6.

Types of Directional Well Profile

There are four basic well profiles considered while planning a directional well. Here we are only going to have
basic preview of these profiles and the design considerations will be covered in the coming posts.

TYPE I WELLS
Type I wells are made up of a kick off point, one buildup section and a tangent section up to the target. They are
also called Build and Hold Trajectory or L rofile !ells "as it is L # shaped$. These wells are drilled vertically
from the surface to kick#off point at a relatively shallow depth. %rom the kick off point, the well is steadily and
smoothly deflected until a ma&imum angle and the desired direction are achieved "B'IL($. Then, if desired,
casing is run and cemented. %urther, the established angle and direction are maintained "H)L($ while drilling
upto the target depth.
'sually this method is employed when drilling shallow wells with single producing *ones.


TYPE II WELLS
Type II wells are made up of a vertical section, a kick# off point, a build#up section, a tangent section, a drop#off
section and a hold section upto target. They are also called + rofile !ells "as they are + # shaped$. Like Type I
!ells, the Type II wells are drilled vertically from the surface to the kick#off point at a relatively shallow depth.
%rom the kick off point, the well is steadily and smoothly deflected until a ma&imum angle and the desired
direction are achieved "B'IL($. The angle and direction are maintained until a specified depth and hori*ontal
departure has been reached "H)L($. Then, the angle is steadily and smoothly dropped "(,)$ until the well is
near vertical. %inally the angle and direction is maintained till we reach the target depth.
- disadvantage of the Type II is that it will generate more tor.ue and drag for the same hori*ontal departure.
'sually this method is employed to hit multiple targets or to avoid faulted region or to minimi*e the inclination
in the *one which will be fractured during completion or for sidetracking.



TYPE III WELLS
Type III wells are made up of a vertical section, a deep kick off and a build up to target. They are also called
(eep /ick off wells or 0 rofile wells "as they are 0 # shaped$. They are similar to the Type I well e&cept the
kickoff point is at a deeper depth. The well is deflected at the kickoff point, and inclination is continually built
through the target interval "B'IL($. The inclinations are usually high and the hori*ontal departure low.
This type of well is generally used for multiple sand *ones, fault drilling, salt dome drilling, and stratigraphic
tests. It is not used very often.



TYPE IV WELLS
Type I1 wells are made up of anyone of the above profiles plus a hori*ontal section within the reservoir. They
are also called Hori*ontal wells or Hori*ontal (irectional !ells. - hori*ontal well is a well which can have any
one of the above profiles plus a hori*ontal section within the reservoir.
The hori*ontal section is usually drilled at 23 degrees and therefore the e&tra maths involved is .uite simple as
we only need the measured length of the hori*ontal section to calculate the total well departure and total
measured depth.
The hole total T1( usually remains the same as the T1( of the well at the start of the hori*ontal section.
However, if the hori*ontal section is not drilled at 23 degrees or there are dip variations within the reservoir,
then the total hole T1( will be the sum of the T1( of the hori*ontal section and the T1( of the rest of the
well.
Hori*ontal drilling is used to produce thin oil *ones with water or gas coning problems, used to increase
productivity from low permeability reservoirs by increasing the amount of formation e&posed to the wellbore,
used to ma&imi*e production from reservoirs which are not being efficiently drained by vertical wells and to
connect the portions of the reservoir that are productive.



osted by (eepak 4houdhary at 5637633 -8
Labels6 Build and Hold, (eep kick off !ells, Hori*ontal !ells, + rofile, Type I wells, Type II wells, Type III
!ells