Novel Deployment of Noninvasive Sensing Technology Improves Wellhead Installation

Abstract Correct installation of the wellhead is crucial to drilling operations. As drilling activities come to involve increasingly critical and challenging operations, the demand for improved reliability, performance, and safety continues togrow. Hanger and packoff installations during well construction can be negatively affected by debris, misalignment, and stuck casing, either independently or in combination,leading to costly downtime. Currently, these installations are verified using manual methods (markings, visual inspections, and weight indications), posing a high potential risk for errorsas a result of human factors. The wellhead installation digital position sensing solution removes the human factor and provides assurance that the equipment is properly landed as designed. The wellhead installation digital position sensing solution is the industry’s first digital installation advisor that provides real-time feedback to improve the reliability of wellhead equipment installation. The core technology is a set of ultrasonic transducers working in pulse-echo mode that is mechanically mounted on the wellhead housing exterior. The ultrasonic pulses sent into the housing reflect against the internal components, providing a unique signature of the internal state of the housing using anonintrusive method. The reflected signals are digitally recorded and analyzed using a binary classification network that was trained through machine learning to confirm correct installations. The technology and algorithm were developed using extensive data collected through full-size prototype laboratory testing. A test fixture simulating a wellhead system was constructed to collect digitalsignatures of various scenarios of hanger landings and packoff settings at carefully controlled offsets from proper installations. The collected signatures were then used to train the binary classification network. The first field trial was performed on a modular compact wellhead system in collaboration with an operator in the Middle East. The digital position sensing solution performed robustly in the field with 93.5% accuracy during the hanger landing operation. The hardware prototype was deployed on two different rigs and successfully detected and confirmed the correct landing of wellhead components during all operations. The digital position sensing solution provides cost savings to operators by reducing equipment installation time, decreasing unplanned downtime, and reducing the potential for human error. It also provides operators and field service teams with greater confidence that the wellhead equipment has been properly installed.