Directional

Drilling
CGE 578 Drilling Engineering II
EH 223

Dr. Zhixi Chen PTRL 4017 , UNSW

Arina Sauki CGE 576, UiTM

What is well planning??

There are many aspects involved in well
planning, and many individuals from various
companies and disciplines are involved in
designing various programs for the well (mud
program, casing program, drill string design,
bit program, etc).

This section will concentrate on those aspects

of well planning which have always been the
province of directional drilling companies.

PLANNING FOR A WELL

The considerations in well planning includes:
Geology of the area formation tops, target zones, problem and
abnormal condition zones
Formation pressure and fracture gradient
Casing program
Mud program
Cementing program
Logging program
Well control
Drillstring design
Drill bit program
Hydraulic program
Drilling vs day schedule
Drilling rig

HOW TO DRILL A NONVERTICAL WELL?

It is easy to drill a vertical well from the rig. But how to drill at
location far away from the rig?

MEAN SEA LEVEL

SEABED
WELL 3
WELL 1

WELL 2

APPLICATIONS
Multiple wells from offshore structures

The most common application of

directional drilling techniques is in
offshore drilling.
Many oil and gas deposits are situated
well beyond the reach of land based rigs.
Drilling a large number of vertical wells
from individual platforms is both
impractical and uneconomical.
The obvious approach for a large oilfield is
to install a fixed platform on the seabed,
from which many directional
boreholes can be drilled.

APPLICATIONS
Relief Wells

Directional techniques are used to

drill relief wells in order to
killblowouts.
Relief wells are deviated to pass as
close as possible to the
uncontrolled well.
Heavy mud is pumped into the
reservoir to overcome the pressure
and bring the wild well under
control.
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9/22/2014 9:53:32 AM

Montara Oil Spill

APPLICATIONS
Sidetracking
Sidetracking out of an existing
wellbore is another
application of directional
drilling.
This is done to bypass an
obstruction (fish) in the
original wellbore, to explore
the extent of a producing
zone in a certain sector of a
field, or to sidetrack a dry hole
to a more promising target.
Wells are also sidetracked to
access more reservoir by
drilling a horizontal hole
section from the existing well
bore.

APPLICATIONS
Inaccessible locations

Directional wells are often

drilled because the surface
location directly above the
reservoir is inaccessible,
either because of natural
(eg. river estuary and
mountain range) or manmade (eg. City) obstacles.

APPLICATIONS
Fault Drilling
Fault denotes a break in
subsurface strata.
Directional wells are also drilled
to avoid drilling a vertical well
through a sharply inclined fault
plane which could damage
casing by fault slippage.
This can be minimized by drilling
parallel to a fault and then
changing the direction of the
well to cross the fault into the
target

APPLICATIONS
Salt Dome Drilling
Salt dome performed
hydrocarbon trap
underneath it. However,
drilling across the salt
dome could cause problem
Instead of drilling through
the salt, the well is drilled
at one side of the dome
and is then deviated
around and underneath
the overhanging cap.

APPLICATIONS
Shoreline Drilling
In the case where a
reservoir lies offshore but
quite close to land, the
most economical way to
exploit the reservoir may
be to drill directional wells
from a land rig on the
coast.

APPLICATIONS
Controlling Vertical Wells
Directional techniques are
used to straighten crooked
holes.
When deviation occurs in a
well which is supposed to be
vertical, various techniques
can be used to bring the well
back to vertical.
This was one of the earliest
applications of directional
drilling.

Directional Well Profiles

True Vertical Depth (TVD)

The true vertical depth of any point or station
along a wellbore is the vertical distance from
the well surface reference point to the station
of interest.

Directional Well Profiles

Measured Depth (MD)

The measured depth of any

point or station along a
wellbore is the distance from
the well surface reference
point to the station of
interest along the actual well
path.

Directional Well Profiles

Horizontal Displacement (D)

The horizontal displacement is the
distance between any two points along a
wellbore projected onto a horizontal
plane or plan view.