DGMK/GEW-Frhjahrstagung, Fachbereich Aufsuchung und Gewinnung

Celle, 24./25. April 2014

A Comparison of Catenary Profile and Conventional Well Configurations with

Application to Deep Horizontal Well Drilling
C. Teodoriu, Arash Asgharzadeh
Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany

Abstract
Petroleum engineers know the advantages of directional and horizontal wells. In case of
intermediate deep wells, the preference is the customary solution in which a well is drilled
vertically to kick off point, then drilling directionally to the reservoir level. Nowadays by the
advent of extended reach drilling, this approach does not satisfy the goal anymore. In
extended reach drilling and especially in deep drilling applications (beyond 6000 m), the
concern is put on the drill pipes strength. It is known that because of long length of the
borehole-drill string contact, torque and tension below the drill floor increase and reach the
drill pipes strength. Therefore it is necessary to minimize the torque and drag by using new
solutions for the wellbore path.
Build-Hold-Build, short-, medium- and long turn radius are the conventional methods to bring
vertical borehole to horizontal position. Recently, catenary profile as a new method in
directional drilling has been introduced in some literatures. In order to reach the target via a
directional borehole, there are several well configurations. Depending on the circumstances
and available technology, one of these configurations is selected.
This is reflected in his works under the study of catenary profile. However, the purpose of
current paper is to analyze the mechanics of the drill string and the geometry of well
configurations while setting the vertical position and horizontal position of the well. This will
be carried out by making an analytical comparison between catenary profiles and
conventional well configurations. This leads to select an optimum choice while encountering
various challenges under different circumstances. Due to the essence of catenary, the drill
string is kept under tension eliminating the possibility of buckling. Reaching a predetermined
true vertical depth in shorter horizontal departure with less measured depth than long turn
radius and build-hold-build is another pleasant property. Since in modified catenary the
curvature of the drill string is large particularly in upper parts of the borehole, the bending
stresses are small. Finally, it can be concluded that regarding several aspects like geometric
and combined stresses with a few manipulations, modified catenary profile can show a
better performance in drilling directional especially reaching horizontal targets.