About Gefei Liu, PVI

Please visit my LinkedIn profile to learn more about me. http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=115784500&trk=hb_tab_pro_top

Mud Reporting: ¥es, $ure!

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Dubai has many unique scenes, among which is advertising. This is the picture I took in the Dubai International Airport. It shows the flexibility of a Chinese bank, which can conduct business transactions in both ¥ (Chinese currency) and US dollar.

Good advertising shares the following traits:

No need to explain
No need to think
Make viewers smile and remember

The “¥es and $ure” is short and accurate enough to leave a long lasting impression in my mind.

The ad reminds me of our MUDPRO (drilling mud reporting) software. Being drilling fluid reporting software, it keeps tracking mud additives inventory, cost and hydraulics and generates daily report. Once drilling is done, MUDPRO can generate end-of-well recap, which contains the history and total cost. One of the unique features of MUDPRO is that users can select different currencies, including ¥ and $.

¥es, $ure of MUDPRO

From coding point of view, having a system of different currencies is not hard. The difficult part is to be considerate for users in the different parts of the world, even at small element like currency symbol.

Naming of Drilling Software

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Almost everything on earth has a name in various languages as a point of entry. All names start in someone’s brain, the brain of someone like parents, discoverers, pioneers, inventors, and innovators. Naming is like writing a poem under constraint. You have to evoke shades of meaning in small words, paint a picture with few letters. For commercial products, naming is to link them to ideas that consumers already understand and to make the association vibrate.

Each great name like FedEx, BlackBerry, Porsche or Starbucks has its own story to tell about the new synthetic corporate language. These names are vessels capable of carrying big messages.

By the time I became a software developer and had to create names for drilling software, I was well aware that we live in a world filled with brand names. They are a part of the soundtracks of our lives. Instead of saying a cup of coffee, we say “Go Starbucks.” Mere mention of Chevron reminds us of a giant oil operator, rig floors, gas station, etc. As adman Claude Hopkins writes, the best names “are almost complete advertisements in themselves.”

When we finished our torque and drag program for oil well drilling, I was immediately aware of how hard it was to distinguish a new name from existing ones. At that time, drilling software market was filled with models like DDrag from Maurer Engineering and others. Our torque and drag model is not only for drilling operation, but also covers casing running, casing flotation, packer setting and cementing operations. To capture the broad spectrum of this new torque and drag model, we wanted a name to be more than a label, to have a compelling quality in itself and to flash a dramatically desirable picture in people’s mind. In short, we wanted a name to unlock the power of this new model.

After much brainstorming, we finally settled on TADPRO. A new name was born. I was taken by the symmetry of the name that TAD and PRO have 3 letters each. I felt that a word ending in “O” was approachable and playful. PRO projects a sense of sophistication.

On sound symbolism, when you pronounce the word TAD, it starts out crisp. Both T and D are exploded. Overall, TADPRO delivers a quick, responsive personality. Compared with DDrag, TADPRO is much faster.

Many brand names owned by corporations have gone beyond their original marketing purposes and have become bits and bytes of our modern daily language. We take an Advil and apply ChapStick.

Similarly, someday, drilling engineers, when doing torque and drag analysis for a particular operation, will simply TADPRO operation, just as we FedEx packages.

Getting out of One’s Comfort Zone

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Software training gives me opportunities of meeting many people of colorful characteristics. In a recent cementing software training session conducted in Dubai, I sat with a senior gentleman (a student) during our lunch break. He told me his stories as a cementing engineer in various locations around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). “All my experiences are field related. I have never used any cementing software. Should I worry about it?” He was a bit concerned about the CEMPRO software (mud displacement model) that I was going to teach in the next few days.

“You don’t have to worry about it. I am sure you will be fine.” I answered his question. I said so because I have been asked similar questions a few times before. In fact, CEMPRO is simple enough, especially for an experienced engineer like him.

Our training went smoothly. The group exercise format made students feel at ease. It ended up that the senior gentleman was able to run CEMPRO from scratch (input data) and obtain all the results. He answered all the questions correctly.

We all have comfort zones we have developed in our lives just like each tennis player has a specific comfort zone in tennis court. Some of us feel really at home when doing our daily assignments and some are afraid of public speaking. As a recreational tennis player, my comfort zone is the baseline. Whenever I come to the net, I feel nervous and most likely make wrong movements and shots.

We all intend to amplify our weakness as well as our strengths. When we do so to our weakness, we are prone to stay in our comfort zone. This tendency can be gradually changed with some will, procedures or tools.

One of the methods to let people step out of their comfort zone in our software school is to have students form groups and let groups compete with each other to a certain degree. The group dissolves the fears of individuals' and makes the learning more fun.

