INTRODUCTION & PETROLEUM REFERENCE SYSTEMS

Lecture5:DIRECTIONALDRILLING

Arun S Chandel Assistant Professor

aschandel@ddn.upes.ac.in

09997200339

Controlled directional drilling

Directional drilling is the process of directing the well- bore along some trajectory j to a predetermined target. Controlled Co t o ed d directional ect o a d drilling g is s a technique for directing a well along a predetermined course to a bottom hole target located at a certain distance and direction from a surface location. Deviation control is the process of keeping the wellbore contained within some prescribed limits relative to inclination angle, horizontal excursion from the vertical, vertical or both. both

Controlled directional drilling

Controlled directional drilling is used when drilling multiple wells from an artificial structure such as offshore platforms, drilling pads. The economics of building one offshore platform for each well would be prohibitive in most cases. However, since wells can be directionally drilled, forty or more wells can be drilled from a single platform. Without controlled directional drilling, most offshore drilling would not be economical. Some fields are developed using drilling pads where multiple wells are drilled from one location due to economic or environmental pressures. Where the environment is concerned, roads and production facilities may not be allowed for each surface location with a vertical well.

Controlled directional drilling

As oil companies become more environmentally conscious, it may be politically advantageous to develop fields from d illi drilling pads d in i sensitive iti areas. In areas of shallow water depth, multiple wells can be drilled f from artificial ifi i l islands. i l d Subsea wells are drilled from a template on the ocean floor. In all ll cases, location l construction expenses and d rig move expenses are reduced. Also, due to the close proximity of the wells, production costs are lower. However for most land wells, it is usually more economical to drill vertical wells rather than drill directional wells from a pad. pad

Reasons for directional drilling

SURFACE PROBLEMS SUBSURFACE PROBLEMS SPECIAL NEEDS

Surface Problems
Restricted surface locations
Rig/well positioning problems 1. Unsuitable Terrain (sloped ground, marsh, forest, sand dunes etc.) 2. Proximity to other wells, pipelines, oilfield facilities 3. Populated area (city or rural area, farmhouse, industrial facility) 4. Proximity to power lines 5. Airports radar or radio stations 6. Access road and site preparation difficulties

Economics of Rig Positioning HSE Restrictions

Subsurface Problems
Collision risk with existing wells Multiple targets to open for production Horizontal drain(s) needed Re-entering producing formations Drilling extended reach wells (ERD) to remote target(s) Geological problems exist Faults Salt Domes

Subsurface Problems
Fault drilling Salt dome drilling To reach thin reservoirs Formation Dip Side-tracking existing wells

To drill relief wells

Special Needs
Controlling vertical wells :Straight hole drilling Shoreline drilling :to reach offshore reservoirs which are quiet close to the land q

Economics- Return on Investment

Multiple wells from a single surface location Extended reach - 5-6 miles Extended reach re-entry and re-drilling re drilling options More borehole opens the productive formation More productive intervals in a given i f formation ti sequence

GeologicalConsiderations
1. FAULT DRILLING 1 Directional drilling is also applicable in fault drilling. It is sometimes difficult to drill a vertical well in a steeply dipping, inclined fault plane. Often, the bit will deflect when passing through the fault plane, and sometimes the bit will follow the fault plane. To avoid the problem, the well can be drilled on the upthrown or downthrown side of the fault and deflected into the producing formation. The bit will cross the fault at enough of an angle where the direction of the bit cannot change to follow the fault. 2. SALT DOME DRILLING Many oil fields are associated with the intrusion of salt domes. domes Directional drilling has been used to tap some of the oil which has been trapped by the intrusion of the salt. Instead of drilling through the salt overhangs, the wells can be directionally drilled adjacent to the salt dome and into th underlying the d l i t traps. However, since the development of salt saturated and oil based muds, the amount of directional drilling has decreased. It is difficult to drill long intervals of salt with fresh water muds. Directionally drilling around the salt, alleviates a lot of the problems associated with drilling salt.

GeologicalConsiderations
3. RELIEF WELL 3 A highly specialized application for directional drilling is the relief well. If a well blows out and is no longer accessible from the surface, then a relief well is drilled to intersect the uncontrolled well near the bottom. Water or mud are then pumped through the relief well and into the uncontrolled well. Since it is sometimes required that the relief well intersect the uncontrolled well, the directional drilling has to be extremely precise and requires special tools. Survey data is not accurate enough to intersect a wellbore at depth. Proximity logging is required when drilling relief wells. 4. MULTIPLE SANDS 4 There are special cases when multiple sands are drilled with a single wellbore. Where steeply dipping sand zones are sealed by an unconformity, fault, or salt dome overhang, a number of vertical wells would ld be b required i d to t produce d each h sand, d which hi h are separated t d by b a permeability barrier. However, all the sand zones can be penetrated with one directionally drilled well thereby greatly reducing the cost of production

GeologicalConsiderations:HorizontalDrilling
Horizontal drilling is another special application of directional drilling and is used to increase the productivity of various formations. formations One of the first applications for horizontal drilling was in vertically y fractured reservoirs. In fractured reservoirs, , a significant quantity of the production comes from fractures. Unless a vertical well encounters a fracture system, production rates will be low. A horizontal well has a much greater chance of encountering a prolific fracture system. The Austin Chalk in Texas is a classic example of using horizontal drilling techniques to produce a fractured reservoir. Horizontal wells are a very common way to produce some formations.

