Steering Advisory System for Rotary Steerable Systems

The challenging offshore and shale production environments have increased the need for cost-effective, standardized drilling operations while providing accurate well placement and high borehole quality. Automation of directional drilling processes bears the promise of delivering these consistent and reliable performances while maximizing production potential. This paper introduces a steering advisory system for rotary steerable systems (RSS), which provides steering decisions automatically given the BHA configuration, bit selection, well plan and/or target(s), and real-time sensory information received from the RSS. These decisions can be either displayed to directional drillers or down-linked directly to the tool for autonomous directional drilling. The system has proven itself on multiple commercial jobs across North America with a new generation RSS. By exactly following the advisory system-generated steering decisions, multiple curve sections were smoothly drilled and accurately landed within tight tolerances.