We also have to admit that users’ fear of software comes from poorly designed software. If software companies spend more time thinking as users, the end products would be dearer to the end users.

It is our goal in PVI to provide drilling engineers with user-friendly drilling software that can be easily learned and used daily. Initially, software might sound like a high-tech territory, a playground for geek, therefore a non-comfort zone for drilling engineers. However, carefully designed software plus a training session can turn the usage of drilling software into one of the comfort zones of drilling engineers.

Connecting Dots with Lines Using Drilling Software

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Dots are isolated incidents, individual cases, snap shots, discrete numbers, etc. Looking at dots, we obtain limited information, but more often, we miss the big picture if our vision is restricted to the dots only.

One of the uncertainties in torque and drag analysis for drilling is the friction factor, because it is dependent on many things such as mud type (oil-based or water-based), pipe moving in casing (steel) or in open hole (rock), cutting concentration, etc. If we can observe hookloads or surface torque for certain operation at various depths, we can calibrate friction factor (back calculation). The following picture is a screen from TADPRO (torque and drag model). You can see from the dots (field measurements) and the lines (model prediction) that the friction factor of 0.32 is a good estimation for slack off operation.

Individual case study with one set of input data only tells one story. If we can compile the output from multiple runs of computer model, we can see the trend. This process is automated in many of our drilling software models. The following pictures show the impacts of open hole excess on top of cement (TOC) and hydrostatic pressure difference.

We call this powerful feature of automatic run on multiple cases “Sensitivity Study”.

Steve Jobs once said this in his famous commencement address to Stanford University: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Connecting dots in our lives gives us confidence to follow our hearts even when it leads us off the well worn path. Connecting dots in drilling engineering reveals the trends of operation date and window of safety to operate.

Let our drilling software assist you connect more dots.

Drilling Software Training in Snow

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

No matter how unpredictable the weather is, drilling software can predict downhole conditions.

One would never think that Denver in May requires a winter coat. That was my judgment before I came here to teach a drilling software course. I did briefly check the weather website and I saw 70 °F. So I assumed a warm spring in the mile-high city. Upon my arrival on April 30^th, I became aware that snow was coming and I felt the temperature dropping as evening was coming. I did not bring any jacket. I went to the stores along the street but could not find any coat. See, even the stores thought the winter is over. I finally bought a winter coat in a souvenir store: after all, it is better to spend money on cloth than cold medicine. Surely enough, the snow came as predicted during the night. Here is the picture of downtown Denver on May 1^st, 2013.

Modern technology, particularly computers and weather satellites, and the availability of data provided by coordinated meteorological observing networks, has resulted in enormous improvements in the accuracy of weather forecasting, despite of people’s intuition. To better prepare our daily life, we do need to pay attention to the hard-to-understand red/green/yellow images on TV.

Snowflakes danced outside the window all day long as I taught 7 drilling engineers from the Rocky Mountain region the HYDPRO software (drilling hydraulic model).

Drilling software, in a sense, is much like weather forecasting for an upcoming drilling operation. With planned well path trajectory and proposed operation parameters, engineering software can pinpoint potential problems and make necessary adjustments on operation. The potential economic benefits of accurate drilling engineering modeling are immense. For example, drillpipe or casing buckling is always a concern during drilling and casing running operations. TADPRO (torque and drag model) predicts the locations of different buckling modes. The following screen shot from TADPRO shows the sinusoidal and helical buckling sections along a drillpipe.

Generally speaking, sinusoidal buckling can be tolerated, while helical buckling should be avoided, because helically buckled pipe creates additional drag, which could lead to “lock up” situation.

It is often quoted: Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. We cannot change the weather except predict it. In other words, we react to the prediction. However, drilling software like TADPRO can alert engineers the potential downhole problems prior to the operation so necessary measures can be taken to prevent it. This improves safety, saves time and money, and reduces risks.

We use weather forecasting to plan our daily activities. Similarly, drilling professionals should use drilling software to do well planning. The future belongs to people who can predict and prepare for it.

What Is Common between Elevator and Drilling Software?

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Creativity, life or business each has its up and down, like an elevator. This article was triggered by an elevator in a hotel I stayed in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. I spent one week there providing cementing software training to a fast-growing service company in the region.

One time I stepped into the elevator and accidently pressed ④. The button ④ lit up. My room was at level 5. Realizing the mistake, I pressed ⑤. Then, just out of curiosity, I pressed ④ again. To my pleasant surprise, the light on ④ was turned off. You know what? The elevator did not stop at level 4.

Here are the 2 pictures I took later to reproduce the steps.

