Painting the Line with Directional Guidance and Bit Projections

The life of a directional driller is consumed with getting back to plan. However, course-correcting after the bit has diverged from the planned well trajectory is reactive, requiring the DD to act quickly to identify the best path to get back to plan (often relying on a combination of on-the-fly data analysis, experience, and intuition) then execute the necessary series of drilling steps. Remote directional drilling operations centers add even more complexity as the remote DD must communicate the plan to the rig driller then wait for the course correction. It’s a time-consuming, manual process that requires 100% of the DD’s attention for a single well. But what if that same DD could monitor ten rigs at a time while cutting back to plan times and improving economic outcome?

Corva is powering up directional drilling with hard data science that enables DDs to be proactive instead of reacting to bit divergence. Like a real-time GPS map on your phone, our Directional Guidance app enables DDs to visualize the planned wellbore trajectory with a real-time indicator showing “you are here, and this is where you are going.” The system then instantly models possible paths to get back to plan and outputs clear recommendations, just like getting driving directions from Google.

Putting a Value on Directional Guidance

Directional drilling is a continuously running cost/benefit calculation. Every time a bit diverges from plan, the DD, company man, and others in the loop must decide whether to trade ROP for path divergence which can result in decreased production potential. Leveraging a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm, Corva’s Directional Guidance app automates this risk analysis while taking human bias out of the equation. The algorithm assigns a total cost to hundreds of potential paths to identify the best option with the lowest overall cost.

The Directional Guidance app delivers operational and business benefits. You decide what is the most important driver for the situation, whether that is ROP, footage in zone, or wellbore tortuosity. The app will then advise accordingly with drilling steps that target your business driver. As a result, your drilling team has more options than ever – backed by state-of-the-art real time analytics – to keep bits in the pay zone, minimize rig time, and improve production efficacy. Plus, a DD’s time can be leveraged in the real time ops center, stretching valuable resources further and enabling drilling teams to do more without adding overhead.

Explore Previous Drilling Steps

Corva’s Directional Guidance app gives the DD instant access to turn-by-turn navigation to get back to plan with 2D and 3D visualization of planned and actual wellbore position. And to further extend drilling consistency, the app provides directional compliance metrics and the ability to explore completed drilling steps, enabling the DD to monitor by exception and know if the path back to plan was accurately implemented.

To provide even more insight into bit tendency and anticipate divergence, Corva’s Bit Projection app adds additional real-time drilling operational information. This includes projected bit position and real-time divergence analysis using rotary and slide trend algorithms as well as build rate, turn rate, motor yield, TFO, DLS, and drift direction. The Bit Projection app is especially valuable in cases of thin or fractured pay zones, giving the DD more granular control and creating a buffer that accelerates time-sensitive decision-making. what’s more, the app eliminates the need for costly at-bit-inclination assemblies and standalone hardware solutions for interpreting PTB data.

On a Mission to Stay in the Zone

With the introduction of our Directional Guidance and Bit Projection apps, Corva is doubling down on providing drilling teams with cutting-edge, data-driven analytics to drill better, faster, and more profitable wells. This extends our existing toolset that assist directional drillers, including Corva’s Driller’s Roadmap, Parameter Comparison, and Geosteering apps. And Corva will continue the mission to keep wellbores in the pay zone with future additions to our directional drilling toolset.

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