II
SPE 30692
New Real-Time Anticollision Alarm Improves Drilling Safety
'Pearl Chu Leder, SPE, D. P. McCann,.SPE, and A. Hatch, SPE, Anadrill
Copyright 1995, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition
held In Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., 22-25 October, 1995.
This paper was s~lect~d for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained In an .abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presen~ed, have not been reviewed b~ the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subjected to
correction ,by the author(s). The, matenal, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position
of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more
than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous
acknowled.gment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O. Box
833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax Ot-2t4-952-9435.
Abstract
A critical concern in directional drilling is ensuring the
avoidance of collisions while drilling on multi-well locations.
Collision avoidance planning is ordinarily carried out prior to
well spud and is therefore valid only to the planned trajectory.
Once drilling commences, deviation from the plan invariably
occurs which may not only increase subsurface collision risk,
but also compromise the ability to maintain adequate quality
control of rigsite anticollision computations in an often stressful
and demanding drilling situation.
New high performance, multi-user computer systems at the
rigsite provide the capability for clear anticollision analysis in
real time without the need for hand computations. In this paper
we describe a unique computer application which performs
traveling cylinder calculations automatically in real time. The
present bit location, computed from survey and depth
measurements, is shown on a rigfloor color display along with
the trajectories of the offset wells. Position uncertainties for both
the current hole location and all the offset wells are computed
and plotted as error ellipses on the screen. In addition, the
application has a "look-ahead" feature which projects the
trajectory beyond the current bit depth, and a "Smart Alarm" is
triggered if any of the offset wells come within a user specified
alarm proximity.
Field data are shown which illustrate the effectiveness of the
technique. The alarm has been designed to give early warning of
potential collision situations. As a result, it improves safety and
quality control at the rig and helps avoid the environmental
damage that can result from well collisions.
References and illustrations at end of paper.
507
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Introduction
One of the most dangerous situations which can occur while
drilling on multi-well locations is a collision with another well.
Many wells are drilled in close proximity to others making
anticollision procedures extremely important. This is especially
prevalent on offshore locations. The visualization of the 3-
dimensional web of well trajectories can often be difficult on
traditional 2-dimensional representations of vertical section and
plan view drawings. These 2-dimensional drawings do not
always give a clear picture of how close the actual well
separation distances are, or how quickly the trajectories may be
converging or diverging from each other.
The Normal Traveling Cylinderl is a tool that was developed to
effectively represent the proximity of multiple wells with respect
to a defined planned well trajectory. This polar graph displays
the relative positions of the existing wells in a simple and easily
interpreted graph. The Traveling Cylinder diagram was
originally developed in 1968 2 , and it was subsequently updated
and computerized to improve quality control of the anticollision
calculations 3 - 5 . Since the traveling cylinder diagram is
referenced to the planned trajectory, all of the collision
avoidance planning is performed prior to well spud. However,
once drilling begins, any deviation from the plan must be
accounted for, and adjustments are made for the change in the
current position.
The anticollision computer application introduced in this paper
incorporates the use of the Normal Traveling Cylinder diagram
into a real-time data acquisition system. The availability of high
performance computer systems at the rigsite now gives the
ability to perform the traveling cylinder calculations
automatically in real time. As a result, the separation distances
can be computed using actual surveys from MWD tools which
removes the need to account for any deviation adjustments from
the well plan. Position uncertainties are also displayed on the
traveling cylinder plot.
The real-time smart alarm supplements the anticollision analysis
which must be performed in the planning stages and simplifies
decision-making at the wellsite during drilling.
2 NEW REAL-TIME ANTICOLLISION ALARM IMPROVES DRILLING SAFETY
Normal Traveling Cylinder Diagram
The Normal1;'raveling Cylinder diagram is drawn perpendicular
to the well being· planned or drilled. Figure 1 illustrates several
normal planes constructed at different depths along an example
well trajectory.
To construct the normal traveling cylinder diagram, the normal
plane is moved down the planned well trajectory, always staying
perpendicular to the current position's direction vector. The
