Part of Drilling Experience, Engineering and Geomechanics

Improve Planning
Wells Drilling Operations
https://earthvalue.wordpress.com
Geomap Technical Team
2019
In this book, we have mentioned in short the important knowledge for a
drilling engineer to understand the requirement to perform a successful
plan. I tried to give overall look over the understanding which could be
missing, I wanted every body to have a broad knowledge of the process
of drilling
Drilling Engineers are responsible for a big budget in the oil and gas
companies, the wells drilling cost is considered a key for the success of
the company to achieve targets and the best use for the drilling budget
help in the continuity of the company business. Many oil and gas
companies were forced to leave the business based on high cost drilling
operations without successes to find the hydrocarbon. Small to medium
size companies recommended to invest in shallow (+/-
6,000ft) and land operations which wells cost in the range of $ 1.5milion
and daily operating cost in the range of $20,000 and can result in wells
producing in the range 500bbl per day and some times more. This is
different from investing in offshore operations which a well cost start
from $10million and operating costs in the range $ 150,000 per day.
Drilling engineers who plan and execute the drilling operations should
have the good level of knowledge, experience in order to perform the
wells drilling operations at the highest optimized level of technical
performance and at the best price.
The basics set for drilling oil and gas wells based on the experience of
the last 100 years resulted in regulations and practices that enables the
drilling companies to perform Drilling operations in a high level of
success by applying the commonly known practices. These practices
guarantee the performance of the drilling operations in a high level of
success, and that is why we are not going to discuss principle drilling
practices known to everybody and set in many books that describe the
operations and equipment. Currently needs rises to perform drilling of
complicated wells including highly deviated and extended reach
drilling, planning and executing such complex wells is a key challenge
and not only the normal drilling regulations can guarantee the success
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of this type of complexity. We need to involve new ideas in planning
that can lead us to improve the drilling operations process as if the plan
is not scientific and covering the expected problems and put scientific
solutions, we may reach a point in the well where we are not able to run
in hole or rotate the string.
Our key concern is to think out of the conventional books and define
new ideas enable the drilling engineer to control the wells results,
trouble shoot the problems and reduce the cost based on clear image of
calculations and images that improve the decision. We introduced this
approach in order to stop imagination in the drilling process and replace
with an image of the wells down hole conditions.
An important part for the steps of the design and execution is the trouble
shooting for the commonly faced problems, troubleshooting starts at the
stage of planning during which definition for the expected problems are
set and the suitable preventive measure and defined and covered in the
drilling program in order to be clear for the drilling people on the rig
during the execution. A revision for the parameters set while planning
is revised based on the actual results while drilling.
In order to get the good experience, you will need to design and put plan,
supervise the execution and post analysis to check the actual results
compared to the planned and define the planned parameters that needs
to be revised to get the new actual results. This fine tuning will enrich
the deep thinking of the used parameters during planning that will result
in actual results and at the end of the process you will be able to actually
simulate the actual situation during planning, you will be able to
supervise the well during the planning stage and define the problems
that will be faced and give solutions.
During this book we will be concentrating to deliver the necessary

knowledge required from the drilling engineer to be able to get a high
level of experience, we will be concentrating in the three steps
• Planning.
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• Operations
• Post Analysis.
A) Planning:
Planning oil and gas well requires different skills from the drilling
engineer:
1. Data about the offset wells including field seismic data.

2. Software to use the data and manipulate the program
requirements.
3. Analysis of the results obtained from the drilling software and
reflect in the drilling program.
Most drilling engineers consider reading the drilling, final well, mud,
IADC, reports etc. is enough to put a well design and to avoid the
problems occurred in the original wells to be repeated in the new well.
This vision is limited to be sure that you are doing a good plan and will
avoid the problems faced while drilling in the previous well. Drilling
design is an engineering science that requires calculations during the
plan and execution, it is not only revision for reports and depending on
the past experience. The drilling engineering science consists of rig
equipment, drilling fluids, cementing, bits, hydraulics, drill string,
directional drilling, pore and fracture pressures, casing and drill string
designs. All these chapters in the drilling books need to be studied
carefully and applied using the suitable equations or basically using the
suitable software.
An important set of data available from offset wells are electric line data
Gamma Ray, Density, Resistivity, Sonic, Caliper and Seismic.
These sets of data are available in print outs, and or text file with the
geologist and petrophysists. The value of these data can be represented
as follows :
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The sets of data presented above are the basic requirements for
performing Geo-mechanics, wellbore stability for pore pressure,
overburden and fracture gradient and which is the basic and important
steps before performing the well design calculations, we can say it is the
basic of the foundation and normally most drilling engineers use
assumption which is not right will result in bad planning (planning is
not only steps of practices). I will rearrange the importance for learning
each subject studied and performed by the engineers.
Pore pressure & Fracture pressures calculations are used to define

the following:
1. Mud weight to be used while drilling to avoid losses or well control.