My past experience told me that if I press wrong buttons, I have to forgive myself, either patiently wait for the unscheduled stop or let the elevator stop at untended level after I leave.

This new experience let me wonder why they design their elevators differently. There must be reasons behind the design of elevator control panel. As a software developer, I find this new way of design the most natural. Because round buttons representing the hotel floors are actually check boxes: riders can change mind to go to room first instead of heading to gym. Plus, adding this “Cancelling” or “Checking off” feature does not affect other normal selections.

During software development process, developers use many controls in the graphical user interface (GUI). Among those controls, a radio button or an option button (⊙) is a type of element that allows the user to choose only one of a predefined set of options. On the other hand, a check box (☑)permits the user to make multiple selections from a number of options or to have the user answer yes (checked) or no (not checked) on a simple yes/no question.

In our drilling software such as MUDPRO(drilling mud reporting), we use these controls extensively. For example, in generating daily mud report, we provide checkboxes and options, allowing mud engineers to tailor the contents and style of the report.

Checkboxes and options in MUDPRO Daily Report

Problem of programming a bank of elevators is often used as exercise for students majoring in computer science. The software program is to control the actions of each elevator, based on the information of the state of each button on the floors and inside the elevators, as well as the time elapsed since each floor-button is pushed. Drilling software provides technical solutions to the engineering problems in drilling operations, based on the operation parameters. The commonality of any programming tasks is to test the functionality and usability from a user’s prospective. This process requires constant exchange, back and forth between developers and users. This is also one of the reasons why upgraded versions are necessary. Software is not only a product, but also a process of improvements. This new control panel in the elevator might be an upgraded version.

MUDPRO, when generating the end-of-well recap, memorizes the users’ setting such as shown in the following graph, so the user can generate recap in the same style.

MUDPRO report memorizes users settings

Our office is in a 5-story building. I take elevator at least twice a day. In the future, there might be elevators that can recognize the frequent-rider like me through eye recognition and automatically memorize where I am going. Of course, it will allow me to cancel my selection and visit my travel agent on the 3rd floor.

I am still dreaming… Elevator chime sounds. My floor is here and I got to go. Have a good day and I see you next time.

Drilling Hydraulics Software Training in Bolivia

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

As part of the software sale to a service company in Bolivia, software training was conducted in Santa Cruz of Bolivia, the 2^nd largest city in the country.

Being south of equator, it is summer in Bolivia. Hot and humid, the weather is similar to Houston’s a few months ago. I immediately got used to it, until I was woken up by big noise of birds this morning. You know what? They are parrots singing in the giant tree in front of my room. That was a pleasant surprise. Those birds would be very nice pets in Houston. Although I don’t speak their language, I knew they were very happy.

Our training was on drilling hydraulics (HYDPRO). We had a dozen of students ranging from seasoned mud engineers to newly graduates. The biggest challenge I faced was the communication: they speak more English than I do Spanish. None was sufficient to understand each other. We had a couple of engineers, educated in US, interpreting for everyone.

The teaching went smoother when I started to demo HYDPRO. HYDPRO does have an option to switch to Spanish, which means all captions including those in reports could be in Spanish. But even without using the local language, our students had fairly grip in understanding the program structure and logic flow.

I think their knowledge of drilling fluid, mud engineering and hydraulics helps them tremendously. And I also think we did a good job in interface design so that it breaks language barriers for our users whose native language is not English.

After all, drilling operations are similar across the world. We speak different languages, but we use API standard drill pipe, casing, and handful rheological models to describe fluid behavior. Our drilling software is a tool beyond boundaries, which can be used by drilling engineers in North America, South America, and any other continents.

One student in the training showed me a programmable scientific calculator, using which he had coded a remarkably drilling hydraulics program. Here is the picture of his “Hidraulica de perforacion”.

This is the picture of our HYDPRO training.

My first trip to Bolivia was fruitful. I am sure I will come back for business or vacation: my visa is valid for 5 years with the onetime fee of $125!

Paper and E-reader vs. Book and HYDPRO

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

“Paper: The original wireless communication”. This is a sentence in Sappi Fine Paper North America’s eQ Journal 004. So interestingly stated, it tells a lot about human being’s communication need in the age of a digitalized world. “The World Wide Web, far from decreasing paper consumption, served to increase the amount of printing done at home and in the office.” Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H. R. Harper wrote in “The Myth of the Paperless Office”. After people began to use e-mail in the 1990s, paper consumption is estimated to have increased by some 40%. Neither is eBook device nor screen likely to make print on paper obsolete.

For my own reading pleasure, I use these 2 devices whenever I travel.

