Software and Applications

In order to provide customers with world class service, Petrochem Performance Chemicals (PPC) has invested in the development of Engineering Software Tools to facilitate and improve the planning and execution of all the drilling applications were the company is involved.

Such development is based on flexible and easy to use applications which incorporate the traditional and latest scientific concepts. This provides PPC with the necessary agility to incorporate changes and improvements on the suites in record time.

PPC is aiming at the complete integration of all the tool’s data into a centralized database to further improve the processing and analysis for downtime minimization and operational performance improvement.

All PPC services have at hand the following software suites:

• Well ID Interpreter: drilling fluids reporting tool.
• PPC-IM: latest generation hydraulics simulation tool.
• Stress-Pro: pore bridging and fracture stress-cage tool.
• PPC Laboratory Formulator: quick generation of mud formulations.
• PPC SCE Reporting System: daily reporting of SCE and DWM operations.

These 5 tools are at the disposition of PPC’s operational units all across the globe with permanent support provided by the Global Technical Support Team (PPC GTS).

GTS also provides technical training in the use of all these suites to all Field Engineers, Technical, Operational and Supervisory Personnel.

One of the most critical parts for a successful drilling operation is fluid management and performance. Well ID Interpreter software is a Drilling Fluid Management System able to automatize the data collection from drilling operations related to drilling fluids in real time, and for later use in engineering trend analysis.

The software presents fluid data entry, storage, management and processing, mud properties control, drilling fluid costs evaluation, mud movement control modules. When combined it create a powerful reporting system for the field engineers to use. Because WIDI data management system works with an underlying database, all data entry has been simplified with a set of reference tables.

WIDI enables the comparison of planned and actual drilling data. A built-in import and export tool is available to easily exchange data between databases (computers or servers). This capability enables the central databasing of all PPC service data for further statistical analysis.

In addition to daily mud reports, WIDI can create automatic well and section recaps with trend graphs and tables. This reduces the workload on field engineers, allowing more time to focus on more important matters: the operational control.

WIDI reports are based on the standards established by API and IADC. It has modules to capture data for inventory, volumetry, solids analysis, solid control equipment, drill string data, casing data as well as personnel data.

The software has a simple hydraulic simulator which is complemented by PPC-IM for more precise and detailed analysis (please refer to the PPC-IM Hydraulics Simulation Tool section for more information).

Accurate simulation of downhole pressures and hole cleaning performance has become very important in the modern drilling operations. Wells with narrower fluid density windows as a result of small gaps between pore and fracture pressures have triggered the necessity of tighter pressure monitoring.

PPC’s answer to that ever-increasing problem is PPC-IM. Incorporating the latest software programming techniques and languages; we have created a powerful tool which is easy to use without sacrificing robustness and calculation power. PPC-IM incorporates the latest advances to evaluate hole cleaning, providing the user with a reliable mean to understand well cleaning status.

PPC-IM modular architecture and flexibility provides the option to incorporate new calculations, modules and reports as required.

The software is able to calculate and predict rheological parameters and fluid density as a function of pressure and temperature, with an advanced prediction module which takes into consideration fluid compressibility, rheology and PVT data.

PPC-IM also integrates novel rheological models such as the Hershel-Bulkley, following API RP 13D, and Weighted Average for flexibility to model different flow conditions and fluids characteristics.

PPC-IM has several modules / calculation modes

• Displacement Optimization: calculate the ideal pump rates to displace a fluid or a series of fluids on a wellbore with the set the restrictions imposed by well.
• ECD Optimization: find the optimum drilling parameters to safely drill for a particular section as fast as possible with the set the restrictions imposed by the drilling plan.
• Hydraulic Calculations for Circulation: snapshot of the hydraulic status when performing a well circulation.
• Hydraulic Calculations for Displacement: snapshot of the hydraulic status at certain point of a displacement operation.
• Hydraulic Calculations for Drilling: be able to predict ECD, SPP, minimum pump rates, hole cleaning effectivity and many other parameters with only modifying a few parameters.
• Hydraulic Calculations for for Tripping: snapshot of the hydraulic status at certain point of a tripping operation.
• Optimization of Jet-Bit Hydraulics: set hydraulic power, HSI and other useful bit parameters to their maximum potential.
• Tripping Modes: perform swab and surge analysis with automatic optimal pump rate recommendations.
• Virtual Drilling: this mode encompasses some of the “Drilling Optimization Modes” to recreate a sequence of drilling operations and their impact on well hydraulics as a function of time.

Extensively produced fields, low pressured reservoirs and tighter drilling conditions have resulted on higher risk to lose fluid due to formation fractures either induced or natural. These losses have huge impact on well cost, productivity, as well as environmental and safety implications.

Most engineering companies have implemented ways to reduce or eliminate fluid losses while drilling. Stress Pro is PPC’s answer to improve the selection of the bridging material in order to reduce losses and prevent fracture propagation when stress cage is the goal pursued.

Stress Pro uses 2 mathematical models to calculate the effective particle size: Abrams’ Rule and the Ideal Packing Theory (IPT). The user can import as many PSD’s as necessary into the system and create cases with up to 4 materials per case.

A report can be generated with all the cases analyzed, and the software will suggest which one is the best selection, given the design parameters, to bridge or stress-cage the target pore or fracture.

There is always the need to quickly formulate a drilling or completion fluid for testing purposes or for field applications.

The correct formulation of a fluid can be confusing, and anyone can easily make mistakes while calculating product concentrations. Due to the nature of such calculations, they can take a long time that is maybe not available when the solution is quickly required.

