Rumänien: Fakultät für Energie- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Clausthal, 2011. — 148 р.Drilling and production are at the heart of the petroleum engineering discipline. Together, they cover fundamental hardware and operational aspects of the upstream sector of the Exploration and Production (E&P) business. Several advanced technologies have been developed since the onset of hydrocarbon exploitation in 1859, both in the USA (Titusville, Pennsylvania) and Germany (Wietze, Niedersachsen).
Drilling technology and hydrocarbon production operations have remained key areas in the education and training of petroleum engineers for more than 100 years. With a specialization in mechanical and process engineering within petroleum engineering, the author is convinced that there is still a strong need to further improve components and systems in drilling and production operations. Figure 1 gives an example of the continued development of drilling technology (specifically with respect to mechanization of pipe handling at the rig floor) throughout the years, starting from the 1970s.
All drilling and production operations require a thorough understanding of the associated environmental aspects. Traditionally, the majority of accidents take place close to where drilling operations are carried out and in particular where heavy hardware components are to be maneuvered during tripping or make-up of downhole assemblies.
A few years back, Norway initiated an investigation of situations where personnel safety was endangered. It was concluded that human work should be replaced by machines wherever the majority of accidents were proven to take place, e.g. in the vicinity of the borehole. This theory soon spread worldwide, first to deep-sea drilling rigs, and later to other drilling installations. Experience with automated systems quickly showed that not only safety is increased, but also the overall drilling time is reduced compared to manual operations. Additionally, automated systems to make-up Rotary shouldered connections are much more accurate than the traditional make-up with chains and rig tongs, thus reducing connections damage. State-of-the-art automated make-up devices also provide sufficient data to analyze the quality of the connection make-up, which can be used to increase the connections lifetime and
reduce drill string failures.
Drilling as well as production operations are an integral part of hydrocarbon exploitation as a whole, and therefore can not be studied in isolation. This is the reason behind the broad range of topics covered by the selected papers and reports.Content
Selected contributions to drilling and production
Advanced modeling of the stress/strain state in tubular goods
New developments in deep drilling technology
Experimental investigation of multiphase flow
The importance of recovery factor
Comments on selected categories of peer-reviewed papers and comparable contributions