surrounding offset wells are plotted on this normal plane as it
moves down the plan. By definition, the center of the plot is
always located on the planned wellpath, and the separation
distances of the offset existing wells are computed along the
normal plane. Offset Wells which move perpendicularly to the
planned well, either converging or diverging, will 'plot a lirie
which moves :rapidly across the traveling cylinder diagram.
Conversely, offset wells that are traversing close to parallel to
the planned well will stay fairly stationary on the traveling
cylinder plot. . the application. The offset well ellipses are then also drawn
Figure 2 is an example normal traveling cylinder diagram. The
offset well labeled A is· an example well which is fairly parallel
to the planned well. The labels are measured depths in the
planned well where the normal plane was constructed. As the
measured depths increase, the separation.· distance of well A does
not vary much. Offset well B" is seen to be quickly diverging
from the plan by the large changes in tbeseparation distances
between depth labels. Since the diagram is a polar plot, the
reference at the top of the plot is baSed on azimuth. The diagram
may also be constructed such that high side, labeled in Figure 1,
canbe used as the reference. Note that if high side is used as the
reference, discontinuities will occur during vertical sections of
the plan trajectory, where high side is undefined. Depending on
the scale selection, the entire trajectory of an offset well can be
plotted from the stirfaceto its bottomhole location.
The major difference between the traditional normal traveling
cylinder diagram and the real-time anticollision application is
the use of directional surveys from measurements while drilling
to replace the planned trajectory. These survey positions are used
as the center reference of the normal traveling cylinder diagram,
and the separation distance calculations are automatically
updated whenever new surveys come in from the data
acquisition system.
Ellipsoid of Uncertainty
Borehole position uncertainties are another major concern in
directional drilling and anticollision applications. The errors
associated with borehole direction measurements become quite
significant as the drilled wells become deeper and more
deviated. The ellipse of uncertainty concept was frrst introduced
by Walstrom, et. al. 6 , and was then expanded by Wolff and de
Warde to develop a procedure for calculating a 3~dimensional
508
SPE 30692
ellipsoid position uncertainty volume. This model incorporates
five sources of inaccuracy when computing the ellipsoid of
uncertainty: compass reference, compass instrument, inclination,
misalignment and depth errors. Error coefficients are defined for
the different survey tool types, magnetic and gyro, plus an
optimistic and pessimistic differentiation between a "good" and
"poor" measurement to illustrate the range between optimum
and worst case uncertainties.
The real-time anticollision alarm incorporates the Wolff and de
Wardt method of ellipsoid uncertainty calculations into the
application. The calculations are performed for the current well
being drilled, and the ellipsoid is proje.cted onto the current
depth's normal plane and displayed around the center point of
.the' traveling cylinder plot. Since the offset well surveys are
known before drilling begins, the ellipse information is also
computed during the planning stages and transferred to the data
acquisition system to reduce the computation time required for
around the survey stations being displayed on the offset well
trajectories.
Real-Time Anticollision Alarm
The Real~Time Anticollision .Alarm is a feature within the
IDEAL * (Integrated Drilling Evaluation And Logging) Wellsite
Information System, Anadrill's MWD/LWD data acquisition
system.
Two main computation routines are involved in the anticollision
application:
• separation distance calculations (based on Ref. 1)
• ellipse of uncertainty calculations (based on Ref. 7)
These calculations· are continuously run in the background of the
system, and the anticollision display gets automatically updated
as drilling commences.
"Look-Ahead" Feature. In order to make the display easy to
interpret, only the relevant sections close to the current bit depth
of the offset wells are plotted on the display. The normal plane
for the current hole depth is determined, and then the application
"looks~ahead" 150 ft. to calculate how the Offset wells traverse
along the plot. The "look-ahead" viewing area is depicted in
Figure 3. Two normal planes are shown: the plane at the current
hole depth, and the normal plane 150. it. deeper. Two offset
wells are also drawn, and their intersections with each of the
normal planes are denoted. This look-ahead featUre aids in
improving the readability of the diagram by only plotting the
information needed for the current collision concerns, and
removing the shallower sections which have already been drilled
through. The look-ahead is an automatic tangential extrapolation
ahead of the current hole depth using the last accepted survey
station's inclination and azimuth. Another option available is to
SPE 30692 PEARL CHU LEDER, D.P. MCCANN, A. HATCH
use project-ahead survey stations which can be entered manually
to define an expected trajectory profile to replace the tangential
extrapolation. The example shown in Figure 3 is using the
