Different Types of Well

An oil well is a boring in the Earth that is designed to bring petroleum/ oil/ hydrocarbons to
the surface. Usually some natural gas is released along with the oil. A well that is designed to
produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.

A wellbore is a hole that is drilled to aid in the exploration and recovery of natural resources
including oil, gas or water. A wellbore is the actual hole that forms the well. A wellbore can
be encased by materials such as steel (Casing) and cement, or it may be uncased.

There are a number of different types of wells that can be drilled. A particular well type may
be best suited or most economical in the efforts to drain a specific configuration
of hydrocarbons. Various drilling strategies can be adopted to place wells in specific patterns
with the aim of optimizing production from a field. In the early days of the oil industry,
drilling wells was a simple operation. A well location was picked at top reservoir, and the
well was drilled directly down to the target as a vertical well. Then drilling became more
sophisticated when the art of deviating wells was perfected where the drill bit is deflected at
an angle from the vertical toward a specific target. Vertical and moderately deviated wells are
called conventional wells. They are the most common well configurations because they are
relatively cheap to drill.

Oil/Gas wells are classified by their purpose in contributing to the development of a resource.
They can be characterized as:

1. Wildcat wells: Wildcat wells are drilled where little or no known geological information
is available. The site may have been selected because of wells drilled some distance from
the proposed location but on a terrain that appeared similar to the proposed site.

2. Exploration wells: Exploration wells are drilled purely for exploratory (information
gathering) purposes in a new area, the site selection is usually based on seismic data,
satellite surveys etc. Details gathered in this well includes the presence of Hydrocarbon in
the drilled location, the amount of fluid present and the depth at which oil or/and gas
occurs.

Appraisal wells are drilled to confirm and evaluate the presence of hydrocarbon in a
reservoir that has been found by an exploratory well. Appraisal wells are used to assess
characteristics (such as flow rate, reserve quantity) of a proven hydrocarbon
accumulation. The purpose of this well is to reduce uncertainty about the characteristics
and properties of the hydrocarbon present in the field.

Delineates/ Step-Out Wells: Delineates(Sketch out/ Trace Out) the reservoir boundaries,
drilled after exploratory discovery.

3. Development wells: Development wells are wells drilled for the production of oil or gas
already proven by appraisal drilling to be suitable for exploitation.
4. Re Entry Wells: Existing well or new well to re-enter to deepen, side track, rework, or
re-complete, various amount of planning required, depending on purpose of re-entry.

Injection Wells: A well in which fluids are injected rather than produced, the primary
objective typically being to maintain reservoir pressure.

Production wells are drilled primarily for producing oil or gas, once the producing
structure and characteristics are determined. It is the well through which recovery
techniques are being used and through which oil is produced.
Vertical Wells: A well that is not turned horizontally at depth, allowing access to oil and
gas reserves located directly beneath the surface access point. Historically, natural gas
and oil exploration involved the use of vertical wells because directional drilling
technology was expensive and complicated.

Directional Wells: A directional well is an oil industry term for an oil well with a
borehole that deviates from a vertically straight line. This is normally done with the
intention of hitting several targets in the subsurface.

Horizontal Wells: A well that is turned horizontally at depth, providing access to oil and
gas reserves at a wide range of angles.

Slant-hole Wells: Slant well, also known as directional well is defined as the practice of
drilling non-vertical wells. It is often used in oil and gas production to exact oil or natural
gas that could not be accessed by drilling vertically. A certain angle gives access to oil or
natural gas that is at an angle to the drill. Usually special equipment is used to drill a slant
well. The most common angle for slant drilling is from 30 to 45 degrees. This can be
used to extract resources from spots that cannot be drilled vertically, such as under a lake
or beneath a mountain. It can maximize oil and natural gas production and make drilling
cheaper and easier in some instances

Relief Wells: In the natural gas and petroleum industry, a relief well is drilled to intersect
oil or gas well that has experienced a blowout.

Abandoned well/Dead Wells are wells permanently plugged in the drilling phase for
technical reasons.

Monitor Wells: the term "monitoring well" is limited to wells designed to monitor
subsurface water in the saturated zone