Directional drilling in oil well construction

avatar

6.jpg

Greetings friends and supporters of the hive platform, a special greeting also to all users and communities that allow through their efforts and dedication to this space of popularization of science, academia, engineering and everything related to STEM content is of great relevance within the great community of the hive.

In this opportunity I am going to explain one of the techniques within the rotary drilling that gives a availability to the drilling activity of being able to drill a well in a different way from the vertical, this time I am talking about the directional drilling.

image.png

Image Source

We drill a well directionally under the engineering parameters to construct an oil and/or natural gas well when all practices applied are to drill a well that does not have a vertical shape trajectory, any geometric shape in the direction of drilling and construction of a well other than vertical is considered directional.

History associated with the beginnings of directional drilling

The first thing that is important for science and
The main objective of the engineering project was to study different cases for oil wells, in which it was accepted that the drilling of an oil well does not have to be vertical, but that in many cases it would provide many benefits if some technique could be implemented to allow vertical drilling.

This process of acceptance and transition to directional drilling was somewhat slow, however it was not until the mid 1920's that it was possible to confirm the existence of wells that were drilled in a reservoir that crossed the limits of where the oil platform was placed to drill the well, this first demand was what awakened the curiosity to continue studying the technique of directional drilling.

The continuous innovation in the directional drilling from its beginnings made develop a capacity to drill directional wells quickly, this speed in the directional drilling allowed to offer some solutions for example in the control of wells that were in burst, under which it was possible to drill a directional well that could provide a possibility of relief to the pressure of the reservoir.

Geological necessity of having to drill a directional oil well

Through any reservoir study, either by reservoir simulation or in the elaboration of geological maps, many times producing reservoirs are detected that are far away from the site where the oil platform that is going to drill the well is located.

Not only is there a geological need for directional drilling to reach the producing reservoir from an inaccessible area, but the entire producing reservoir can be better utilized if drilling can be done horizontally.

Next in the following image we can appreciate a contour map, in which if we observe it from left to right near the top of the same contour map it gives an indication that a fault line exists, other characteristics that this contour map shows us is that the red lines very close to the center of the map show us an oil - gas contact.

image.png

Image Source

By means of this structural contour map it can be concluded that with a horizontal directional drilling it is possible to take better advantage of the reservoir producing the oil - gas contact, which when the construction of the well is completed will allow a better production and use of the producing reservoir.

What are the benefits obtained by drilling an oil well directionally?

It can be said that an oil well can be successfully drilled when it is drilled using the directional technique as long as it meets certain objectives that are set before the drilling and construction of a well, for example if the desired is to take advantage of the entire length of the producing reservoir, then directional drilling is the best application.

If what is required is to avoid drilling in urban areas or other zones where legal regulations do not allow drilling a well, then you can start drilling a well from a distant and safe zone, and by means of horizontal and inclined drilling you can reach the target (producing reservoir), for these cases directional drilling has provided many benefits.

As many of my readers and followers may know, I have spoken in previous posts about controlling the pressures in the well drilling, when these pressures get out of control and are not effectively controlled, the most likely to occur is a surface blowout, but with the incorporation and implementation of directional drilling, directional wells can be drilled to reach the reservoir that provides the oil and gas inflow and relieve the pressure of the well that is on fire.

Are there any disadvantages to using directional drilling?

Of course there are disadvantages to employing the technique of directional drilling, however many of these disadvantages have diminished with the addition of new equipment and tools, for example before the departure of the downhole motors, directional drilling was very slow with low penetration rates, but when new equipment was added that controlled the directional drilling, and even allowed to have a real reading of certain parameters of directional drilling while we are drilling, made these times shorten and this disadvantage disappeared completely.

One of the disadvantages that can occur is that a country feels that its neighbor may be stealing its oil by means of the technique of directional drilling.

If we talk about laws and regulations for the application of this technique, of course we must be open to the possibility of regulations, for example, I would like to present the following image that basically illustrates the possible existing responsibility for directional drilling by having to cross several sections of the subsoil:

image.png

Image Source

Conclusion and contributions

I think that the technique of directional drilling has contributed enormously to the development of engineering in the application of new technologies applied in well drilling, a clear example is that through directional drilling is that they pioneered many drilling techniques in which you can interpret some drilling variables in real time.

As experience and occupying the position of drilling operations engineer, I had the opportunity to be always in the stage of construction of the well in its intermediate phase, which is where almost always had to be drilled directional wells in the area south of Lake Trujillo (Venezuela), in this stage was drilled in a directional way, and this avoided having problems with pipe sticking, because with the directional drilling and the angle of inclination used reduced the efforts of understanding the most difficult lithological strata in that section of the intermediate hole.

The conclusion of the case is that I really see more benefits than disadvantages to the directional drilling, and that the few disadvantages can be covered with the incorporation of new equipment and technologies that make faster the directional drilling, the other thing to take into account is that the legal regulations for directional drilling are fulfilled in each 'country in what it means to drill directionally in the borders and with this to avoid the theft of oil from reservoirs that are in other countries.

Recommended References

How Does Directional Drilling Work?

directional-drilling

Note: The cover image is of my complete authorship, and was elaborated using the Microsoft Power Point imaging tools.



0
0
0.000
3 comments