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Eric

Eric Cayeux

Chief Scientist

erca@norceresearch.no
+47 51 87 50 07
+47 475 01 787
Prof. Olav Hanssensvei 15, 4021 Stavanger, Norway

I am chief scientist of the drilling and well modelling research group in NORCE Energy.

I first obtained a master’s degree in civil engineering. Then I took a master’s degree in software engineering and lately, I have defended a Dr. Philos. thesis in Petroleum engineering. During my whole carrier, I have utilized these different competences to develop technical software solutions for the drilling industry.

Prior to working in a research organization, I have worked 17 years in the industry in various research and development positions, starting as an engineer and finishing as a product development manager. During my industrial carrier, I have worked with various domains such as road construction, directional drilling, multi-disciplinary well design (embracing aspects from geophysics, geology, reservoir and drilling engineering) and well correlation for geological stratigraphic modelling. For these developments, I have used techniques from Artificial Intelligence, relational database, mathematical modelling, 3D interactive graphics.

My strongest interests being within research and science, I joined Rogaland Research (now NORCE) in 2004. There, my main focus has been on real-time drilling aspects. First, I have worked on the automation of the drilling process and then I have started a project on the real-time automatic detection of the deterioration of drilling conditions from weak signals. These two research projects have been industrialized by a spin-off company, Sekal AS established in 2011, now part of the Sumitomo Corporation, as respectively DrillTronics™ and DrillScene™ and have assisted drilling operations, worldwide, to drill more than 200 wells. In 2012 I was awarded Statoil’s research prize for my work with automated drilling.

My research activities, as a project leader for the Drilling Process Optimization project of the DrillWell center for research-based innovation (SFI), have led me to develop new mathematical models, amongst others, of the transient transport of cuttings, transient hydro-mechanical behavior of drill-strings, transient flow of fluid in mud treatment equipment, thixotropic behavior of drilling fluids, real-time reconstruction of the 6-degree of freedom movement of drill-pipes. I have also been granted 5 patents and 2 new patent applications are being worked out.

I also work actively on the next challenge in drilling automation, namely autonomous drilling. Uncertainty estimation and propagation of estimations made with calibrated drilling models is at the core of a method to predict risk levels to reach the end of a section based on current observations. Then, optimization techniques are used to balance performance and risk in order to reach the end of the section in the shortest time possible, without human interventions. This work is done in a Demo 2000 project: Demonstration of Automated Drilling Process Control, supported by AkerBP, Equinor, Norwegian Research Council, Repsol, TOTAL, Vår Energy.

Another challenge in drilling automation, is the seamless interoperability of various drilling software solutions. I work on developing a method to describe the semantic of real-time drilling signals. This effort has resulted in a Demo 2000 project: Drilling Data Hub supported by AkerBP, Equinor, Halliburton, Norwegian Research Council, TOTAL, Vår Energy. Associated with this activity, I participate actively with the standardization of interoperability solutions for drilling systems through the D-WIS (Drilling and Wells Interoperability Standards) subcommittee of the drilling system automation technical committee of SPE (DSATS).