tangential extrapolation method.
Figure 4 is a screen dump of the anticollision display which
includes the two sections of the example wells shown in between
the two normal planes of Figure 3. Note that the polar graph's
angle reference is with respect to high side in this example. Well
A is an offset well which is running fairly parallel to the current
well, and also directly above, i.e., on the high side. In Figure 4,
Well A corresponds to the very short line segment plotted on the
high side of the graph. Well B is to the left of the current well,
and it is diverging quickly away from the current well. As a
result, this corresponds to the long well trajectory segment
labeled Well B in Figure 4.
In addition to the offset wells, the location of the planned
trajectory is also included on the traveling cylinder display with
respect to the current well. It is shown on the display by a
square, and it is only drawn as a point on the current hole
depth's normal plane, not including the look-ahead extrapolation
region.
Convergence Arrow. The convergence arrow is an additional
feature available to give a better indication of how quickly an
offset well may be converging or diverging from the current
well. This arrow is drawn at the end of every offset well
trajectory being plotted, seen in Figure 4, and the length of the
arrow is indicative of the rate of convergence or divergence to
the current well. Figure 5 illustrates how the length of the
convergence angle is computed. A unit vector which is along the
direction of the offset well at the extrapolated normal plane is
constructed, and then projected back onto the normal plane. This
projected length is then used as the convergence arrow length.
For offset wells running exactly parallel to the direction vector
of the current well, the convergence arrow will simply be a
point. If an offset wen is running exactly perpendicular to the
current well direction, the convergence arrow will be maximum
in length.
Customization Options. Unlike traditional traveling cylinder
diagrams at the rigsite which are simply hard copy output, the
real-time anticollision application allows .the directional driller to
zoom in and out of the viewing area. The scale of the traveling
cylinder radius can be modified from viewing only a few feet
around the current hole depth, up to a few thousand feet, if
needed.
Another customization feature is the ability to change tlle
azimuth reference of the plot between high side and grid north.
When the display is first launched, it is determined whether
magnetic toolface (MTF) or gravitational toolface (GTF) is
509
3
currently being used. If MTF is being used, the anticollision
display will default to an azimuth reference to north, and
correspondingly, for GTF, high side will be selected. The user
may change this azimuth referencing at any time the
anticollision display is running.
On the left-hand side of the anticollision display, shown in
Figure 4, is additional information available for the user while
running the application. At the top of the screen is a label of the
closest separation distance computed for the current depth range
of investigation, plus the offset well name which is at this closest
proximity. Below that is a listing of all of the accepted surveys
for the current well which have been acquired while drilling.
Finally, both the current bit depth and hole depth are displayed,
continuously updating as drilling continues.
Several display options are also available for the anticollision
panel. The screen can be viewed on any display which is
connected to the IDEAL system. This can include displays in the
rigsite ergonomic unit, a pressurized color driller's display
located on the rigfloor, the operator representative's color
monitor, or a remote display running at the client's office in
town.
"Smart" Alarm. The main goal of the anticollision application
is to be "smart" that is run in the background automatically
without intervention. As a result, the directional driller and
engineers on the job are notified with both visual and audio
alarms whenever an offset well intersects the alarm distance
specified by the user at startup. If this occurs, the "Smart Alarm"
panel automatically appears on the screen to give clear
indication of the drilling situation. An example of the "Smart
Alarm" panel is given in Figure 6. The anticollision alarm is one
of many "Smart Alarms" available in the IDEAL system. "The
panel clearly shows which application caused the alarm to be
activated. When this occurs, the anticollision traveling cylinder
display can be started, the offset well proximities can be
determined, and remedial action can be taken. On the
anticollision display, two alarm circles are drawn around the
center point of the plot. A red circle is drawn at the user-
specified alarm distance, and a yellow circle is drawn at twice
the radius of the red circle. The yellow alarm distance is
included as a warning zone, and if the red circle is intersected by
an offset well, a severe alarm message is issued.
Field Data and Results
A case study was performed to illustrate the running of the real-
time anticollision. One particular well was planned to be very
close to the existing wells in the field being drilled. The entire
area was scanned for collision interference using the planning
system and 3-dimensional closest approach analysis. Ten critical