2. casing setting depths for the phases drilled a define the possibility
of deepening when required by the exploration team.
3. Pump rate resulted in equivalent circulating density not to sever the
formation while drilling and cause losses
4. Cement heights not to cause losses and spacers not cause an influx
while cementing.
Wellbore stability related to the pore and fracture pressures and hole
collapse calculations define the area of excessive shale failure that
resulted in hole break outs and wash outs of the wellbore especially at
the pressurized shale intervals.
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the graph shows the effect of changing the will trajectory including
inclination and Azimuth on the stability of the hole at one point of the
hole, the range of the required mud weights ranges from 12.9ppg in the
vertical hole to 16ppg with changing the wells Azimuth and direction.
It is clear that drilling in the direction perpendicular to the maximum
horizontal stress will provide better hole conditions.
The basic idea to use electric line data to draw this graph is by drawing
a porosity sensitive parameter on semi log paper against depth results in
a straight line in normal compaction areas, any deviation from the
normal trend define abnormal or subnormal pore pressure. The approach
applicable on any type of formation not only shale formations.
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This approach is different from the drilling exponent where the equation
presented is defined well in clean shale interval.
As a good drilling engineer and simply by revising the hole caliper of

the previous wells you will be able to define the areas of wash outs and
define places of expected bad hole conditions during tripping, logging
and running casing. Areas of long washouts end by a bottle neck is
considered a place where tripping with drill string is hard and will
require hard reaming where the same area is considered impossible for
logging tool to pass especially in case of shot logging tool and high low
side. You will need to measure the length of the wash out and compared
to the centralization of the drill string or the logging tool before you can
decide that the tool can path through this wash out and bottle neck or
not.
In the graph the black lines showed areas of wash outs in the hole, in
these areas we are facing bad tripping while run in the hole with drilling
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or logging assemblies. While analysis the reason for presence these
wash outs we found that mud inhibition which resulted in chemical
reaction with the clay minerals and the formation and caused these wash
outs. The company normally is oriented to increase the mud weight
considering that low mud weight is the reason for these wash outs,
meanwhile and after performing the hole collapse calculations the green
and red lines, we discovered that the mud weight used while the drilling
operations is quite enough to hold the shale and based on that we
concluded the problem is related to mud inhibition. The decision to
increase the mud weight could have resulted in sever losses and possible
complicated operations which are costly and can be repeated in the next
side tracks in case of detailed analysis was not performed and this means
that similar problems decisions could be repeated in the next plan.
Simply, this problem of tripping was solved by applying good tripping
practices without increasing the mud weight and managed to continue
the drilling operations smoothly.
Pore pressure data used in the design cementing operations are very
helpful in the definition of the cement and spacers heights.
In one case non-calculated spacer resulted in the overall head of the

cement in the annulus was less than the formation collapse pressure and
shale collapsed at high rate resulted in bridging the annulus of the well
and the surface pump pressure increased and was not able to complete
the cement operations.
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In both wells drilled in this area the caliper shows big wash out against
areas where the mud weight in bright green is less than the shale shear
failure, the caving tendency increase to a high degree when the spacer
displaced high in the annulus and the head against the formation is
reduced.
Fracture gradient calculations is very helpful in defining the possibility

to cure losses using lost circulation materials or other options including
using cement plugs. In case we face losses in slightly high fracture
gradient interval, losses can easily be cured using lost circulation
materials through bridging the permeable zones which strengthen the
overall interval. Meanwhile, in case of low fracture gradient lost
circulation materials are not good to cure the losses as the main
formation will be fractured due to its nature. In one case the hole was
drilled using simple low eight mud and managed to reach section total
depth where a planned switch oover using higher mud weight was
performed and resulted in complete loss of circultation situation. Six
days operations to cure the losses did not solve the problem even using
cement plugs. The decision was then to return back to the low mud
weight and re-drill the section then run casing string before switching
over with the high mud weight.
Fracture gradient is also helpful is defining the optimum height of

