WELL CONTROL READINESS
lesson planning and moving toward basin-specific lessons: “If I’m
going out to Texas to drill, why would I assume those formations
are going to look like they do in Wyoming?”
The SME Friday talks have also spawned an internal podcast,
“Onsite with TD,” where Mr Deer speaks with SMEs about current
issues surrounding well control. Ryan Hays, Director of Business
Development at WCS and a Senior Well Control Instructor, cited
the SME talks and podcast as examples of how WCS continues to
adapt to a new way of working and meet students where they are.
“The industry has changed,” Mr Hays said. “The old status quo
was that you had one man preaching how it’s going to be, and
everybody had to do it that way. Now you have teams of diverse
people working together daily sharing different points of view to
make training better for everyone.”
In February, Wild Well Control announced a partnership with
Endeavor Technologies for the use of well control-focused
drilling simulators that feature proprietary computational
fluid dynamics and hydraulics models. The simulators are
being added to Wild Well’s training centers across the US.
vide an immersive training experience where students can make
mistakes and learn from those mistakes.
“Putting concepts into practice is the key benefit of using simu-
lators. You can sit in a training class and be taught concepts and
theories, but a simulator enables you to actually put that theory
into play and practice those concepts. You can think, well, what
if I do this in this situation? And if that didn’t work, you can find
out why it didn’t work,” he said.
However, simulators are just one example of how a digital sys-
tem can help instructors reach students in new ways. Another
example is virtual training, said Toney Deer, Director of Training
and a Senior Well Control Instructor at WCS. The company has
offered online training options since 2001 through its System
21 e-learning courses but has seen a surging interest in virtual
classes in recent years, with the pandemic forcing companies to
embrace distance learning options.
Although the industry has returned to normal operations since,
virtual training still serves a critical function as the workforce
has become more accustomed to the remote work lifestyle. To
accommodate this shift, WCS rolled out virtual training in 2020
that features live instruction presented to students over Zoom
with an instructor, as well as training courses that allow for a
mix of both in-person and remote students in the same class. In
these classes, instructors bypass the traditional whiteboard and
instead use PowerPoint presentations, where notes can be written
directly onto the slides.
Mr Deer also stressed the importance of ongoing instruc-
tor training. Earlier this year, the company began hosting SME
Fridays, a monthly virtual event where WCS instructors meet
with a subject matter expert from an operator or drilling contrac-
tor company to learn about key issues they’re facing in the field.
The instructors can then incorporate those insights into their les-
sons. Mr Deer cited an example from a recent meeting where an
SME stressed the importance of moving away from standardized
28 Improving the in-person experience
At Wild Well Control, adapting to new training challenges is a
norm. During COVID, for example, in addition to their on-demand
library of e-learning courses, the company began offering access
to IADC WellSharp Live online training programs.
Another challenge since the pandemic is that the students
undergoing well control training are now coming from much
more diverse backgrounds, with fewer people coming from petro-
leum engineering and more people coming from computer sci-
ence, data analytics and even non-STEM related fields. The latter
type of students are sometimes less familiar with the equipment
used to maintain well control, as well as how surface operations
and pressures can affect issues downhole.
Recognizing that in-person training is particularly valuable
for these types of students, Mr Smith said, the company has been
working to bolster that classroom experience.
“Facilitation is a huge way to bring up the guys who have a
lower level of understanding,” he explained. “You can work with
teams and pair the newer people up with the more experienced
guys. The students do a lot more talking with the in-person class-
es. With the online classes, the instructors do a lot more talking.
It’s just the nature of the beast.”
Improving the in-person experience also means adjusting the
way students are taught, and Mr Smith pointed to adaptive learn-
ing as one key strategy. This involves, for instance, structuring
homework assignments to fit the learning styles of each student
– some students may receive assignments laden with visual aids,
while others may have lessons more focused on written questions
and answers. The company is also exploring microlearning, an
educational strategy that breaks complex topics down into short-
form, stand-alone units of study that can be viewed as many
times as necessary at a student’s convenience.
In line with this mindset, Wild Well Control has a heavy focus
on continuous improvement of not only the training materials
but also the curriculum delivered by its instructors. Internally, the
instruction team continuously reviews and adapts the lessons to
optimize the content and instructional delivery. This process is
critical to keeping the material fresh and relevant, as well as to
ensure accuracy of content.
“I think adapting our training to align preferred learning
methods with current knowledge and skill levels is going to be
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 • DRILLING CONTRACTOR
WELL CONTROL READINESS
a must. A lot of this can be done with our homework and our
side learning tools. Microlearning is going to continue to be
refined so it can accompany the in-learning experience with
easy-to-digest, engaging homework, leading to a much better
experience. I look at the younger generation and how they’re
digesting material vs the traditional ways, and clearly that is
the future.”
Simulators are also set to play a role in bolstering the in-person
experience, primarily through Wild Well’s partnership with
Endeavor Technologies. The partnership, announced in February,
calls for Endeavor to provide drilling simulators for well control
training simulator rooms across Wild Well’s seven training cen-
ters across the US. The simulator implementation is expected to
be completed by year-end.
The appeal of Endeavor’s simulators is in its computational
fluid dynamics model, which consists of a circulation system
that solves and analyzes problems involving fluid flows, Mr
Smith said. There is also a proprietary hydraulics model that
demonstrates the flow and pressure of the drilling fluid, which the
simulator uses in a multi-layered approach to model the complex
physical phenomena that occur inside the hydraulics system.
These phenomena include the state, movement and interactions
among the drilling fluid, gas, cuttings, formation, surface and
underground equipment.
While most simulators are more drilling-focused, the fluid
dynamics and hydraulics model provide a specific well control
focus, Mr Smith said.
“A lot of companies out there make drilling simulators, but that
doesn’t help us a lot because we’re focused on well control. There
is some drilling on our simulators, but we’re not teaching you how
to drill through a formation. We’re teaching how to control a well
and control the gas in the well,” he explained.
Another feature of the Endeavor simulators is their capability to
simulate specific well intervention operations, such as installing
packers and the upper completion, fishing and cement squeeze.
Mr Smith also touted their ability to enable a more granular level
of training by simulating, for example, the higher pressures and
temperatures of the Haynesville Shale or the slower drilling seen
in the Bakken.
Outside of the classroom or the virtual training session, stu-
dents also will have access to simulation-based exercises they
can undertake to bolster the well control concepts that they’re
taught by the instructors. “The education received ensures the
principles are understood prior to running a simulator, but I
compare the concept to running a motorcycle: You need a core
of understanding prior to riding the bike,” Mr Smith said. “The
simulator is like riding the bike. You need to truly understand the
principles so that, by the time you’re using the simulator, you’re
focusing on muscle memory and developing a deeper under-
standing of the knowledge you’re getting in class.” DC
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