Social and engineering considerations in the application of the directional drilling technique

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The directional drilling technique is the technique by which an oil well is drilled that is not vertical, i.e. it is drilled in a direction that is inclined, it is important to mention that engineering evolves in this technique making it a technique that provides benefits not only to the oil industry, but also helps to be able to drill freshwater wells directionally, because when drilling horizontally for example there is a better use of the resources that are in the subsoil, among which may highlight the natural gas and coal extraction.

This, like many other technologies, is born as a result of a need, however, its usefulness is not shown until its degree of productivity is not reached, at the beginning in the oil industry its application was not completely justified until certain benefits that would make it highly productive were really seen.

The first step that had to be overcome in the application of this technology is that it was clearly and consistently understood that it was not necessary that the oil or water wells had to be vertical in terms of directionality, however this process of transition in this sense of understanding was very slow, since at first the oil industry was not convinced by the fact of having to drill an oil well in a directional way other than a trajectory that was not vertical.

Then there were obstacles in the drilling of oil wells and that were mainly because they were being drilled vertically, so with great efforts in studies based on science and engineering was able to demonstrate that these problems could be solved if drilling in an inclined and directional way.

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The experiences gained in drilling oil wells using the directional drilling technique resulted in having to make some configuration changes in the equipment used, for example, the way in which the design of the bottom hole assembly (BHA) of the drill pipe assembly in rotary drilling for drilling vertical wells was made was a design that did not apply to directional drilling, since the rigidity requirements of the drill pipe string had to be adjusted to the directional requirements of the design in the drilling of a given well.

Engineering would have to come to the surface to recompose all the geometry study so necessary to carry out the control and supervision so that the directional drilling did not go out of the planned directional trajectory, since any change in not being in the programmed trajectory can bring operational drilling consequences. For this, within the geometric aspects, the measurement of inclination, which is the measurement of the deviation of the well trajectory with respect to the vertical trajectory of its final objective, is included. An example of this is shown in the following image:

What was sought with directional drilling is to obtain the benefits that have been obtained today in the drilling of oil wells such as for example that it can increase the penetration in the drilling of the exposed section through the oil field, also to be able to drill dodging a town or city.

With the directional drilling technique it has even been possible to drill pressure relief wells as a contingent in the explosion of wells that need to relieve pressure, and this is only achieved by drilling a well with a distance removed from the well in explosion but when it is drilled in the subsoil horizontally and connected with the reservoir whose well exploded, then you can start to relieve the pressure.

Social considerations

What has been seen with the technique of directional drilling is that it has been used to steal oil from one country to another, since it begins to drill in a territory or nation, but then begins to divert the trajectory in the subsoil to fall into deposits that do not belong to that country or nation.

This has brought conflict between neighboring nations stirring up tensions, since economically they are impacted by this type of activity, it is advisable from an ethical and moral point of view to be able to use this technique only for their own benefits within the same region without resorting to the theft of a precious and scarce resource such as oil and natural gas.

References

DEVELOPMENT TENDENCY OF HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLING

East Texas Oilfield