cement used without causing losses, this includes defining the types and
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weights of slurries and the length of spacers and weights to be used. The
better calculations of these items can replace the two stage cement
operations to one stage cement operations which is less time, equipment
and reach half the cost. In some cases you will be able to predict at
which stage and pumping rate losses will start. Losses during cementing
could result in losing high weight cement into the formation and keeping
the spacer and low weight of cement in the annulus, thus by performing
the accurate calculations plan, we can predict when losses can occur and
change or reduce the pumping rate to reduce losses and get the planned
high compressive strength in the annulus for good recorded cement
bond log.
Hole collapse can also occur while cement operations when the overall
head of the cement and spacers in the annulus become less than the
formation and hole collapse pressures and which results in kick or hole
collapse during cementing that results in bad cement jobs and also
related well control situation during cementing.
The previous discussions showed how important the calculations of PP,

FG & hole collapse, different software are available in the market to do
these calculations, in the next page we will highlight a generic
requirements for these calculations in order to be able to easily learn
these software and perform your own calculations.
The basic theory for calculations is to calculate the overburden gradient

using the summation of the density data recorded in the electric line
logging run, for accurate calculations you need all the data starting from
surface till the point of calculations, then calculate the pore pressure
using sonic data or resistivity data through drawing a trend line on a
semi log paper across the sonic and density data of shale defined by
Gamma ray. The theory say that points deviated from the normal trend
semi log are either abnormal of subnormal pressure points and the points
located on the curve are considered normal gradients. Using the trend
and normal gradient of the area, software will be able to calculate a
complete profile of the well.
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The next step is to calculate the fracture gradient using the overburden
and the pore pressure using the commonly used correlations that most
likely relate fracture gradient to the pore pressure and the overburden
gradient to Poisson ratio.
The graphs resulting from these basic calculations are in the basic
planning of the well casing setting, casing design, hydraulics,
cementing.
Another important step in this type of calculation is the hole collapse

and done by the same package of software, hole collapse most likely
related to the hole directional profile as shale shear failure most likely
occur in a direction perpendicular to the maximum horizontal stress
(direction of the minimum horizontal stress) which the basic
calculations for the shale shear failure, petro physical data including
friction angle, cohesion angle and cohesion strength are very important
for calculating hole collapse.
At the end of this work you can define the best direction of the well with
the least hole collapse and consequently least problem. Calibration to
the results is performed as follows:
1. Using the actual recorded formation pore pressure and LOT data
recorded while drilling the first well.
2. Through monitoring the hole conditions while drilling and cementing

helps in the definition of fracture gradient.
3. Areas of washouts define depths where Shear failure exceeded the

mud weight. so, by Comparing shear failure to the actual recorded hole
caliper & the mud weight will result in validating the pore pressure and
fracture pressure data used in creating shear failure.
A complete field analysis for different wells can be presented as an

image to define the gaps in the offset wells
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The following results can be seen from this graph:
1. Steady fracture gradient in the range 14.5ppg to 15.0ppg and was

matching the leak of test data performed on the offset wells.
2. This fact indicate that most of the losses situation are easily cured
with using the suitable lost circulation materials during drilling and
cementing. Losses occurred in offset wells in the permeable
formations and due to high fracture gradient was easily cured.
3. Normal Pore pressure was encountered across the well profile which
reduced in the 8 ½” hole section. Drilling 8 ½” hole with mud weight
more than 10.5ppg caused losses in one of the wells which resulted
in bad hole conditions and low rate of penetration.
4. Area of high shale shear failure at the end of the 12 ¼” hole required
at least 12.5ppg mud to avoid hole wash out. Analysis of this part is
not complete due to the non-availability of hole calliper at that
depth. Meanwhile it looks that the depth of the 9 5/8” casing needs
to be revised to be deeper little bit to cover this high shale shear
failure.
5. Data output of pore pressure and fracture gradient to be used in the
well design of casing design, Hydraulics and cementing to build a
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well model and to be fine-tuned and corrected with the actual results
during the drilling of the well.
A set of recommendations were set for the field based on the results
obtained from these calculations:
1. a good choice to use RSS (point the bit) to a specific depth about
7000ft MD or where there is no control on tool face and replace with
steerable mud motors to the top of first formation
This practices will reduce the well tortuosity at the sallow depths
which will be reflected on low torque and enable to control the tool
face at the deeper part when RSS are not stable.
2. High Torque is a nature for this type of wells due to start building
the angle at shallow depths in addition to increased micro dog leg
across the surface hole.
Utilizing higher grade drill pipes is a solution to be able to drill at

