Introduction to Drilling operations.

Chapter 1 1
 Learning Outcomes
 At the end of topic students are expected to understand the following;

 Why we drill wells

 Different types of drilling Rigs

 Criteria for selecting a drilling rigs

 Classification of oil wells based on;

- Total depth
- Life of the field
- Well design
 Reasons for Directional Drilling

 Key Personnel at the rig-site?

Chapter 1 2
 Why We Drill Wells
• To gain information (e.g. Exploration & Appraisal
wells)
• To produce hydrocarbons or support their production
through Injection of gas and liquids

Drilling a well is the only way to access a Reservoir and

establish what “lies beneath”.

Each well is a multi million pound project involving

multi disciplines and each well is as unique as each
individual person.
Chapter 1 3
 The Well Life Cycle
• Design: Agree the well objectives, schedule, costs, order
equipment, place contracts for the rig and services, prepare
the site.
• Construction:-
Drill: The well is created by drilling a hole, isolating with
casing and cement and repeating this process until the target
depth and location are reached.
Test: A well may be produced temporarily to establish the
Reservoir potential.
Complete/Suspend: If the well is to be put on
production/injection it is completed with tubing and flow
control equipment: otherwise downhole plugs are installed
Chapter 1 4
 The Well Life Cycle
 Commission: The well is handed over to operations and
connected to the process facilities.

• Operation: Well performance and integrity are continually

monitored. Routine maintenance is performed.

• Workover: The well is handed back to the wells team to

perform downhole surveillance, improve the well
performance or repair/replace downhole equipment. The
well may also be “sidetracked” i.e. a new hole is drilled from
the existing wellbore to a new target.
• Abandonment: When a well becomes uneconomic the wells
team return to install downhole cement plugs to isolate
hydrocarbon zones and the wellhead is removed.
Chapter 1 5
 Drilling Rig

•Drilling rig is a machine which

creates holes in the ground.

•In oil and gas language we

usually call it boreholes.

Chapter 1 6
 Type of drilling Rigs
1. Onshore/ Land Drilling Rigs
• Heavy Land Rig : this drilling Rig is used for drilling .
• Light Land Rig: this is called workover Rig , as it is used for
workover job

2. Offshore Drilling Rigs

•Bottom supported Rigs – Jack-up rig used in shallow water
depth
•Floating Rigs Those rigs are used in deep water depths

Chapter 1 7
 Onshore / Land Rigs

Light Land Rigs

450 HP
550
650
Light Land Rig
Heavy Land Rigs
750
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Rule of thumb 1hp = 10 Feet

Heavy Land Rig Chapter 1 8

 Offshore rigs

9
Figure 4. Different types offshore drilling rigs
 How to select Drilling Rig
•Well Design
•Area of Drilling, ( offshore or onshore)
•Well Depth
•Expecting Load
•Water Depth if,( well is offshore)
•Weather Conditions if ,( well is offshore)
•Rig availability
•Rig Cost

Chapter 1 10
Classification of Oil Wells
 Well Total Depth (Td)

•According to wells final depth, they can be classified as:

–Shallow well: 500ft - 2,000ft

–Conventional well: 1000ft - 8,000ft

–Deep well: 11000ft- 17000ft

–Ultra deep well: >18000ft

Chapter 1 12
 Life of field

The life of an oil or gas field can be sub-divided into

the following phases:

• Exploration
• Appraisal
• Development
• Maintenance
• Abandonment

Chapter 1 13
 Oil Well Classification based on field
development
•Exploration/wild cat wells
•Appraisal wells
•Development Wells
– Production wells

– Injector wells

– Cutting injection / Disposal wells

•Infill / maintenance Wells

Chapter 1 14
 Exploration wells

•objective -to define the nature of the fluid (water, oil

or gas) in the reservoir rock and
-to obtain characteristics of the reservoir
including initial pressure, the temperature,
approximate permeability and productivity.

•The information will help to complete the data already

available from geology and geophysics to make
decision:
· Either not to develop the reservoir
· Or to develop the reservoir
· Or to drill one or more further wells
Chapter 1 15
 Appraisal wells

• purpose to define or complete the data from

exploration wells, reservoir characteristics as
follows:

· Permeability
· The existence of heterogeneity, discontinuity or faults.
· The reservoir boundaries

Chapter 1 16
 Development wells
• purpose is to bring the field on stream and increase the production.
• There are different types of development wells as given below:
Production wells, Observation wells, Disposal wells, Injection wells

Production wells: These are the most numerous, optimize the productivity

Disposal wells: Typically are subject to regulatory requirements to avoid the contamination
of freshwater aquifers, used for disposal of produced water.

Injection wells: Injection of water or gas, to maintain the pressure in the reservoir.

Observation wells: There usually few (unsuitable for production or injection) or none of this
type of well on a field,
used for monitor variations in reservoir parameters (e.g. interface
between fluids, pressure, etc).

Chapter 1 17
• Once the field is ‘on-stream’ the companies commitment continues
in the form of maintenance of both the wells and all of the
production facilities.

