Potential use of drill rig data acquisition system to estimate drilling impact on fractured rock systems and improve drilling efficiency

ABSTRACT: Drilling involves cutting through rock with rotary drill bits and the circulation of fluids under pressure down the borehole to remove cuttings. It is well known that drilling in areas with nearby boreholes can cause drilling fluids to be ejected from open boreholes in close proximity to the drilled borehole, however, until recently detailed data collection from the drill rig was generally not available to help assess how the movement of fluids and application of pressure to the formation might impact the fractured rock system. This paper will review data collected from the Trail Blazer Analytics data collection system used to instrument drill rigs from the perspectives of a) what impact drilling might have on the formation and b) monitoring of drilling performance. It is hoped that this presentation will assist geoscientists and engineers in understanding not only how this system might be useful to monitor drilling efficiency, but also how drilling might affect the systems they are investigating.