Aldrich Conference Abstract Drilling wells for oil and gas is expensive and dangerous, especially when the

setting is offshore. The process of drilling a well is affected by several disturbances most notably by kicks. A kick is an event in which substantial amounts of fluids from the reservoir flow into the well. If the kick is not contained effectively it could cause the well to go out of control eventually leading to a blowout. In order to reject the kicks the pressure of the well must be managed. Traditionally pressure management of wells is done manually, based on human judgements and not surprisingly it is prone to misjudgements. For better management of kicks it is crucial to subdue the kick at the incipient stage and that is facilitated by actively managing the pressure of the well. Automation of the pressure management will substantially reduce the risks involved in drilling and make drilling viable in remote locations. In order to facilitate automation efficient and robust controllers were designed. Since the offshore conditions are not forgiving and the knowledge about the reservoirs is imperfect the controllers were designed to work under uncertainties. It was found that the designed controllers met the objectives.