TRAJECTORY DESIGN OF WELL Y USING MINIMUM CURVTURE METHOD

Presented to
The Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
By
ENIGBOKAN, T.R. (110409026)
In Partial Fulfillment of the requirement for the Award of a
Bachelors of Science (B.Sc) Degree
In
Petroleum and Gas Engineering

INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
From the 1930s on, directional wells have been drilled to tap oil reserves that would
otherwise be inaccessible. Bourgoyne, Millheim, Chenevert, Young (1991) defines directional
drilling as the science and art of deviating a wellbore along a planned course to a subsurface
target whose location is a given lateral distance and direction from the vertical. In drilling
directional wells, the aim is usually to hit a pre-determined target by controlling inclination
(angle) and azimuth (direction). Osisanya (2009) identified the three components measured in
order to determine the wellbores position as the depth (TVD, northing and easting at the
survey station), drift angle (inclination), and azimuth. Thus, directional drilling is drilling in
three dimensions (3-D) (Bourgoyne et al, 1991).
Due to diminishing world oil reserves, this drilling method has become the key choice in
exploiting difficult reservoirs; deeper and/or offshore prospects. In either case, rig cost is
much higher than in conventional land drilling of vertical wells. With the increased emphasis
on directional drilling, proper planning of any drilling venture is the key to optimizing
operations and minimizing expenditures. Well path design is an important phase in well
planning. A smooth well trajectory ultimately leads to a well-drilled path and minimizes
problems such as:

Stuck pipe leading to costly fishing operations or side-tracking, and

hole deviation leading to frequent correction runs.

In planning a well path, the data required includes:

Surface and target coordinates (based on the Universal Transverse Mercator)

Survey intervals
Required inclination when entering the target well horizon
Offset well bit and BHA data
Kick off point (KOP)
1

Azimuth
Final measured depth (MD)
Details of all potential hole problems which may impact the directional well plan or
surveying requirement

These components must be completely defined in the well path trajectory design.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The objective of this project is to plan the trajectory of well Y using the calculation methods
needed for directional well design. Based on known coordinates of the surface and target
location of well Y, the best well profile will be selected. The design points calculated are then
produced using Petrel software.
SCOPE OF STUDY
The following chapter will contain a review of relevant literature on directional drilling and
wellbore trajectory design.
Subsequent chapters will discuss in depth, calculation methods used in well design. The
industry recognises the minimum curvature methods to be one of the most accurate methods;
hence, calculations are based on this method.
The emphasis will be on the following:

Calculate the true vertical depth (TVD) and departure from the
vertical, at the end of the build-up (EOB) section and the total depth

(TD) to the bottom of the hole, in a build and hold well profile.
Calculate directional coordinates.
Describe formulas used to describe and calculate the well trajectory

for minimum curvature method.

Outline the procedure for calculating survey results.

Calculate the northing, easting, TVD, vertical section and dogleg

severity of a survey station using the minimum curvature method.

Determine the exact bottom hole location of the well.

REFERENCES

Amorin, R., Broni-Bediako, E. (2010). Application of Minimum Curvature Method to

Wellpath Calculations. International Journal of Engineering and Mathematical Intelligence,
Vol. 1 Nos. 1 & 3.
Bourgoyne, A.T., Millheim, K.K., Chenevert, M.E., and Young, F.S. Jr. (1991). Applied
drilling engineering. SPE Textbook Series, Vol. 2, pp.351-366, 502.
Osisanya, O.S. (2009). Advanced Drilling Engineering Lecture Material, African University
of Science and Technology, Abuja-Nigeria, pp 276-279.