We decide to buy things based on the benefits those things may bring to us. Those benefits can be either tangible or intangible. If the tangible benefits are greater than the price, the decision process is easy, or if the benefits give us a perception of peace then we will most likely make the purchase.
Drilling software, in particular, is a product packed with advanced engineering calculations. One can say it is a condensed result of research, an interactive digital toolkit or an expert who never gets tired. It normally takes years of development by a well-trained team.
Setting prices for software packages is challenging because there are many uncertainties involved, such as market size, other similar products, etc. One thing is certain in any drilling software, if successfully used in pre-drilling analysis, it will most likely bring more benefits than the money spent on purchasing it. The cost of drilling an oil and gas well is so high that any non-productive time prevention (NPT) is well worth the spending.
Drilling software provides a good way of identifying potential problems in a drilling design and making good recommendations.
Take an example of casing centralizer placements, the purchase of centralizers is to provide a good casing standoff (>70%) to be better prepared for a cementing job. The standoff profile of a casing in a directional well depends on many parameters such as well path, casing weight, fluid densities, top of cement (TOC), centralizer properties and placement. Our past work experiences can help us select the proper types of centralizers and placement, but for a given well condition, it is best to use computer model to make recommendations for the centralizer usage. The following picture shows the resulting standoff profile with a designed centralizer spacing.
Standoff vs Measured Depth - CentraDesign
Thomas Edison once said: “I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles.”
Nowadays, drilling software has become commonplace. Applying the latest drilling technology includes using the available solutions. Drilling software is like the electricity to light our understanding and design of drilling operations. Can you afford not to use it?