简介：国民油井（NOV）推出一种新型向下链路的自动化工具，使用该公司，司钻可以通过一个智能界面发布指令，进行操控。

A new automated downlinking tool allows drillers to implement commands and controls through a single intelligent interface. 

Certain drilling controls are now extended through the NOV CyberbaseR control station and out to a third party control system through the CyberLink server system. 

Automation is changing drilling operations, and advances in technology are improving operating efficiencies. One of the innovative tools that has been used for automated downlinking has changed drilling operations. DrillLink, a tool developed by NOV, is a simple, reliable, and repeatable tool that functions as a single intelligent interface for implementing proprietary commands and controls using equipment already in place on a rig.

Because the tool allows a third party’s easy access to the drilling machinery, it has become a cost-effective, field-proven way of achieving new drilling efficiencies on rigs with analog controls. It is even more valuable on high-technology rigs, particularly those using digital controls on horizontal and directional wells.

DrillLink, an analog tool, provided the foundation for CyberLink, its digital counterpart. Both tools perform the same downlinking functions, but the digital version offers a quicker path to expanding the scope of automated digital operations.

These tools grew from the industry’s drive toward more comprehensive automation. Not only was a simple, user-friendly system needed for enabling greater drilling automation, but applicability to both existing and new rigs was vital. It is critically important to be able to retrofit a rig while minimally affecting ongoing drilling operations.

A look at the impact CyberLink has had as an external control enabler in the growing rig automation workplace shows the extent to which digital innovations are being figuratively fused together for enhanced productivity and worker safety.

Joystick environment

Those familiar with the structure of a North Sea drilling platform and its components readily recognize how different the fundamentals are today from those of a decade ago.
On the drill floor today, the driller may be controlling operations from a Cyberbase chair with joysticks and computer screens. A driller operates the hoisting equipment, pumps, and rotary equipment from controls that communicate with the drilling machinery via the drilling control network.

CyberLink consists of a new controller/server installed with software to communicate with this network. The driller can turn on this digital tool, allowing downlinking instructions from the directional driller to pass to the mud pump or top drive programmable logic controller. These commands are transmitted by the tool, which conveys progress to the driller and directional hand’s laptop, connected over the rig’s drilling control network. Remaining in full control, the driller is less distracted from the drilling process and can focus on normal drilling activities while an external service provider operates the downhole control commands.

CyberLink can also be used by a managed-pressure drilling engineer to control charger pumps, creating back pressure on the annulus. For the first time, two service companies will be connected to the pumps at the same time.

Deployment scope

As companies conduct global drilling operations, many rapidly incorporate new equipment, methods, and technology. Others introduce new equipment more gradually, while still others choose to “wait and see.” However, as more rig floor components are automated, the working presence of these analog and digital downlinking tools is demonstrating the “changing of the guard.” DrillLink now operates on land in the United States, Mexico, and Canada in the western hemisphere and offshore in Qatar, with North Sea installations pending. CyberLink will be used soon in the North Sea and is slated for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, and in the Asia-Pacific region soon thereafter. Work is also under way to interface with rigs using NOV’s Amphion control systems.

Originally, the analog tool’s purpose was somewhat narrowly defined: downlinking to rotary steerables. Today’s use is broadened to include formation evaluation and similar work involving tools that can be reconfigured downhole. More than half of these automated downlinking rig installations are offshore.

DrillLink has now operated 4,800 rig-days with a mean time between failures of more than 530 days; CyberLink is designed for even greater reliability. Prior to installation, hardware and software are checked using a simulator configured specifically for the rig’s control network. Work packs are completed to shorten the installation period, normally less than two calendar days, with only a brief period required to implement the changes.

From installation to automated operation

CyberLink is providing new insight into developing leading-edge automation. With more companies beginning to automate rig operations, many look beyond simply removing the manual, human factor. Automation is also improving efficiency and cost savings:
• Faster downlink;
• Downlink with smaller flow changes (as low as 6%) with less impact on wells having narrow drilling margins;
• More frequent course corrections that reduce dogleg severity and drilling torque; and
• Downlink at greater well depths with automated sequences that do not necessarily require high signal-to-noise ratios

CyberLink provides these advantages plus supervisory control of multiple users. Since the tool was developed as a highly intuitive system, crews require no special training. Settings can be easily changed to produce special control sequences. Three control options provide an essentially fail-safe operational umbrella. Control can be set to not exceed a limit, to send preprogrammed sequences at values below the limit, or to allow parameters to be set remotely for control and sequences.

Most Cyberbase operations have remote links, which allows a support team to monitor system performance, diagnose problems, and initiate repairs from a remote service center.

Advantages will multiply

Mechanization and automation continue to develop step by step. Down-linking requires faster, more accurate and user-friendly processes. Drilling risk can be reduced with envelope protection, setting operating limits to minimize wellbore damage while drilling or optimizing the rate of penetration (ROP). Real-time drilling models have been developed by several companies to advise optimal drilling parameters. One Norwegian firm calculated set points for optimized drilling, and that information was transmitted to the Cyberbase rig controls for real-time implementation.

CyberLink’s role in this changing automation paradigm is to bring all of these needs together and coordinate the control under one umbrella. Today, each of these tasks has been undertaken separately. The next step is to integrate them and monitor the drilling operations simultaneously to multiply efficiencies.

Simultaneous operations present a new set of challenges. Different on-site entities have individual calculations of boundary conditions (envelope protection) or specific commands unique to each process. Now the industry must accommodate a working scenario where instructions are prioritized to ensure safety and optimize drilling performance and where responsibility lines are crystal clear.

A conduit for the integration of multiple services, the CyberLink system sits in a supervisory position to enforce the control hierarchy. It allows multiple parameters to be controlled in a manner directed to total value, not to incremental improvement.

For example, ROP can be increased, resulting in cuttings transport problems or annulus loading, so it may be prudent in some cases to scale back ROP to avoid having to stop drilling to circulate bottoms up. By calculating the maximum allowable ROP under the present conditions, ROP is not artificially limited based only on historical data.
The driller is still the most important component of the equation and will continue to sit in the driver’s seat with a full process overview, making sure no conflicting technologies or commands jeopardize the progress and safety of drilling operations.

Taking automation in new directions

This new automated digital tool’s purpose and operation are straightforward ? open, industry-standard interface fully integrated with the Cyberbase control system and designed around a plug-and-play concept.

Remote diagnostics and maintenance mean fewer service calls and lower support cost. Remote connections by the service companies mean fewer rig-site personnel, resulting in cost reduction from service day rates and the support costs of catering, helicopters, and travel expenses. One-to-many operations from a remote service center concentrate experts for immediate technical advice. All of this is part of automation’s growth within the industry and the huge potential that has both arrived and is yet to come, especially for global deepwater operations.