high torque rate.
The best solution should be introducing torque relief mechanism

which would improve the performance by transferring the loads to
the bits, increase life of drill pipes and reduce possibility to twist
and diesel consumption.
3. Salt creeping is a common nature in the area. Problems related to
this phenomenon using lightly under saturated mud while drilling
the salt which allow for slightly wash outs in the salt. good
cementing across 9 5/8” casing across the part and record cement
bond log. Include the creeping effect of the salt in the casing
design taking into considerations the creeping effect is represented
by at least 1psi/ft and use high collapse resistance casing.
4. Shale shear failure in the lower part 12 1/4" hole, high shale shear
values provide a source of shale carvings and wash outs that affects
the tripping in & out of the holes and problems while running
electric line especially in high angle wells.
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Solution for these problems could be by using slightly higher mud
weight than planned in the range of 12.5 pgg .
5. Setting 9 5/8” casing before hitting the low-pressure sand interval
enables to reduce the mud weight from the planned 12.5ppg to
10ppg and which will be very helpful in reducing the losses to
greater extend.
Loading the mud system with the sized bridging materials is a key
to form a non-permeable mud cake.
Perform a stress caging to the low pressure sand increase the

strength of the formation and prevent losses that could lead to
formation damage.
The good brain storming while planning of wells is reflected on the

recommendations and the overall results.
Another example for the field offset data analysis was performed for
a planned well to be drilled in Egypt gulf area
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High Shale shear failure in Both wells indicated through sever
wash outs. meanwhile Wash out was high in the first well as the mud
weight used was less than the shear failure, utilizing mud weight in
the range 13.9ppg to 14.0ppg in the second well improved hole
conditions.
Well flow occurred at 7000ft in the second well, meanwhile pore
pressure across the formation is within the normal gradient. The
mud weight was raised to 13.4ppg to cure the situation.
Losses occurred at the depth 10,518ft in the second well, low pore
pressure describe this formation. Also, drilling break occurred
which reflect low fracture gradient zones. Utilizing mud weight in
the range of 9.7ppg to 10ppg while drilling the section will help in
preventing losses in low pressure high permeability intervals.
Struck pipe situation occurred at 11,720ft in the first well due to
the bad hole caliper, stuck pipe was freed using normal pipe sticking
free practices.
A twist off situation occurred two times in the second well due to
many tripping for bits change and the high compressive strength
formations. frequent drill string inspection should be performed as
per drill pipe inspection schedule to prevent occurrence of twist off.
Casing setting depth:

The casing setting depth calculations define the optimum point
where we can set the casing safely. A key factor in these calculations
is the window of pore and fracture gradient curves are used in order
to draw and plot the optimum casing setting points.
The pore and fracture gradient window is a step in the previous

session while performing the wellbore stability analysis
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1. Well Plan Calculations :
A typical graph of the pore pressure and fracture gradient window
with casing setting depths and which is considered the first step in
well design as follow:
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In addition to defining the casing setting depths, this graph define
the maximum setting depth for every phase and introduction for
casing strings in between is allowed based on the hole
configurations. In some cases a decision to increase the drilling
depth is required while drilling in order to explore deeper section of
the well, by drawing the previous plot you will be able to define the
possibility of deepening the hole to deeper depths as required or it
will be a risk for the operations.
The idea of calculating the setting depth is running a casing before

the previous mud weight cause a fracture to the drilled formation.
Casing design:
In this phase we define the requirements for casing design, based on
the company policy.
Casing is design for Casing Collapse which is the highest risk at the
shoe, the consideration is that complete loss of circulation occurs
after setting the casing and drilling in the next phase. These losses
resulted in dropping of the fluid level to a depth equivalent to the
pore pressure of the formation drilled and received the losses. The
cement behind the casing is considered deteriorated and the mud
weight from the previous hole is considered as the pore pressure
acting against the casing.
Casing Burst Design is performed assuming a high-pressure gas

zone is encountered at the section total depth and gas migrated to
the surface in the areas of high risk in bursting the casing below the
rig at the surface.
Well Bore Stability Calculations

