Forecasting and Enhancing Weight on Bit Through Machine Learning Methods in the Sudanese Oil and Gas Sector
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Drilling optimization seeks to enhance the efficiency of drilling operations by fine-tuning adjustable factors like weight on bit (WOB); the goal is to boost the rate of penetration during drilling and decrease overall well expenses. It is crucial to efficiently and precisely manage weight on bit (WOB) to fine-tune drilling parameters promptly. Drilling optimization focuses on adjusting controllable variables, such as weight on the bit and bit rotation speed, to achieve the highest possible drilling rate during operations. Consequently, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of ML models to evaluate practitioners in picking the appropriate predictive model. This research employs four machine learning methods to forecast weight on bit: Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNNs), Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR), and Decision Tree (DT). Machine learning techniques are being evaluated using datasets sourced from well drilling data in Western Sudan, marking the first instance of such data being utilized for this purpose. The key accomplishment of this study is the automation of predicting weight on bit by utilizing machine learning techniques tailored to our datasets. The findings indicated that among the algorithms tested, Random Forest stood out as the most dependable, displaying a prediction accuracy of 98% and a lower RMSE value of 1.015. In contrast, KNN, GBR, and DT achieved accuracies of 91.40%, 80.66%, and 100.00% respectively, with RMSE values of 2.008, 3.011, and 6.27 on the testing dataset, correspondingly. At last, this research is acknowledged as a groundbreaking effort in the field, utilizing machine learning techniques to predict weight on bit occurrences. Consequently, this study presents a publicly available dataset containing details about drilled wells in the Sudanese oil and gas sector. This dataset is meant to be used for upcoming experiments, validating algorithms, and for analytical purposes.
Source: Applied Sciences
DOI: 10.3390/app16126149
Institutions: China University of Geosciences, ZTT (China)
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
OpenAlex ID: W7165016359
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