The convenience of carrying hundreds of books in one device allows me to switch between the books with a great flexibility, although I still enjoy reading paper books in my backyard. The tactile sensation of fingers turning fine-grain papers and the smell of ink and paper are also parts of reading experience. Developed 2000 years apart, paper and digital technologies not only co-exist, but also enhance the synergy between them as paper is routinely converted to digital documents and digital documents to paper.

We also see this 2-way conversion in the engineering efforts of drilling software developments. In 2012, Prof. Boyun Guo from University of Louisiana at Lafayette and I jointly wrote a book about drilling hydraulics (Applied Drilling Circulation Systems).

This book covers many areas of hydraulics concerns of drilling and mud engineers, with theories, examples, and operation guidelines: a good source of information and knowledge for petroleum engineering students and engineers.

Quite a few years ago, PVI developed its popular drilling hydraulics software HYDPRO which addresses majority of drilling hydraulics including frictional pressure drop, ECD, bit optimization and hole cleaning etc.

Similar technologies, delivered in traditional paper and the state-of-the-art application, serve drilling engineers’ essential need to understand and optimize drilling hydraulics. Equations in the book are the DNA of the HYDPRO, while the software is the screen play of the book.

Drilling software like HYDPRO is a great vehicle to carry the heavy loads of technologies. Yet, it provides engineers with easy-to learn and simple-to-use experience.

Friction: Drilling Engineers’ Friend and Foe

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

Friction, the resistance force between two rubbing surfaces, the very drag consumes our energy while we walk, run and drive, also prevents us from falling, colliding and accident.

Friction is everywhere. We can see it painting on roads when car makes sudden stop. We can hear it screaming when wheels stop rotating while car keeps the momentum. We can smell its anxiety when Native Indians rotate drive in wood making fire. These are some appearances of friendly sides of friction. And sometimes, we need to amplify its power by the means like the following.

For downside, we have seen plenty in our daily lines. Our shoe wears out (so our feet do not). We dress smart phone up by putting screen or cover so that scratch (a form of friction) only damages the dress, not the body.

This is friction: we hate, love and cannot get rid of it. And we had better use it toward our advantage.

In drilling and completion practices, we encounter friction whenever we move tubular inside wellbore. When moving pipe downward such as in drilling and casing running, friction slows us down. If we move pipe upward such as in trip-out, friction is pulling pipe down. Yes, friction always acts in the opposite direction of the moving object.

In torque and drag analysis, one graph is worth noting: the hookload for trip-in and trip-out operations, as shown here.

The green line is the hookload when pipe is stationary inside wellbore at various depths.

The blue line shows the hookload when pipe is moving downward. The red line is the hookload when pipe is moving upward.

Note that during trip-in, the frictional drag is against the gravitational force, so the hookload is smaller than the hookload during trip-out, when the frictional drag acts with the gravitational force.

In other words, during trip-in, friction helps hook to hold the pipe weight, while during trip-out, the friction is on the same side of gravitation to make hookload higher.

For coiled-tubing (CT) operation, since CT has relatively thin wall (could be as small as 0.125 inch), the tensile limit of CT may not withstand the pulling of drag and weight during trip-out, as shown in the following graph.

We can run the CT into a deviated well. However, we may not be able to pull the same CT out of the hole!

Friend or foe, friction shows up in various fashions. We just need to know his characteristics and dance with him.

Keep Drilling Software Easy - Really Easy

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Gefei Liu, PVI

We all know that any joke we have to explain is probably not worth telling. To some degree, it is the same thing when it comes to creating a user interface for drilling software. Every developer has his or her own insight on interface designs, and has them all neatly explained for the customers. But if we have to do that much explanation to our software users, we probably have not designed an easy-to-use product.

As computers become faster, information explodes and schedule gets tight; all of us, including drilling professionals, face the challenge to finish more tasks in less time. Software enables us to do so.

Software is the child of both developer and user. However, not all software is born equal. Software developers and users live in separate worlds. We developers are in our universe of coding and users are in their reality.

To users, software is a tool to make a job done. Their goal is to use software as few times as possible.

To developers, software coding is our mission, to combine our solid professional skills and elaborate interface designs to make sound software. Sometimes, we tend to make things more complicated than necessary. Part of the reason is that it is easy to do so: just by not planning carefully. On the other side, to make a complicated model easy to use is difficult and time-consuming. However, the hours developers put into programming is well worth, because once the difficulty-made-easy tasks are done in a software, it benefits hundreds of users. The benefits multiply as more people start to use software.

Just like a good joke is the one without having to explain, a good software should be so intuitive and easy that a manual is not needed.

So, keep drilling and keep drilling software easy – really easy.

Pegasus Vertex, Inc. – Blog

Breakroom for Drilling Professionals

Author Archives: Gefei Liu, PVI