offset wells were then selected to be transferred to the IDEAL
4 NEW REAL-TIME ANTICOLLISION ALARM IMPROVES DRILLING SAFETY
Wellsite Information System in order test the application and
perform post-analysis.
Figure 7 illustrates the anticollision display for this field data at a
hole depth of 222 meters. Ellipses of uncertainties were plotted
for two of the offset wells, A-I and A-2. In addition, ellipses
were computed for the current well position. An alarm distance
was selected for 3 meters at this particular depth. Alarms were
activated during the 150 ft range between 222 meters and the
extrapolated depth of approximately 270 meters. The offset well
which was at the closest proximity was well A-I, at a distance of
10 meters to the left of the current well. At this depth, the well is
approximately 3 meters below the planned location, as seen by
the square on the display.
Figure 8 is a second screen display for the same set of data from
this case study, but at a deeper measured depth along the
currently drilled well of 334 meters. At this depth, the alarm
distance was increased to 10 meters, which also sets up a
warning alarm distance of 2 x 10 meters = 20 meters. This
feature allows the directional driller to be notified earlier to give
more distance and. space for a steering correction. At this
measured depth, a severe alarm was activated because another
offset well, A-2, had come within the specified alarm distance.
At this depth, the well had moved to 4 meters from the planned
location, again shown by the square on the display. The planning
anticollision calculations also included the same information, so
the drilling personnel had prior knowledge of the close
proximity of this offset well in this depth range. Again, it is
important to note that the real-time anticollision alarm is an
extension, not a replacement, for the anticollision analysis
performed during well planning.
Whenever an offset well intersects either one of the alarm
distance circles, three alarm events occur for notifying the
drilling crew:
1. An anticollision alarm message, plus audio alarm, is sent
to the Driller's Display to notify the driller on the rigfloor
of the collision danger.
2. The "Smart Alarm" panel is brought to the front of the
screen in the logging unit, with the anticollision
application highlighted (Fig. 6).
3. The alarm circle(s), on the anticollision display, which
have been intersected by the offset well become colored.
If only the warning zone has been intersected, the outside
alarm circle fills with yellow; if the user-specified alarm
distance is intersected, the inner alarm circle becomes red
(Fig. 8).
Implementation Issues
Several issues regarding the operational use of the anticollision
alarm must be considered with the introduction of this
5,10
SPE 30692
application. Many of them can be addressed or implemented in
future versions of the anticollision alarm.
Error Models. The Wolff and deWardt models, although widely
used throughout the drilling industry, are currently being re-
evaluated by many companies. New models are being developed
which may need to be addressed in future versions of the
application.
Collision Rules and Risk Analysis. Currently, the alarm
distance is a user-specified input which needs to be selected for a
client's particular set of collision rules. Although no linkage or
connection currently exists between the alarm distance and a
particular set of collision rules, it is intended to incorporate such
a feature in the future so that minimum separation criteria can be
defined as a function of depth.
In addition. it is recognized that alarm distances can become
very conservative at depth where for convenience, separation
criteria may be based solely upon the semi-major axis of the
uncertainty ellipse. In these situations, the consideration of
survey uncertainty based upon the actual direction of approach
possibly used in conjunction with a method of establishing
maximum tolerable probability of intersection may clearly be
more appropriate. 8 However, this is beyond the scope of this
paper.
Data'Transfer. Currently, the data transfer procedure involves a
manual selection of the offset wells from the "definitive" well
planning system. These surveys are then transferred to the real-
time system using a automated data transfer tool. This removes
the need of re-entering surveys in manually which is obviously
important for quality control. In the future, the data transfer
could be improved to automatically select wells that fall within a
client specific set of search parameters, plus a formal QA
process can be developed for the auditing of the data' transfer
process.
Training. A final important issue involves training of the field
engineers to use the anticollision application. A major feature of
the application is that very little interaction is required for
actually running the program. All the calculations are started up
automatically when data acquisition is initiated. The calculations
run in the background of the system, and notification in terms of
audio and visual alarms occur when an offset well intersects the
alarm proximity distance. However, after the alarms are
activated, the field engineer must be able to perform some
interpretation of the traveling cylinder information in order to
make the most intelligent decisions with respect to the current
drilling situation.
SPE 30692 PEARL CHU LEDER, D.P. MCCANN, A. HATCH 5