One most important factor in success the well is the drawing of pore
pressure and fracture pressure and gradient curves
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Most of oil and gas companies are drawing these curves at the early
phase of the exploration of the field using seismic or offset
companies.
But in order to increase the accuracy for a specific well we are using
the electric logging data which is the actual recorded properties of
the well from the nearer wells or the same well in order to draw the
formation fracture gradient and the pore pressure gradient curves as
a key to success drilling operations is the predefining the stress and
loads includes mud weights, cement weight, ECDS, surface pressure
which we face while drilling, cementing and running tubular.
The actual density, sonic and resistivity data recorder by electric or
logging while drilling is used to provide the required calculations.
Density and sonic are helpful for the fracture pressure calculations
which is the upper limit of the load the formation can support
without fracture,
The pore pressure and fracture curves are very good out put from
the density sonic and resistivity data and both curves we can define
the casing setting depths as we will be in need to run casing before
increasing the mud weight to the level that fracture the formation at
the casing point, we can define the minimum and maximum mud
weights above the pore pressure and below the fracture pressure of
the formation.
The hole stability for directional wells is an important factor that the
effect of minimum horizontal stresses and maximum horizontal
stresses and its effects on the dip angle and cohesive angle is an
important factor that should be considered during the well planning
and these data are used to define the minimum and maximum loads.
The trainee will be able to earn how to draw the pore pressure and
fracture pressure curves from electric logging data, this is an easy
step and can be done by even excel sheets and sometimes by simple
Eaton equation we can use density with poison ration and formation
pressure defined by the gradient of resistivity , sonic on semi log
paper all these parameters are entered in the equation and result in
calculated fracture pressure of the formation.
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The standard software are using logging data correlations are using
bulk density, porosity and some correlations and based on these logs
you can define the horizontal stress, verticaal stress, min and max
horizontal stress and the fracture gradient and using some
correlations like Eaton, Benebaker or are used to prepare the curves
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Casing Design :
You will need to perform the following :

1. Define casing grades for the planned setting depth.
2. Calculates Burst, collapse and check for tension loads.
3. Provide design requirements in case of H2S.
4. Casing design for injection wells and applying pressures in the
annulus.
5. Perform stress check calculations to define the limits of safe
working loads.
The data from the pore pressure and fracture curves which we are
using in the casing design and by which we can define casing grads
for the plan setting depth we can calculate burst, collapse and check
the loads we can provide design for the requirements in case H2S
by selecting the proper type of grades and metallurgies for the casing
Casing design for injection wells and applying pressure in annulus
perform stress check calculations to define the limits of the safe
working loads
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In this slide we see that the different scenarios for the design the first
we design for burst, and second for collapse and check burst and
collapse for tension.
The scenario for burst assume that a gas kick situation will occur at
section Total depth where lost circulation occurred in the weaker
point of the well at shoe this gas will fill the higher part of the casing
and the lower part will be filled with mud, the gas gradient is the
minimum for the worst case, the stresses for all the well is calculated
and most import, calculate the stresses at casing top below the rig
where if the casing failed gas can escape to the rig and cause lost
circulation the rig.
On the other side the collapse scenario is different which assumes

that lost circulation occurs at the weaker casing shoe and causes the
drop of the fluid level in order to balance with the head of the mud
with the formation pressure in the loss circulation zone.
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The pressure fluid behind the casing is a summed to be formation
pressure because the worst case is that no mud and cement is not
good at this part.
By applying these scenarios and using the equations the normally

design the most suitable casing for burst and suitable for collapse.
And actually the tension to be checked after the casing design is

found that the safety factor reach 1.8 or more for tension
The previous slide is interpreted in the software like we find here

