Drilling fluid is pumped into the well to lubricate and cool the bit, help to transport the cuttings back to the surface, also controls and balance formation pressure and provide wellbore stability. Density and rheological properties of the drilling fluid plays a major role to support these functions during the drilling process, therefore, these properties must be monitored and maintained as per design for each well.
Drilling fluid property tests are conducted on the rig by mud engineers to ensure the drilling fluid is "healthy". It normally requires a pressurized mud balance, a viscometer and fresh mud sample to be taken to the mud lab and manually tested. This traditional method can be quite complex and time consuming, also data accuracy can be compromised due to human error. The data collected are not visually presented, making it extremely difficult to keep track and assist off location decision making. Lastly, the frequency of sampling is too low to be able to determine contaminations timely.
REALology® is an autonomous drilling fluid monitoring device that monitors density, temperature, pH and rheological parameters of the drilling fluid in the active mud tank. The visualized data can be viewed and transmitted in real-time, eliminating manual work, improves data accuracy and sampling frequency significantly. It also serves as a data bank for storing drilling fluid parameters, these data can be extremely valuable inputs for other applications such as hole cleaning efficiency, torque & drag modeling and drilling hydraulics, etc.
With REALology®, drilling fluid can now be constantly monitored, abnormal indications can be flagged and identified timely, ensuring mud parameters are kept within design throughout the whole drilling process.
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