For that purpose, PPC GTS has developed in-house a tool to facilitate the formulation of a fluid in short time.

PPC Lab Formulator incorporates automated mass and volume balances to precisely mix a fluid. It has the capability to formulate OBM and WBM’s.

The system incorporates tables of 9 monovalent and divalent brines such as Sodium Chloride, Cesium Formate and Potassium Acetate, to name a few. Also, automatically calculates the amounts of components required to mix the base brine and accounts for brine compression or expansion as a function of salinity.

PPC-LF has the ability to automatically adjust component concentrations, Oil to Water Ratio (OWR), or volumes to achieve desired densities by means of a simple menu. It can also take into account the solubility of solids in either water or base oil for highly accurate OWR calculations, while formulating OBM.

The solution comes in two presentations: an online version with a central database for consultation of previously worked cases, and a standalone offline version for occasional use by rig personnel or locations with low or no internet connectivity.

More and more digitalization become the norm and SCE / DWM services in PPC will be also brought to modernity by means of a powerful reporting tool designed and developed completely by GTS.

Now, PPC can perform powerful data analysis of these services by means of SQL Queries in a centralized database. PPC SCE+DWM RS is capable of:

• API 13C Overall and Equipment System Efficiencies: by applying the concepts and calculations described in the norm, SCE+DWM RS can track the total solids removal efficiency in the complete system as well as in individual equipment within the system.
• Screens Usage: the suite can track and analyze screen consumptions in all the equipment that uses such devices. The possibilities are endless by being able to accurately pinpoint where and how your equipment consumes screens, allowing customers to reduce cost both in spare parts and mud dilution and improve operational performance.
• Waste Tracking: SCE+DWM RS can track the source, type and destiny of all the waste reported on the tool and connect waste generation to efforts made to reduce it.
• Inventories Management: the suite can track and analyze chemicals, parts and screens consumptions and calculate costs associated with these inventories.
• Personnel: as customary with daily reporting tools, SCE+DWM RS can track and analyze personnel usage and movements.
• Realtime KPI’s and Virtual Caliper: as data is populated into the system, SCE+DWM RS automatically calculates and generates section KPI’s and reports. Also, by using hole size inputs, the suite automatically generates a virtual caliper that can used by PPC-IM to calculate more precise hydraulics.
• Daily Reports and Well Recap: SCE+DWM RS takes advantage of the power of SQL and MS Tools to create fully automatic daily reports and EOWR’s. These reports can be fully customizable depending on the client demands.
• Section and Period Tickets: SCE+DWM RS is able to generate fully automatic tickets for equipment rentals, chemicals, parts and personnel for each section of the well or for any desired time period.
• Preventative Maintenance System (PMS): SCE+DWM RS has all PMS formats to keep track of the maintenance of the equipment serviced at the rigsite.

Petrochem Performance Chemicals is focused on creating better tools to provide Best of Class service.

PCC is now engaged in several projects to improve the quality of the software tools and embrace the current digitalization age. These developments are:

• Central Databasing: most Drilling Fluids Reporting Suites rely in compiling the well data by hand thus needing data integrity teams to manually append data on a central database tables. With the new developments, all the data will be automatically uploaded into a central database without minimal human intervention. This allows users to make almost real-time data analysis of the well conditions and comparison with other wells drilled. Because data is store outside location, the same is protected from hardware malfunction / loss; the data can be easily retrieved using another computer or internet enabled device.
• Dashboarding / Millisecond Cloud Computing: having a centralized database enables PPC to take advantage of cloud computing benefits. This technology allows the users to create dashboards that automatically update as the data is uploaded in the cloud servers, allowing for almost real time monitoring and analysis of data. These dashboards can be easily accessed using a common web browser without the need of specialized locally-installed software.
• Visualization of Operational Data: now serving PPC a decade long, WIDI will receive a complete overhaul. WIDI2 will be built from the ground up, it will include all previous features from WIDI, plus new functionalities. WIDI2 will be browser-based with offline data entry capability. This new way to present the User Interface (UI), will allow for instantaneous updates, central databasing and data integrity and safety.
• Mobility: the new developments will improved for website and smartphone access. Be able to access to well data anytime anywhere.
• Upgrading and modernization of existing suites: all the current suites will be migrated to modern codes for desktop applications and / or web interfaces.
• Realtime Hydraulics capabilities and WITSML: PPC-IM will be WITSML enabled in order to be able to read from realtime operational data and automatically run hydraulic analysis and export them back into a WITSML export file to be used by customer on realtime monitoring centers.

It’s well known that using several disconnected applications can lead to data input errors, duplicated work and more. For this reason, PPC has launched an ambitions project to integrate operational data, engineering suites and ERP software to provide users with a fast way to produce engineering and financial analysis using fast calculating queries and AI.

PPC-IM, WellID Interpreter, StressPro, CalcPro and all the other PPC suites will be integrated in one solution: PPC One Drilling Fluids Report - 1DFR.

1DFR central cloud database will enable users and adminstrators to create visualizations and analysis in no time. Also AI enable tools such as machine learning to predict trends on operational parameters in near realtime.

The integration with the engineering tools will save time form users. Switching between applications will no longer needed and data transfer errors will be eliminated. To complete the technology offering to clients, real-time monitoring of mud properties will be incorporated

PPC’s compromise with the future is here and now. Please contact PPC GTS to know about the latest digital developments.