that there is the design for intermediate casing, 9 5/8 at 7500ft we
will see that the mud weight used will be of the section which is
already drilled
The mud weight, the gas specific gravity and the minimum drift here
is 8.5in, fracture values for the formation below the casing shoe
and the next setting depth should be for the next casing
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So, for each one you find that the fracture value are an importation
that because most of the casing design equation consider that the
formation should fail before the casing itself fail, that if we faced
well control situation and there is stresses along the well bore the
good design assume that the formation collapse if the pressure
exceeded the design of the well, the formation at the shoe collapse
before the steel collapse or burst
This is the main criteria in the well design losing the bore is
important than losing people
Data about the next setting depth of the casing because the next
setting depth define the high and the low pressure zones where kick
can occurs or lost circulation can occur
The page for any casing design model is a actually is an
interpretation to the scenarios which we have been discussed in
these pages.
Cement Design :
You will need to perform the following :
1. Utilize pore, fracture and survey data to simulate the cement job.
2. Optimize the volumes of cement based on the simulation.
3. Control the requirements of single stage or two stages cement
jobs.
4. Control the cement job through detailed simulation.
5. Follow up the wellbore stresses and reflect the way which the
job will follow.
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Is an important thing because by assuring that good cement have
been placed behind the casing and isolation of the reservoir oil or
gas from the water this will make everybody happy that there will
be no channel of water to the oil and gas while the life of the well
Some problems occurs that after pumping the cement and starting
getting the spacer out of the annulus we find that there is a hole
collapse, high pressure occur and bridging, sometimes when cement
height come very high to the annulus we find complete loss occur
So, by utilizing pore pressure and fracture pressures and survey data
to simulate the cement job will define the equivalent circulation
density along the annulus of the well and define if loses occurs, if
there is kick will occur during cement placement and will enable us
to optimize the volume of cement and the spacer based on the
simulation
By these simulations we can in some jobs which are designed can
performed in the shorter and at lower cost for same job
Because two stage cementing in some times can increase the height
of the spacer to reduce the stresses in the annulus to a level you can
move the two stage cement to single stage cement
another important thing is two follow up the wellbore stresses and
reflect where the job will be following as we can with the good
design of the cement job we will be able to define the pressure at the
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start of the job the press at latch the dart with liner hanger wiper
plug.
The pressure at final circulation, the pressure when spacer comes
out of the shoe, all the steps should be reported to man on the rig
and know what to care when losses can occur. All these data give
him a good hand and control for the cement operation
Here there is a good simulation that define the situation of pumping

as you see that in this job here we have started the spacer, and the
pump pressure is reducing up to zero psi, and during pumping
cement and during the free fall where all the cement in the casing
string and pressure started to increase once the cement is getting out
of the annulus and reach 598 psi
Actually by make this design and by highlight during each phase of
the operation what pressure against volume this will make the good
control of the Co. man and he will complete the control when the
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plug will latch and what will happen and what is the volume of the
free fall mud will go to the mud tanks the final pressure, the final
pump pressure and all these parameters give him a good control on
cement will be key factor for success of the operation based on the
successful design
Torque and Drag :

You are required to perform:
1. Perform T&D runs and sensitivity analysis for the well design.
2. Define the depths where rotary torque and drag will exceed the
rig limits.
3. Optimize the directional plan based on the results.
4. Introduce the possibility to use low torque tools based on the
results.
5. Revise casing program to avoid high risks of torque and high
drag for ERD wells.
6. Provide casing T&D runs in case required to rotate casing in
problems wells
An important factor for directional well is torque and drag, in some