Eric Cayeux

Division

Energy & Technology

Research themes

Digital drilling

Research Groups

Energy Modelling and Automation

More information about Eric

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Projects

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Publications
Whirling dynamics of a drill-string with fluid–structure interaction – Geoenergy Science and Engineering 2023
A New Paradigm for Automatic Well Path Generation Using Multidisciplinary Constraints – 2023
Analysis of the Sources of Uncertainty in Geopressure Estimation While Drilling – 2023
A coupled fluid-structure model for estimation of hydraulic forces on the tool-joints – 2023
Dynamic Torque and Drag Model Coupled With Transient Hydraulic – 2023
Clock Synchronization and Timestamping of Data on Acquisition at the Wellsite: Guidelines and Recommendations – SPE Drilling & Completion 2023
Self-Attenuation of Drillstring Torsional Vibrations Using Distributed Dampers – SPE Journal 2023
A General Framework to Describe Drilling Process States – 2023
Interoperability of Real-Time Drilling Signals at the Rig Site: An Example Based on Mechanical Specific Energy – 2023
Drilling Systems Automation: Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery Functions for Situational Awareness – 2023
Experimental Verification of Vibration Mitigation Through a Viscous Damping System Along the Drill String – 2023
On Transitions Functions Model for Decision-Making in Offshore Operations – 2022
DADPC: Demonstration of autonomous drilling in OpenLab and at Ullrigg test centre – NORCE Norwegian Research Centre 2022
Demonstration of Autonomous Drilling on a Full-Scale Test Rig – 2022
Effects of Non-Newtonian Viscosity and Suspended Particles on Torque Measurements in Rotational Viscometry – 2022
Modeling and Analysis of Non-Rotating Damping Subs for Removing Torsional Vibrations in Drilling – 2022
Order Reduction of a Transient Model of Viscous Pressure Loss Gradient in Laminar Flow for Non-Newtonian Fluid Flowing in Circular Pipes – 2022
Connecting Multilayer Semantic Networks to Data Lakes: The Representation of Data Uncertainty and Quality – SPE Drilling & Completion 2022
Automatic Measurement of the Dependence on Pressure and Temperature of the Mass Density of Drilling Fluids – SPE Journal 2022
Progress Toward an Open-Source Drilling Community: Contributing and Curating Models – 2022
An Ensemble-Based Solution for Automating Drilling Engineering: Application to Directional Surveying – 2022
A Framework to Capture the Relationships in Drilling Data and the Propagation of Uncertainty – 2022
Best Practices to Improve Accurate Time Stamping of Data at the Well Site – 2022
Buoyancy Force on a Plain or Perforated Portion of a Pipe – SPE Journal 2021
Pressure Losses Generated by a Thixotropic Fluid When Subject to an Oscillating Flowrate – 2021
Application of the quemada viscosity model for drilling fluids – 2021
Precise Method to Estimate the Herschel-Bulkley Parameters from Pipe Rheometer Measurements – Fluids 2021
A Technical Approach To Safe Mode Management For A Smooth Transition From Automatic to Manual Drilling – 2021
Buoyancy Force on a Plain or Perforated Portion of a Pipe – 2021
Automatic Measurement of the Dependence on Pressure and Temperature of the Mass Density of Drilling Fluids – 2021
Autonomous Decision-Making While Drilling – Energies 2021
Analysis of Torsional Stick-Slip Situations from Recorded Downhole Rotational Speed Measurements – SPE Drilling & Completion 2021
Characterization of the Rheological Behavior of Drilling Fluids – 2020
The Effect of Thixotropy on Pressure Losses in a Pipe – Energies 2020
Analysis of Torsional Stick-Slip Situations Observed with Downhole High-Frequency Magnetometer Data – 2020
An Approach to Autonomous Drilling – 2020
Time, Pressure and Temperature Dependent Rheological Properties of Drilling Fluids and their Automatic Measurements – 2020
Measurement of the Flowrate Out of a Well for Conventional Drilling Operations – 2020
Digitalization of Detailed Drilling Operation Plans and Verification of Automatic Progress Tracking with an Online Drilling Simulator Environment – 2020
Toward Seamless Interoperability between Real-Time Drilling Management and Control Applications – 2019
Effect of Solid Particle Concentration on Drilling Fluid Rheological Behavior and its Impact on Pressure Losses – 2019
Modelling of the movement of a prolate particle in the steady state flow of a non-newtonian fluid in an inclined annulus with inner string rotation – 2019
On the importance of the coupling between transient mechanical, hydraulic and thermal effects for the modelling of real-time drilling operations – 2019
Reconstruction of Pipe Movement from Downhole High Frequency Measurements – 2019
Measurement of Drilling Fluid Rheology and Modeling of Thixotropic Behavior – Applied Rheology 2019
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