Summary 4. Lutz, T.S., Kendle, D.W., "Interative Computer Graphics

The dangers of subsurface drilling collisions are analyzed in
detail during the planning stages of a well. Any decrease of these
collision risks is beneficial. The real-time anticollision "smart
alarm" is a powerful real-time drilling tool to better alert the
drilling team of approaching danger.
The benefits which the anticollision alarm adds to the current
operation are:
• Real-time anticollision calculations automatically
performed at the rigsite give immediate availability of
traveling cylinder computation results to the field
engineers and directional drillers.
• Referencing the actual survey stations rather than the
planned wellpath removes the need to adjust for any
differences between the plan and actual trajectories.
• Automatic computations aid in maintaining quality
control of the anticollision operations at the rigsite.
• "Smart alarm" logic efficiently warns the drilling crew of
potential collision dangers and simplifies the analysis and
decision-making process.
• Future versions of the application may be extended to
include improved error models, collision rules and risk
analysis policies, and improved data transfer procedures.
System Improves Planning of Directionally Drilled Wells in
the East Wilmington Field", SPEIIADC 16173, 1987
SPE/IADC Drilling Conference.
5. Thorogood, J .L., "How BNOC Controls Directional
Drilling", Petroleum Engineer International, (May 1980)
26.
6. Walstrom, J.E., Brown, A.A., and Harvey, R.P., "An
Analysis of Uncertainty in Directional Surveying", l.P.T.,
(April 1969), 515.
7. Wolff, CJ.M. and de Wardt, J. P., "Borehole Position
Uncertainty - Analysis of Measuring Methods and
Derivation of Systematic Error Model", Society of
Petroleum Engineers ofAIME, (December 1981).
8. Thorogood, J.L., Hogg, T.W. and Williamson, H.S.,
"Application of Risk Analysis Methods to Subsurface Well
Collisions", SPE Drilling Engineering (December 1991)
299.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the people at Anadrill who
reviewed and commented on this paper. We would also like to
acknowledge receiving input, both for the anticollision
application and the paper, from John Thorogood of BP
Exploration.

Nomenclature
IDEAL Integrated Drilling Evaluation And Logging
MWD measurements while drilling
LWD logging while drilling
MTF magnetic toolface
GTF gravitational toolface
* mark of Schlumberger

References
1. Thorogood, J.L. and Sawaryn, SJ., "The Travelling
Cylinder: A Practical Tool for Collision Avoidance",
IADCISPE 19989 (March 1990) 653.
2. Lyons, E.P., Mecham, a.E., "Design and Implementation of
Directional Drilling Programs. Thums Offshore Islands
Development Wells, East Wilmington Field" Paper No.
801-44M. Spring Meeting, Pacific Coast Dist., Div. of
Production, API, Bakersfield, CA, May 14-16,1968.
3. Clark, D.D., Barth, J.W., "Planning of Directionally Drilled
Wells in the Offshore Wilmington Field Using the Hand-
Held Calculator". IADC/SPE 11360, 1983 SPE IADC
Drilling Conference.

511
6 NEW REAL-TIME ANTICOLLISION ALARM IMPROVES DRILLING SAFETY SPE 30692

A- ......_ .... N

High Side
~
•••
••
E

TVD

Figure 2: Normal Traveling Cylinder

o
100

512
SPE 30692 PEARL COO LEDER, D.P. MCCANN, A. HATCH 7

Fi ure 3: Nonnal Planes in "Look-Ahead"

Normal Plane for

current hole depth

Offset Well A
(parallel)

The Separation Distance is: 5.0 from Well: Well A along azimuth: 357.6

SDep Inc Az Tvd

100.0 6.0 150.0 99.8
200.0 12.0 150.0 198.5
300.0 18.0 150.0 295.1
400.0 24.0 150.0 388.4
450.0 27.0 150.0 433.5
500.0 27.0 150.0 478.1
600.0 27.0 150.0 567.2
**** **** **** ****

