum rate of penetration are presented.