A method is disclosed for identifying potential drilling hazards in a
wellbore, including measuring a drilling parameter, correlating the parameter to depth in the
wellbore at which selected components of a
drill string pass, determining changes in the parameter each time the selected components pass selected depths in the
wellbore, and generating a warning
signal in response to the determined changes in the parameter. Another disclosed method includes determining times at which a
drilling system is conditioning the wellbore, measuring torque, hookload and
drilling fluid pressure during conditioning, and generating a warning
signal if one or more of maximum value of measured torque, torque variation, maximum value of
drill string acceleration, maximum value of hookload and maximum value of
drilling fluid pressure exceeds a selected threshold during reaming up motion of the
drilling system.