Chapter 7

Bit Cost

EE047-3.5-2
Drilling Engineering
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 Round Trip

Tripping” or “Making a Bit. Trip” is pulling a worn-out bit up from

the bottom of a drill hole. A “trip” means pulling up the bit. 

The bits have a life expectancy in hours, given the hardness of the
rock material that they go through.
When a rotary bit or button bit wears out, it will “drop a cone”, a piece
of hardened metal that is part of the spinning head. Drillers avoid that
by “tripping” after the bit starts to become dull and the drilling rate
decreases.

Round trip time (12 hours, generally) – A general estimate for a

competent crew is that the round trip requires one hour per thousand
feet of hole - plus an hour or two for handling collars and bits. At that
rate, a round trip in a ten thousand-foot well might take twelve hours. 

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 Condition during Round Trip

• The hole has to be conditioned for tripping out.

• When the trip is made, the rig is not drilling and the mud is
not circulating.
• You don’t want the mud left in the hole to be too dense, or it
will break down the bottom formations, escape and
sometimes visit the hole of the next rig over the hill (I mean
that partly in jest). If the mud is too light, any gas zone will
push its contents into the hole and the gas will “come up and
see you”. That is a “blow out”.
• When the bit is back in the hole, circulation has to be restored
and in balance for drilling to continue.

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 Round Trip

Tripping can be divided into two process :

1.Running in hole : in which drill pipes are joined

and the bit is lowered to the bottom of the hole.

2.Pulling out of hole : in which pipes are removed

from the hole.

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 Types of Trips

Commonly, there are three types of trips in Drilling:

1. Round Trip : Running in the stands to the bottom of the well

bore and then pulling out completely out of the hole , i.e.,
surface.
2. Wiper Trip : Pulling out up to the previous shoe and then
again running in to the bottom.
3. Short Trip: After the cementing has been done, cement
cleaning and further Drilling is carried out. Sometimes it
requires to pull out the bit up to certain depth due to any reason.
Hence the pulling out of the newly drilled section and again
running it to the bottom is called short trip.

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 Total cost per foot ($/ft)

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 Exercise 1

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 TRIP TIME
ROUND TRIP TIME
 Trip times may be taken
.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
D
from the IADC tour sheet or 0
E
may be taken from the P
Geolograph unit or some T 5
other device. H

10
1
0
 A chart versus depth must be 0 15
constructed for each rig for 0
f
ultimate analyses. t
20

TRIP TIME (hours)

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 Example

 A bit is run at a depth of 8,000 feet and pulled at a depth of 8,500

feet. How many hours is the trip time for this bit?

ROUND TRIP TIME

.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
From the chart a round trips at D
0
E
8,000 feet and 8,500 feet
P
require 5.2 hours and 5.7 T 5
hours, respectively. H

10
1
0
Trip T=(5.2+5.7)/2=5.45 hr 0 15
0
f
20
t
TRIP TIME (hours)

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 Trip time, hrs

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 Exercise
 Following performance data is given for sandstone:
 
ITEM STEEL TOOTH (milled tooth) INSERT TOOTH
 
Bit Cost $277.88 $1521.32
Trip 6:18 hrs/min 6:32 hrs/min
Rotation Time 10:01 hrs/min 58:42 hrs/min
Down Time None None
Bit Footage 180 ft 880.5 ft
Rig Cost Rate 375 $/hr 375 $/hr
Fraction Tooth Wear 1/2 Not Applicable
Fraction Bearing Wear 6/8 8/8
Bit Size 7-7/8 in. 7-7/8 in.
Bit Weight 30,000 lbs 40,000 lbs
Rotary Speed 85 rpm 60 rpm

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 277.88  375 (6.3  10.1)
TCFSteel 
180

35.71
TCFSteel $
ft

1521.32  375 (6.3  58)

TCFInsert 
880.5

29.11
TCFInsert $
ft
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 END OF LESSON

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