Safety risks of drilling operations exist widely because of the hostile environment, ageing equipment, more challenging wells, and human errors. Failure to control or eliminate the safety risks may affect the drilling safety and lead to drilling accidents, resulting in enormous economic losses, or even casualties. Previous drilling accidents had shown great challenges of safety risk management, such as outdated management ideas and tools, poor awareness of safety risks, lack of effective safety risk information sharing, and incomplete risk management system.
In this paper, the potential safety risks associated with drilling facilities, workers, and management are figured out, and the corresponding risk management measures are formulated. Meanwhile, the guidelines for safety risk management of drilling operations are established. In addition, the guidelines are combined with the information technology and the web and mobile versions of the intelligent safety risk management software of drilling operations are designed and developed. The safety inspector in drilling sites can use mobile terminals to identify the drilling risks, being recorded in the form of text, pictures, video, and other documents and choose the risk control and mitigation measures. The safety management staff in the company can monitor the results of chosen measures in time by using the web version and provide effective and timely technical support for the field’s safety risk management if necessary.
With the use of the intelligent safety risk management software of drilling operations, the two-way communication and safety risk information sharing between drilling sites and drilling safety management departments can be realized. A complete drilling safety risk management system can also be gradually developed in the process of risk identification, record, report, analysis, control, mitigation and prevention.
The intelligent safety risk management software of drilling operations has been applied in some oil fields and reveals excellent application prospects. Being an intelligent management tool, the software system can significantly improve the safety risk management efficiency and finally realize the informational management of safety risks in drilling operations.
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