wells when we reach the well total depth we find the torque is very
high and exceed the torque limit of the rig and will not enable us to
rotate the string at or before section TD and will be consider the well
end as some cases and will be forced to wait for low torque tools
and equipment, drill pipes protectors and this can reduce the torque
and this will be considered as lost time waiting for drilling
operations
So, torque and drag performing runs and the sensitivities analysis
for the well design define the depths where the rotary torque and
drag will exceed the torque limits
There are some cases we find that the torque and drag can exceed
the rig limit and not able rotate the string and should be considered
while performing the well design because in the most cases people
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are using a friction factor .2 to .3 which is not reflecting the effect
of micro dog leg for longer section of the directional well as the
longer section required friction factor up to .5 in the planning stage
and if we apply this we will describe the actual T&D
Based on that we can optimize the directional plan based on the
results, for example most of the directional companies are using
shallower kick of points because it give smaller inclination at the
well TD but shallower doglegs on the other hand means increase of
the micro dog legs and increase of the direction part of the well
which can result in problem of T&D.
if we perform torque and drag runs taking into considerations the
micro dog legs and increase friction factor to .5 during planning we
will find that we can move the kick point deeper or change the
design of the well in order to drill vertical hole as much as you can
and the direction section will be less length, yes will be higher dog
leg in the lower part by the micro dog leg will be lesser than and all
the friction factor and T&D will be lesser at the well td
Based on these data you can introduce the possibility to use low
torque tool if the result of the even move the kop deeper to reduce
the micro dog leg and still you need as torque and drag is high and
need to use low torque tool and plan it during the design of the well
You can also revise the casing program to avoid the high risk of
torque and the high drag of the extended reach wells, an issue for
ERD drilling that there is possibility and a need to rotate the casing
strings while run in hole because of the increased of the drag at the
low side before running torque for the casing itself you will find that
the torque reach up 35000 ft lb and more based on these result on
T&D we can change the design the casing to be liner which will run
simpler than the casing and can be rotated at any part of the well
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The standard sensitivity analysis for T&D you will find here torque
sensitivity for mud , weight, weight on bit, the effect of change mud
weight on the Tt&D the weight on bit are ROP, Friction Factors, the
effect of change friction factors a different situation like rotation
while drilling, rotation off bottom which is the important to define
the T&D which is reflect the situation and condition of the well
when and geometry and the effect of geometry and friction of the
well taking into consideration the WOB and other parameters.
We find in this simulation, drill with rotation and the calculation that
drill with rotation , 15800 with changing WOB o the max and
rotation off bottom, the effect of bit you find surface torque 10700
some about 5000 ft lb and BHA there are different scenarios for
calculation of T&D while drilling and while tripping
Liner Torque & Drag :
2019
You will need to perform:
1. Define the liner T&D at bottom.
2. Define the possibilities to rotate liner on bottom at the cement
job.
3. Revise the casing specifications based on the results.
4. Define maximum job Torque and Drags while performing the
cement job.
Subsequent to drilling torque and drag, the liner torque and drag is
very important because in most cases we run liner hanger and we
are aims is to rotate the liner while performing the cement job and
this rotation will improve the cement placement and allow good
cement isolation behind the casing
So liner T&D define at bottom T&D by the definition of T&D
during the design stage by knowing the torque limit of the rig will
be able to rotate the liner or not and will enable to put the right
selection
Also, the possibility to rotate the line because you run sometimes
with rotating liner hanger and the calculations define that we cannot
rotate the liner due to the friction of the liner with the wall of the
well
Even some times when we are facing obstructions while running in
hole and we need to rotate the liner hanger, the liner hanger is not
rotated due to the string friction and torque and drag due to the
longer section and bigger size of casing, so by performing liner
torque and drag we will know the depths where the liner can be
rotated and we faced obstruction beside we may be in need to run
rotating liner hanger
Based on that we can revise also, the casing specifications based on
the results if we need higher grades of casing that withstand higher
torques with increasing the switch and the torque limits so, we can
introduce higher casing specifications which we can rotate at higher
torque values.
2019
Here is a simulation for the liner hanger T&D the basic calculations
for max drag and torque at different segments at the liner, lower
pipe, upper pipe and the most important for us is the definition of
the max torque and drag at the rotary table, here is the lower pipe,
here is the lower pipe, here are the stresses of the liner and the upper
part of the string which is reflected to the switch limit of the rig.
Hydraulics
You will need to perform:
1. Perform well hydraulics for optimized flow rates and bits
nozzles.
2. Define the hole cleaning ratios for horizontal and directional
wells.
3. Define cutting load in the annulus while drilling.
4. Set the requirements for rig pumps.
2019
Is one of the most important branches of drilling engineering design
because by performing the hydraulic run you can optimize the which
is optimum flow rate that you can use to clean the cutting below the
bit and in the annulus without eroding the formation because causing
wash outs to the formation and over gauge holes and by doing this
also we are reducing the consumption of diesel of the mud pumps
that most of the pumps are performing the higher limit of hydraulics,
more than 60gpm in of hole but this in most cases will cause erosion
of the wall and cause problems while tripping especially in the
interface between soft and hard formations, so hydraulic is used to
optimize the flow rate, which is the simple rules of hydraulic design.
Definition hole cleaning to be than more than 92 percent in optimum
especially in highly deviated wells and cutting loads in the annulus
where less than 5% for proper hole cleaning to avoid loading the
annulus with cutting on the other side will induce fracture due to
higher ECDs in the annulus
2019
Most soft wares will be as follows, simulation of the job where
turbulent , laminar flow and also there is ECDs the best case to
compare with the fracture pressures and pore pressure in order to
avoid inducing losses seepage while drilling most casing some
formation reduce the gallon reduce ECD in order to pass without
losses and after passes the section you can increase hydraulics to a
value which you need.
The software also, will provide cutting transportation rations which
is based on gpm and hole size should be in the range which define
the best cutting transportation ration and cutting concentration
should be less that 3% at the gpm used in the range as 200gpm so in
this range you have cutting transportation ration more than .9 and
cutting less than 5% which is optimum case and the ECD in the
proper range below the fracture gradient and not to increase gpm to
higher or need to limit the hydraulic to the these values and to
optimize the gallons to reduce erosion of the walls
Buckling :
You need to do the following :
1. Define the different Buckling types :
• Sinusoidal
• Helical
2019
• Lock Up
2. Effect of each type on pipe movement.
Introduction to drilling schools is the buckling and define the