BDep (M): 209.5

HDep (M): 209.5

Tool Type: good Magnetic

MAX RADIUS 60.00

_1111111 IN'l'!R~1 10 .00

513
8 NEW REAL-TIME ANTICOLLISION ALARM IMPROVES DRILLING SAFETY SPE 30692

Fi ure 5: Conver ence Arrow

514
SPE 30692 PEARL CHU LEDER, D.P. MCCANN, A. HATCH 9

Fi ure 7: Field Data Exam Ie 1

The Separation Distance is: 10.1 from Well: A-1 along azimuth: -85.1

SDep Inc Az Tvd

30.5 0.3 69.8 30.5
38.1 0.3 69.0 38.1
45.7 0.4 68.4 45.7
53.3 0.4 67.8 53.3
61. 0 0.4 68.9 61.0

.... . j
68.6 0.6 78.1 68.6
76.2
83.8
91.4
99.1
0.7
0.8
1.0
1.3
84.0
88.0
90.6
91.3
76.2
83.8
91.4
99.1 # •
------- .
. . . -". ·.. . .\. \..
# • •

// A-:."'f i-~·.
106.7 1.7 92.4 106.7
114.3 2.5 94.2 114.3
121.9 3.3 96.1 121.9
127.7 3.1 77 .7 127.5

j
129.5 4.2 99.3 129.2
137.2
144.8
152.4
5.1 100.7
6.0 100.0
6.9 99.4
136.8
144.4
151.9
" " 1,'L{'II'''' , " " '.
I , .' I "'I ~ ~
160.0
167.6
7.6
8.6
98.6
97.9
159.5
167.0
----~-----i-----~-- - -
I
.. ~ ... --~ .... ~ ... -.~ .....
, , I I

'~
175.3 10.0 97.2 174.6
182.9 11.3 96.8 182.0
\ j'''' "., ." . . ,: :

. ·· :t . , .'
, \ , .... ....," .. ",'" I , •
190.5 12.3 96.7 189.5
198.1
205.8
13.4
14.7
97.2
98.3
169.9
204.3
"

~\ "~...
't, j ..... .... :,' I

:
" ,

213.4 15.6 98.7 211.7 "I "" ..... .... _~ •• ~~ " I'
221.0 15.9 98.2 219.0
228.6 16.3 98.4 226.3
I BDep (M): 221.8 •••••.••. IliI.... : .... "" ..... '
.... ;_ ,-' "
HDep (M) : 221.8 ,
I

: ..... ,*.,.'"
.' .'

Tool Type: good Magnetic ........... "

MAX RADIUS 50.00

-11111111 INTERVAL: 10.00

Figure 8: Field Data Example 2

The Separation Distance is: 9.9 from Well: A-2 along azimuth: 264.4

SDep
114.3
Inc
2.5
Az
94.2
Tvd
114.3
,
121.9 3.3 96.1 121.9
127.7 3.1 77 .7 127.5
137.2 4.2 99.3 129.2
144.8 5.1 100.7 136.8
152.4 6.0 100.0 144.4
160.0 6.9 99.4 151.9
167.6 7.6 98.6 159.5
175.3 8.6 97.9 167.0
182.9 10.0 97.2 174.6
190.5 11.3 98.3 182.0
198.1 12.3 98.7 189.5
205.8 13.4 98.2 196.9
213.4 15.6 98.4 204.3
221.0 15.9 99.4 211.7
228.6 16.3 99.3 219.0
236.2 16.7 98.2 226.3
243.9 16.8 96.6 233.6
251. 5 16.5 94.6 240.9
259.1 16.2 92.7 248.2
266.7 15.9 90.7 255.6
274.3 15.8 88.6 262.9
282.0 15.8 86.4 270.2
289.6 15.7 85.6 277 .5
297.2 15.6 85.7 284.9
304.8 15.8 83.9 292.2
312.4 16.2 81.3 299.6
320.1 16.6 79.6 306.9

~ep (M) : 338.8

HDep (M) : 338.8

Tool Type: good Magnetic

MAX RADIUS 40.00

-11111111 INTERVAL I 10.00

515