Current situation and development of automated oil drilling rig

At present, the automation equipment used in oil drilling rigs can be divided into two categories: control automatic processing equipment and wellhead automatic operation equipment according to their functions.

The main equipment is to complete the functions of drilling pipe equipment from site storage, transfer, transportation to the drilling platform, complete the connection column, and dismantling the single root after completion, the main equipment is a hydraulic drill pipe box, hydraulic drill pipe bracket, power cat road, drilling platform manipulator, two-layer platform manipulator, and hydraulic lifting card. The wellhead automatic operation equipment mainly completes the automatic operation of the wellhead and the function of the upper shackle of drilling pipes, and the main equipment includes an iron driller, power kava, drilling tool wire buckle oil application, and mud splash prevention device, and other equipment.

The control of automation equipment applied by domestic oil drilling rigs is mainly based on PLC (programmable logic controller) as the core, and the automatic control of equipment is realized by adding various positions, speed sensors, and various I/O signals, as well as applying servo motor control technology. The universal PLC modular design, compact structure, stable performance, powerful communication function, and easy to connect with the drilling control system PLC.

Due to the different manufacturers of automation equipment, each equipment has its own independent set of control systems, which can be operated alone or embedded in the drilling rig control system with other automation equipment according to user needs to achieve integrated control. The current automated drilling rig realizes the integrated operation function of the double drill mode.

Automated drilling rigs compared to conventional drilling rigs: 3 people can be saved in column joint operation; 2 people can be saved in drilling operation, 3 people can be saved in lifting and lowering operation, 3 people can be saved in down casing operation, and 4 people can be saved in drilling tool operation. It can be seen that in the number of employees, the automatic drilling rig has played a significant role in reducing personnel. At the same time, due to the high level of mechanization of automation equipment, employees use buttons, handles, or remote centralized control in operation, so the application of automation equipment also greatly reduces the labor intensity of employees.

Compared with the average timeliness of conventional ZJ70 drilling rigs under several drilling conditions, in addition to the column connection link, the operating time of automated drilling rigs under other working conditions has been able to reach the production time of conventional drilling rigs, especially the drilling and receiving single and starting and drilling session, due to the close cooperation and flow operation of the automatic control system, the timeliness has exceeded that of conventional drilling rigs.

At present, there are still the following problems affecting efficiency improvement on the site:

First, the cooperation between automation equipment is not tacit, and the program design needs to be further optimized. The drilling conditions are complex and changeable, and there are many abnormal situations in the middle, while the various operation processes of the automated drilling rig are relatively fixed, which cannot fully meet the actual needs of the site, and some interface operations are more cumbersome, and it is necessary to further optimize the program design in combination with the actual working conditions and simplify the operation process to improve the production time of the automated drilling rig.

Second, there are defects in the design of the automation equipment itself, and the practicality needs to be further optimized. Taking iron drillers as an example, there are no less than 3 ~ 4 manufacturers of iron drillers in China, but the real practicality is so 1 ~ 2 brands, only by closely combining design ideas with practical operation can we produce practical automation equipment.

Third, there is no need to pursue the ideal “unmanned” operation of the wellhead. For example, the automatic application device of the wellhead wire buckle oil and the automatic clearing and measuring device of drilling tools, etc., the current technical bottleneck has not been broken, and a large number of put into use will only reduce production efficiency and cause waste of investment.

The development trend of oil drilling automation equipment mainly has the following directions:

(1) Development towards standardization and integration. Mainly used for new drilling rig supporting, with the continuous recognition of the advantages of automated drilling rigs, standardization, and integration development is an inevitable trend, drilling rig production and supporting factories to further standardize the supporting standards of automatic drilling rigs, optimize technical specifications; Each automation equipment production plant should consider the integrated control and compatibility in the design, and maximize the reliability and operation efficiency of the automated drilling rig. Only in this way is it conducive to embodying the technological advancement of automated drilling rigs and giving better play to the advantages of automated equipment, so that automated drilling rigs can better contribute to the drilling industry.

(2) Single device for application promotion. For single-function automation equipment for mature applications, it can be used for retrofit, upgrade and update iteration of conventional drilling rigs. For example, the power cat way, iron driller, and second-story manipulator should be replaced separately to solve the purpose of partially reducing personnel and reducing the labor intensity of personnel.

(3) Increase research and development efforts to make up for shortcomings as soon as possible. Given the current environmental protection requirements that drilling mud does not fall to the ground and the fact that drilling fluid aggravation and dosing requires a lot of manpower, it is necessary to increase the research and development of automatic equipment required for drilling fluid configuration and solid-controlled circulating tank clearance operation, to improve the comprehensive efficiency of automated drilling rigs.

(4) Rapid finalization and synchronous development of maintenance services. For automation equipment products that have been maturely applied, production plants should quickly finalize and form industry standards, and users should increase their promotion efforts and give priority to selection.

At the same time, the production plant should also actively expand the supply of accessories and technical services for equipment, apply for patents promptly, relax the technical confidentiality of users, and ensure the safe and reliable operation of equipment in the later stage.

Life Cycle of Oil & Gas Wells – from Drilling to Completion – YouTube