Disputation: Christian Berg

Christian Berg holds a trial lecture and disputation at campus Porsgrunn on March 20.

20 Mar

Practical information

  • Date: 20 March 2020
  • Time: 09.30 - 15.30
  • Location: Porsgrunn, Lukket arrangement
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    • Evaluation committee

    • First opponent: Associate professor Jerome J. Schubert, Texas A&M University.
    • Second opponent: Dr. Liv Almås Carlsen, NORCE.
    • Administrator: Professor Svein Ohm Linge, USN.

    Supervisors

    • Principal supervisor: Professor Bernt Lie, USN.
    • Co-supervisor: Dr.ing. Glenn-Ole Kaasa, Kelda Drilling Controls.​​​​​

Christian Berg at the University of South-Eastern Norway, Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences, will be defending his thesis «Modeling for Automatic Control and Estimation of Influx and Loss During Drilling Operations»» for the degree of philosophiae doctor (PhD).

 

The trial lecture «State of the art of hole cleaning and torque-drag modelling for digital twin simulations and optimisation of drilling operations» will be held in Auditorium A-271 at campus Porsgrunn March 20 at 09:30 am. The PhD defense will be held shortly after at 12:00 am. 

The event is closed to the public to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Summery

With the rapid increase in global energy consumption, any realistic near-future scenarios will include a mixture of energy sources, including fossil fuel.  Oil and gas wells with challenging pressure windows are more commonly drilled, and in recent years the drop in oil prices has led to an industry focus on reduction of non-productive time. Managed Pressure Drilling, considered an unconventional drilling method tackles many current industry challenges and has been forecasted to grow in the next years, fueled by an increase in the level of automation.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the topic of modelling, at different detail levels, the hydraulics of the oil and gas drilling process. Drilling for oil and gas is a complex process, involving pumping of fluid through kilometers of fluid conduit, leading to wave propagation phenomena that becomes apparent at timescales relevant for automatic control. If gas enters the well during drilling, models have to describe a gas/liquid multiphase system that is mathematically challenging.

Modelling of these phenomena is crucial for control design, planning and training for Managed Pressure Drilling. The modeling work in this thesis has been performed in parallel with the development of a Managed Pressure Drilling control system at Kelda Drilling Controls. This system is now in operation, and has numerous successful wells drilled.