Method and system for selecting lost circulation materials for boring a well

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025059874-A1
Application number	US-202318449553-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 14, 2023
Priority date	Aug 14, 2023
Publication date	Feb 20, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for selecting lost circulation materials (LCM) for boring a well involves determining, for a multitude of LCM blends, a multitude of overall scores based on characteristics associated with each of the multitude of LCM blends, and establishing a list of LCM blend candidates. Establishing the list of LCM blend candidates involves including a first of the multitude of LCM blends in a list of LCM blend candidates based on a first overall score associated with the first LCM blend, and excluding a second of the multitude of LCM blends from the list of LCM blend candidates, based on a second overall score associated with the second LCM blend. The first overall score is greater than the second overall score.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A method for selecting lost circulation materials (LCM) for boring a well, the method comprising:
determining, for a plurality of LCM blends, a plurality of overall scores based on characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends; and establishing a list of LCM blend candidates comprising:
including a first of the plurality of LCM blends in a list of LCM blend candidates based on a first overall score associated with the first LCM blend; and
excluding a second of the plurality of LCM blends from the list of LCM blend candidates, based on a second overall score associated with the second LCM blend,
wherein the first overall score is greater than the second overall score.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends comprise at least one selected from a group consisting of:
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend, a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend, and a financial cost.

3 . The method of claim 1 , where establishing the list of LCM blend candidates comprises performing an optimization resulting in the first overall score.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the optimization comprises a Pareto front search.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting one LCM blend from the plurality of LCM blends on the list.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the selection is performed based on a weighting of
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend vs. a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend vs. a financial cost.

7 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising applying the selected LCM blend for the boring of the well.

8 . A system for selecting lost circulation materials (LCM) for boring a well, the system comprising:
a computer system executing an LCM blend optimization engine that:
determines, for a plurality of LCM blends, a plurality of overall scores based on characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends; and
establishes a list of LCM blend candidates comprising:
including a first of the plurality of LCM blends in a list of LCM blend candidates based on a first overall score associated with the first LCM blend; and
excluding a second of the plurality of LCM blends from the list of LCM blend candidates, based on a second overall score associated with the second LCM blend,
wherein the first overall score is greater than the second overall score.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the LCM blend optimization engine further selects one LCM blend from the plurality of LCM blends on the list.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the selection is performed based on a weighting of
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend vs a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend vs a financial cost.

11 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising:
a drilling system comprising a wellbore, wherein the one selected LCM blend is injected into a drilling mud circulation used for the wellbore.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends comprise at least one selected from a group consisting of:
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend, a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend, and a financial cost.

13 . The system of claim 8 , where establishing the list of LCM blend candidates comprises performing an optimization resulting in the first overall score.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the optimization comprises a Pareto front search.

15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions executed by one or more processors, the plurality of machine-readable instructions causing the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining, for a plurality of LCM blends, a plurality of overall scores based on characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends; and establishing a list of LCM blend candidates comprising:
including a first of the plurality of LCM blends in a list of LCM blend candidates based on a first overall score associated with the first LCM blend; and
excluding a second of the plurality of LCM blends from the list of LCM blend candidates, based on a second overall score associated with the second LCM blend,
wherein the first overall score is greater than the second overall score.

16 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the characteristics associated with each of the plurality of LCM blends comprise at least one selected from a group consisting of:
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend, a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend, and a financial cost.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , where establishing the list of LCM blend candidates comprises performing an optimization resulting in the first overall score.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the optimization comprises a Pareto front search.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising selecting one LCM blend from the plurality of LCM blends on the list.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the selection is performed based on a weighting of
a stress cage improvement associated with the LCM blend vs a fracture tip stress intensity factor improvement associated with the LCM blend vs a financial cost.

Assignees

• Aramco Services Co

Inventors

• Phan Dung T
• Nguyen Klen T
• Liu Chao
• Santra Ashok Kumar

Classifications

• E21B21/003

  Means for stopping loss of drilling fluid (plastering the borehole wall E21B33/138) · CPC title

• E21B44/00 Primary

  Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions · CPC title

• E21B2200/20

  Computer models or simulations, e.g. for reservoirs under production, drill bits · CPC title

• E21B49/006 Primary

  Measuring wall stresses in the borehole · CPC title