Bit pressure control during drilling operation using engineering process control

ABSTRACT Proper well control is one of the most important challenges during drilling operations in the oil and gas industry. Engineering Process Control is employed to control bit pressure in the present study. As the main innovation in this study, the reference tracking scenario is utilized for the first time to find the extent to which the controllers can track bit pressure by modifying the reference pressure of different formations in the course of the drilling operation. Overall, the model reference adaptive control is shown to perform better in controlling bit pressure according to some features including the process output tracking criteria, control effort, controller tracking error, and cost functions, in comparison to other controllers.