Organization of Wireless Sensor Network at Drilling Sites

Abstract

The digitalization of the drilling process and the emergence of the intelligent drilling concept allow leading companies to transit from a single-well control system to the integrated operation control systems for several drilling sites at once by means of drilling control centers. These systems are distributed systems, the individual components of which are interconnected by communication channels, both wired and wireless. At most fields production drilling for hydrocarbons is conducted by the cluster method in which the mouths of directional wells are grouped closely at a common limited site where the drilling rig itself and a large number of additional facilities are located. Both the objects of one drilling site and several sites controlled from one center shall have a reliable communication between them. Recently, self-organizing wireless sensor networks (WSN) have become widespread. The efficiency of data transmission in such networks is determined by their topology and communication algorithms between individual nodes. The article considers a WSN model for several drilling sites with a single control center; it is used to estimate the impact of such parameters as the number of nodes, the density of their distribution, the node operating range and the area of the covered territory on the probability of network connectivity. Applying the proposed model helps select the optimal values of these parameters and improve the efficiency of drilling control from a single situational center.