Better turns for rotary steerable drilling

Oilfield Review

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 4-9

  Williams, Mike ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ABRASIVES; BOREHOLES; COST EFFECTIVENESS; ECONOMICS; OIL BEARING FORMATIONS; PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE; REAL TIME SYSTEMS; RELIABILITY; RISK MANAGEMENT; ROTATING MACHINERY;

ABRASIVE FORMATIONS; BOTTOMHOLE ASSEMBLY (BHA); ROTARY STEERABLE DRILLING; WELLBORE TRAJECTORIES;

OIL WELL DRILLING;

EID: 3242711459     PISSN: 09231730     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (14)

1. For more on Wytch Farm drilling: Modi S, Mason CJ, Tooms PJ and Conran G: "Meeting the 10 km Drilling Challenge," paper SPE 38583, presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, October 5-8,1997. Allen F, Tooms P, Conran G, Lesso B and Van de Slijke P: "Extended-Reach Drilling: Breaking the 10-km Barrier," Oilfield Reviews 9, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 32-47.
2. For more on Wytch Farm drilling: Modi S, Mason CJ, Tooms PJ and Conran G: "Meeting the 10 km Drilling Challenge," paper SPE 38583, presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, October 5-8,1997. Allen F, Tooms P, Conran G, Lesso B and Van de Slijke P: "Extended-Reach Drilling: Breaking the 10-km Barrier," Oilfield Reviews 9, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 32-47.
3. Slide drilling refers to drilling with a mud motor rotating the bit downhole without rotating the drillstring from the surface. This directional-drilling operation is conducted when the bottomhole assembly has been fitted with a bent sub or a bent housing mud motor, or both. Without turning the drillstring, the bit is rotated with a mud motor, end drills in the direction it points. The wellbore trajectory can be controlled by limiting the amount of hole drilled in the sliding versus the rotating mode.
4. A bicenter bit is an integral bit and eccentric reamer used to simultaneously drill and underream, or enlarge, the hole, For more on drill bits: Besson A, Burr B, Dillard S, Drake E, Ivie B, Ivie C, Smith R and Watson G: "On the Cutting Edge," Oilfield Review 12, no. 3 (Autumn 2000): 36-57.
5. The build angle is also referred to as dogleg severity. A dogleg is an abrupt turn, bend or change of direction in a wellbore, and can be quantified in degrees or degrees per unit of distance.
6. Downton G, Hendricks A, Klausen TS and Pafitis D: "New Directions in Rotary Stearable Drilling," Oilfield Review 12, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 18-29.
7. A whipstock is an inclined wedge placed in a wellbore to force the drill bit to start drilling in a direction away from the wellbore axis. The whipstock must have hard steel surfaces so that the bit will preferentially drill through either casing or rock rather than the whipstock itself. Whipstocks may be oriented in a particular direction if needed, or placed into a wellbore blind, with no regard to the direction they face. Most whipstocks are set on the bottom of the hole or on top of e high-strength cement plug, but some are set in the open hole. Use of a whip-stock presents some risk of mechanical sticking in a casing shoe or milled window.
8. Packing off refers to plugging of the wellbore around a drillstring. This can happen for a variety of reasons, the most common being that either the drilling fluid is not properly transporting cuttings and cavings out of the annulus, or portions of the wellbore wall collapse around the drillstring. When the well packs off, there is a sudden reduction or loss of the ability to circulate, and high pump pressures follow. If prompt remedial action is not successful, en expensive episode of stuck pipe can result.
9. For an example of rotary steerable drilling in a marginal field: Musa MB, Wai FK and Kheng LL: "Fit-for-Purpose Technologies Applications in Commercialising a Marginal Oil Field," paper SPE 80462, presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Jakarta, Indonesia, April 15-17, 2003.
10. For an example of the roles of LWD and rotary steerable systems in well placement: Tribe IR, Burns L, Howell PD and Dickson R: "Precise Well Placement With Rotary Steerable Systems and Logging-While-Drilling Measurements," SPE Drilling & Completion 18, no. 1 (March 2003): 42-49.
11. For more on the PERFORM process: Aldred W, Plumb D, Bradford I, Cook J, Gholkar V, Cousins L, Minton R, Fuller J, Goraya S and Tucker D: "Managing Drilling Risk," Oilfield Review 11, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 2-19.
12. Rotary steerable systems have been used in the Njord field to drill extremely complicated wells, including a Wshaped well. For more information: Downton et al, reference 5. For more on the Njord field: http://www.hydro.com/ en/our_business/oil_energy/production/oil_gas_norway/njord.html (viewed January 12, 2004).
13. von Fiatern R: "Rotary Steerables Ready for the Mainstream," Offshore Engineer 28, no. 4 (April 2003): 32-34, 36.
14. For more on slimhole systems: Kuyken C, van der Plas K, Frederiks K, Williams M and Cockburn C: "Developing and Using Slimhole Rotary Steerable Systems in the North Sea Changing the Economics of Mature Asset Drilling," paper SPE 83948, presented at the SPE Offshore Europe 2003 Meeting, Aberdeen, Scotland, September 2-5, 2003.