• After many years of production it may be found that the field is

yielding more or possibly less CH than initially anticipated at the
Development Planning stage and the company may undertake
further appraisal and subsequent drilling in the field.

• At some point in the life of the field the $ of production will exceed
the revenue from the field and the field will be abandoned .
• All of the wells will be plugged and the surface facilities will have to
be removed in a safe and environmentally acceptable fashion.
Chapter 1 18
 Oil well types by design
1. Vertical Wells
2. Directional Wells
–Slant well

–S-type well

–Horizontal well

–Multilateral well

Chapter 1 19
Reasons for Directional Drilling
 Why – Directional Drilling?
Directional Drilling is done for many reasons.
These include :
–Sidetracks
–Multiple Wells Drilling from A Single Site
–Inaccessible Locations
–Drilling around Salt Dome
–Fault Drilling
–Relief Well Drilling
–Horizontal drilling
Chapter 1 21
Directional well types

Chapter 1 22
 Sidetrack

One of the primary uses of

directional drilling was to
sidetrack a well even if it
was to go around a stuck
BHA (Bottom hole
assembly) .
 Multiple wells from single site

Most offshore
development would not
be possible without
directional drilling.
 Inaccessible location

Inaccessible surface
location.

Drilling in towns, from land

to offshore and under
production facilities.
 Salt domes

Drilling around salt domes.

Salt can cause significant

drilling problems and
directional drilling can be
used to drill under the
overhanging cap.
 Fault drilling

Fault drilling
In hard rock, deviation can
be a problem, sometimes
the bit can track a fault.
 Relief well

Relief well drilling.

Directional drilling into the
blowout when the surface
location is no longer accessible.
Very small target and takes
specialized equipment.
 Horizontal drilling

Horizontal drilling
Increasing exposure of the
reservoir to increase
productivity.
 DIRECTIONAL DRILLING TERMS
Azimuth - the angle of the well bore direction as
projected to a horizontal plane and relative to due North.
By industry convention, 0 degree azimuth coincides with North, 90 degree
azimuth with East, 180 degree azimuth with South, and 270 degree
azimuth with West.

Inclination - the angle of the well bore defined by a

tangent line and a vertical line.

The vertical line is always parallel to the direction of earth's gravity.

By industry standard, 0 degree inclination is vertical (downward pointing)
and 90 degrees inclination is horizontal. An inclination (angle) greater than
90 degrees coincides with the term "drilling up".

Chapter 7 30
 INCLINATION and AZIMUTH

AZIMUTH

INCLINATION

Chapter 7 31
 DIRECTIONAL DRILLING TERMS

build - drilling directionally with the intent to increase well bore

inclination; also refers to increasing and orienting lateral bit force
magnitude to or towards the high side of the drill hole.

drop - drilling directionally with the intent to decrease well bore

inclination; also refers to increasing and orienting lateral bit force
magnitude to or towards the low side of the drill hole.

turn - drilling directionally with the intent to change (increase or

decrease) well bore azimuth.

Chapter 7 32
 Survey Definitions
KB, RT, DF

KOP

Common
terminology for Build Section

a directional
TVD, ft
profile Tangent or Hold

Drop
Section

Departure, ft
Key Personnel at Rig Site
 Personnel at Rig Site
• Most drilling crews (drilling contractor company) consist of a tool
pusher, a driller, a derrick man, and several rotary helpers (also
called floor man or roughnecks).

• Tool Pusher: The tool pusher supervises all drilling operations and is
the leading man of the drilling contractor on location.

• Driller: The driller operates the drilling machinery on the rig floor
and is the overall supervisor of all floor men. He reports directly to
the tool pusher.

• Derrick Man: The derrick man works on the so-called monkey board,
a small platform up in the derrick, usually about 90 ft above the
rotary table. When a connection is made or during tripping
operations he is handling and guiding the upper end of the pipe.

• Floor man: During tripping, the rotary helpers are responsible for
handling the lower end of the drill pipe as well as operating tongs
and wrenches to make or break up a connection .
Chapter 1 36
 Personnel at Rig Site
Roustabouts and roughnecks need to be in excellent physical shape.

Roughnecks: is a slang term for a person whose occupation is hard-manual labor working
on oil rigs.

Roustabouts: has no limits in the oil industry and can, and will do any and all oil field work,
including roughneck drilling, oil well completion and well service, and even chemical work.

Chapter 1 37
 Personnel at Rig Site
Other personnel:
• Mud Engineer, Mud Logger: The service company who provides the
mud almost always sends a mud engineer and a mud logger to the rig
site. They are constantly responsible for mud logging what is
happening in the hole as well as maintaining the proper mud
conditions.

• Company man: main person at the rig site, he/she is a representative

of the company who is owning the well, the field.

Chapter 1 38
Floor man (Roughnecks)

Chapter 1 39
 Driller & Derrick man

Driller Derrick man

Chapter 1 40
Drilling systems and equipment
 Drilling Rig Systems
•Power System
•Hoisting System
•Rotary System
•Circulating System
•Control System
•Monitoring System

Chapter 1 42
Drilling systems and equipment

Chapter 1 43
THANK YOU

Chapter 1 44