The Drilling Performance Curve: A Yardstick for Judging Drilling Performance

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Drilling Performance Curve (DPC) is a simple yet powerful tool to assess the drilling performance in any given area where a consecutive series of similar wells have been drilled. All the information that is needed to perform the analysis is the sequence numbers of the well and the time it takes to reach a given depth. This paper presents some typical examples of DPC's covering a study of over 30 different areas (onshore and offshore) including over 2000 wells. From the data, a simple model for the overall drilling performance was derived. Three constants C1, C2 and C3 are unique to the DPC. From the numerical value of the constants, the drilling performance can be derived. For example, the C1 constant indicates how well an operation is prepared to drill a given location and/or how difficult the area is to drill. The C2 constant directly reflects the rate of learning. The C3 constant indicates the level of technology and organization for drilling in a particular area. This paper will present cases from poor to excellent drilling with the associated coefficients. It will be shown that the DPC can dictate the strategy for a drilling program and what the economics of drilling a sequence of wells should be in a given area. It is suggested that the DPC become the yardstick for evaluating drilling, much as the decline curve is for production.