Method for selecting an offset well when planning a section of a well within a drilling planning system

Abstract

A method for planning a well section that includes receiving data that represents a plurality of offset wells. The received data includes an operational sequence of drilling activities that is performed for each of the offset wells. The method also includes generating a consensus sequence based upon the received data, wherein the consensus sequence includes a proposed operational sequence. A dissimilarity score may then be calculated between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells and the operational sequence that is associated with the lowest dissimilarity score may then be selected when planning the well section. The dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells may be displayed within a matrix. Any offset wells may be identified as a possible outliers based on the dissimilarity scores then removed from further consideration.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for planning a well section, the method comprising:
 receiving data representing a plurality of offset wells, wherein the data comprises an operational sequence performed therein for each of the offset wells, and wherein the operational sequence comprises a sequence of drilling activities;   generating a consensus sequence based upon the data, wherein the consensus sequence comprises a proposed operational sequence;   calculating a dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells; and   selecting the operational sequence associated with a lowest dissimilarity score to use in the well section.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying any offset well as a possible outlier based on the dissimilarity scores; and   removing the operational sequence corresponding to any offset well identified as an outlier from the dissimilarity scores.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein calculating the dissimilarity score comprises calculating a dissimilarity score between each operational sequence for each of the offset wells. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the consensus sequence comprises comparing the operational sequence of each of the plurality of offset wells. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising adding a drilling activity to the consensus sequence when the drilling activity to be added is present within in a predetermined amount of the offset wells. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein calculating the dissimilarity score comprises:
 determining if there are any mismatches between the consensus sequence and each of the operational sequences corresponding to the offset wells;   assigning a penalty value for every determined mismatch between the consensus sequence and each of the operational sequences corresponding to the offset wells; and   calculating a total penalty value for each of the offset wells.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying the dissimilarity scores between the consensus sequence and operational sequences of the offset wells 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein displaying the dissimilarity scores between the consensus sequence and of each of the operational sequences corresponding to the offset wells comprises displaying the dissimilarity score of each offset well relative to the consensus well within a matrix. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein displaying the dissimilarity score of each offset well relative to the consensus well within a matrix comprises displaying the matrix on a display associated with a user. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising performing the operational sequence associated with the lowest dissimilarity score in the well section by generating or transmitting a signal that instructs or causes an action to occur, wherein the action comprises a physical action, and wherein the physical action comprises drilling to a depth of the well section, conducting a flow check, performing a pressure test, pulling out a casing to a depth of the well section, running a tubing to a depth of the well section, installing a wellhead, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         11 . A computing system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a memory system comprising one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 receiving data representing a plurality of offset wells, wherein the data comprises an operational sequence performed therein for each of the offset wells, and wherein the operational sequence comprises a sequence of drilling activities; 
 generating a consensus sequence based upon the data, wherein the consensus sequence comprises a proposed operational sequence; 
 calculating a dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells; and 
 selecting the operational sequence associated with a lowest dissimilarity score to use in a well section. 
   
     
     
         12 . The computing system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise displaying the dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells on a screen communicated to the computing system. 
     
     
         13 . The computing system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise assigning an activity code to each drilling activity within the operational sequence for each of the offset wells. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system of  claim 11 , wherein generating the consensus sequence based upon the data comprises aligning the operational sequence for each of the offset wells with each other. 
     
     
         15 . The computing system of  claim 11 , wherein generating the consensus sequence comprises comparing the sequence of drilling activities within each operational sequence to each other. 
     
     
         16 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein displaying the dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells comprises displaying the dissimilarity score of each offset well relative to the consensus well within a matrix. 
     
     
         17 . The computing system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the selected operational sequence associated with the lowest dissimilarity score, wherein performing the selected operational sequence comprises generating or transmitting a signal that instructs or causes an action to occur, wherein the action comprises a physical action, and wherein the physical action comprises drilling to a depth of the well section, conducting a flow check, performing a pressure test, pulling out a casing to a depth of the well section, running a tubing to a depth of the well section, installing a wellhead, or a combination thereof 
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 receiving data representing a plurality of offset wells, wherein the data comprises an operational sequence performed therein for each of the offset wells, and wherein the operational sequence comprises a sequence of drilling activities;   generating a consensus sequence based upon the data, wherein the consensus sequence comprises a proposed operational sequence;   calculating a dissimilarity score between the consensus sequence and the operational sequence for each of the offset wells; and   selecting the operational sequence associated with a lowest dissimilarity score to use in a well section.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein generating the consensus sequence comprises adding a drilling activity to the consensus sequence after determining that that drilling activity is present within at least 70% of the operational sequences of the offset wells. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise aligning each operational sequence for the offset wells with each other by aligning a determined most similar pair of operational sequences to each other and then aligning a next closest operational sequence until each operational sequences for each of the offset wells has been aligned.