GeologicalConsiderations:HorizontalDrilling
Horizontal drilling is used to produce thin oil zones with water or gas coning problems. The horizontal well is optimally placed in the oil leg g of the reservoir. The oil can then be p produced at high g rates with much less pressure drawdown because of the amount of formation exposed to the wellbore. Horizontal H i t l wells ll are used d to t increase i productivity d ti it from f l low permeability reservoirs by increasing the amount of formation exposed to the wellbore. Additionally, numerous hydraulic fractures can be placed along a single wellbore to increase production and reduce the number of vertical wells required to drain the reservoir. Horizontal wells can be used to maximize production from reservoirs which are not being efficiently drained by vertical wells. These wells usually have permeability streaks in combination with natural fractures. fractures The horizontal well can connect the portions of the reservoir that are productive.

GeologicalConsiderations:MultilateralWells
Directional drilling can also be used to drill multilateral wells. Multilaterals are additional wells drilled from a parent wellbore. Multilaterals can be as simple as an open hole sidetrack or it can be more complicated p with a j junction that is cased and has pressure isolation and reentry capabilities. Multilaterals are used where production can be incrementally increased d with h less l capital l costs. Multilaterals l l l can be b used d offshore where the number of slots are limited. It is also used to place additional horizontal wells in a reservoir.

GeologicalConsiderations:ERD
Another application of directional drilling is what is commonly termed extended reach drilling. extended reach drilling is where wells have high inclinations and large horizontal displacements for the true vertical depth drilled. Extended reach drilling g is used to develop p reservoirs with fewer platforms or smaller sections of a reservoir where an additional platform cannot be economically justified. Extended reach drilling will become more popular as the cost of platforms l f in deeper d water and d severe environments becomes b more expensive.

StraightHoleDrilling
Straight hole drilling is a special case of directional drilling where an attempt is made to keep the hole vertical. Some reasons for wanting to keep the hole vertical are: 1. To keep from crossing lease lines; 2. To stay within the specifications of a drilling contract; 3. To stay within the well spacing requirements in a developed field. In some areas of the world, deviation from vertical is caused by the natural formation tendencies. Packed P k d hole h l assemblies bli are employed l d to keep k the h dogleg d l severity i within reason. Pendulum assemblies are used to keep the inclination as low as possible though with limited success at lower inclinations. If the inclination is already too great to hit a previously specified t get pendulum target, pend l m assemblies, emblie and nd sometimes ometime downhole do nhole motors moto are e used to bring the hole back within range of the target.

Major Wellbore Trajectories

Geographical Co-ordinate System

Any position on the earths surface can be described in terms of a value of latitude (degrees north or south of a datum) and a value for longitude (degrees east or west of a datum). An imaginary net o k (graticule) network (g ti le) of latitude l tit de and nd longitude longit de is i superimposed pe impo ed on the globe (earth surface). (or p parallels) ) are imaginary g y circles running g from The latitude lines ( the equator to both the north and south poles. The equator plane is half way between the two poles.The equator is at 0 latitude and the north pole at 90 N.The south pole is at a latitude of 90 S. There are ninety latitude lines between the equator and each pole, each a degree in magnitude. Lines of longitude (or meridian lines) are imaginary lines passing through the north and south poles and crossing latitude lines at right angles. Lines of longitude are denoted by a number of degrees from 0180 , east or west of Greenwich in England. England Greenwich has a 0 longitude or zero meridian line.In effect the earth has 360 deg of longitudes.

Geographical Co-ordinate System

Petroleum Industry Co-ordinate Systems

Two of the projection systems most commonly used in the Petroleum Industry are the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM), and the Lambert conical orthomorphic. The Lambert conical p projection j is used in the USA as it is most suited to areas where there is a greater extent of eastwest and lesser extent of north-south. The Lambert system produces a projection that has meridians as convergent lines and d parallels ll l as arcs of f circles. l The UTM projection is the most commonly used projection worldwide and it uses a horizontal cylinder for projection with the earth inside the horizontal cylinder and touches the spheroid along a chosen meridian.

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) ( )

The UTM grid is a universal grid which is used to cover the world except for the polar regions. The UTM is based on 60 zones, each is 6 degrees of longitude wide and extends from 80 deg S to 84 deg N latitude, with the International metre being used as the unit of measurement (not foot). Greenwich in England is chosen as the reference meridian with 0 degrees of longitude. longitude Each of the 60 zones is defined by meridians; for example, zone 31 has the zero meridian on the left (Greenwich) and the 6 deg East meridian on the right. For the polar regions North of 84 deg N and South of 80 deg S, a specialised projection system, system called the Polar Stereographic grid, grid is used.

UTM Coordinates
UTM coordinates di t are given i as Northings N thi and d Eastings E ti and d are always l positive numbers and measured in meters. The Northing coordinate is the distance from the equator and the easting g coordinate is the distance from a line 500,000 , m west of the central meridian for that sector.

Northings

The equator is chosen as the latitude of origin in all zones.For zones For the northern hemisphere, false northing numbers are given to latitudes beginning with 0 metres at the equator and increasing towards the north. For the southern hemisphere, p , the equator q is g given arbitrary y of northing value of 10,000,000 metres to avoid negative numbers. Northings in the southern hemisphere decrease towards the south the pole.

Eastings

The central meridian of each zone is given an arbitrary easting , metres East to avoid negative g numbers. False coordinate of 500,000 easting numbers are then given to each vertical grid line, decreasing westwards and increasing eastwards in each zone.