different buckling types, there are three types
Sinusoidal buckling, helical buckling and lock up
Both sinusoidal and helical buckling are not causing the string to
lock up or stall, the first on the contact between the tubing and the
casing string along the hole in one point, in the helical the part of
contact is increasing to be along a complete region.
In the lock up the tubular inside the casing are not able to move its
lock up and stop from moving down so, in the first two types still
we are able to move the string but will lock up force occur the string
will not be able to move,
Simulation define the different types of the buckling will see here
by applying weight the red type helical and the blue type sinusoidal
are changing to by applying weight to the black lock up where the
string is not able to move or it locked up inside the string and the
2019
lock up even with the higher weights will cause inability to move
inside the string like coil tubing like some tools and here by
reducing the weight we find that this type of buckling is changing
completely it recommend to work in the yellow and blue areas of
the buckling.
Directional Drilling :
1. Perform well directional plans in 2D & 3D profiles
2. Provide anti collision calculations for offset wells.
3. Compare the actual surveys against plan.
4. Optimize KOP depth using actual rotary and directional day
rates.
5. Export survey data for T&D, Cement and wellbore stability
designs.
Directional drilling will discuss perform the well plan , 3D profile

and anti collision especially for offshore wells platforms which are
more than one well from the same platform and compare the actual
surveys against the plan which give good monitor while planning
and drilling the well to optimize kick off point depth based on the
torque and drag calculations and expected micro dog legs which we
can face during drilling
Key Control :
1. Quantitative X Qualitative.
2. Image X imagination.
3. Facts X thoughts.
4. Effective X absolute.
Qualitative thinking is the easy way to get decisions based on our

experience, meanwhile Quantitative results is a good target to
achieve.
2019
Through Qualitative investigation, we use our imagination in
solving the problems, meanwhile, seeing images will transfer us to
precision and away from doubts.
When we see, we know it is a fact, but when we make our mind in

the follow operations through thoughts and feeling, there still a
doubt.
Are we able to see the differences and compare the results in order
to be more effective in our decision and stop being absolute.
Compare the differences makes results.
Applied Tools:
1. Data to collect, arrange and fine tune.
2. Calculator to apply theory and filed knowledge
3. Experience to analyse the results.
4. A team to put into plan for execution.
Understanding working with digital data, what type of data and

from where we can get, revise and remove impurities.
The necessary software used to improve our work.
The theory and knowledge required to perform the analysis.
Co-operations between all the team members.
2019

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Improve Planning

Wells Drilling Operations

During this book we will be concentrating to deliver the necessary

1. Data about the offset wells including field seismic data.

Pore pressure & Fracture pressures calculations are used to define

1. Mud weight to be used while drilling to avoid losses or well control.

As a good drilling engineer and simply by revising the hole caliper of

In one case non-calculated spacer resulted in the overall head of the

Fracture gradient calculations is very helpful in defining the possibility

Fracture gradient is also helpful is defining the optimum height of

The previous discussions showed how important the calculations of PP,

The basic theory for calculations is to calculate the overburden gradient

Another important step in this type of calculation is the hole collapse

2. Through monitoring the hole conditions while drilling and cementing

3. Areas of washouts define depths where Shear failure exceeded the

A complete field analysis for different wells can be presented as an

1. Steady fracture gradient in the range 14.5ppg to 15.0ppg and was

Utilizing higher grade drill pipes is a solution to be able to drill at

The best solution should be introducing torque relief mechanism

Perform a stress caging to the low pressure sand increase the

The good brain storming while planning of wells is reflected on the

Casing setting depth:

The pore and fracture gradient window is a step in the previous

The idea of calculating the setting depth is running a casing before

Casing Burst Design is performed assuming a high-pressure gas

Well Bore Stability Calculations

You will need to perform the following :

On the other side the collapse scenario is different which assumes

By applying these scenarios and using the equations the normally

And actually the tension to be checked after the casing design is

The previous slide is interpreted in the software like we find here

Here there is a good simulation that define the situation of pumping

Torque and Drag :

An important factor for directional well is torque and drag, in some

Liner Torque & Drag :

Introduction to drilling schools is the buckling and define the

Directional drilling will discuss perform the well plan , 3D profile

Qualitative thinking is the easy way to get decisions based on our

When we see, we know it is a fact, but when we make our mind in

Compare the differences makes results.

Understanding working with digital data, what type of data and

The necessary software used to improve our work.

The theory and knowledge required to perform the analysis.

Co-operations between all the team members.

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