DIRECTIONAL

DRILLING
QUESTIONS • What are the tools/information needed
to go from point A to B?
REASONS FOR DRILLING A
DEVIATED WELL
DIRECTIONAL DRILLING
Goal: to determine the most economic
path from the surface to the target depth
with certain boundaries/conditions
• Target Coordinates
• Target Radius (based on well objectives,
thickness or the reservoir)
• Dogleg Severity Limit (drillstring spec,
completion considerations)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOvmZ4rW7Hc
REASONS FOR DRILLING A NON-
VERTICAL (DEVIATED) WELL

There are many reasons for drilling a non-

vertical (deviated) well. Some typical
applications of directionally controlled drilling
are:
(a) Multi-well Platform Drilling
(b) Fault Drilling
(c) Inaccessible Locations
(d) Sidetracking and Straightening
(e) Salt Dome Drilling
(f) Relief Wells
Multi-well
Platform/
Anti Collision
• Multi-well Platform drilling is
widely employed in the North
Sea. The development of these
fields is only economically
feasible if it is possible to drill a
large number of wells (up to
40 or 60) from one location
(platform).
• The deviated wells are
designed to intercept a
reservoir over a wide aereal
extent. Many oilfields (both
onshore and offshore) would
not be economically feasible if
not for this technique.
Fault Drilling

• If a well is drilled across a fault the

casing can be damaged by fault
slippage.
• The potential for damaging the
casing can be minimised by drilling
parallel to a fault and then changing
the direction of the well to cross the
fault into the target
Inaccessible
Locations
• Vertical access to a producing zone
is often obstructed by some
obstacle at surface (e.g. river
estuary, mountain range, city).
• In this case the well may be
directionally drilled into the target
from a rig site some distance away
from the point vertically above the
required point of entry into the
reservoir.
Sidetracking and
Straightening
• It is in fact quite difficult to control
the angle of inclination of any well
(vertical or deviated) and it may be
necessary to 'correct' the course of
the well for many reasons.
• For example, it may be necessary in
the event of the drillpipe becoming
stuck in the hole to simply drill
around the stuckpipe (or fish), or
plug back the well to drill to an
alternative target.
Salt Dome Drilling
• Salt domes (called Diapirs) often form
hydrocarbon traps in what were
overlying reservoir rocks.
• In this form of trap the reservoir is
located directly beneath the flank of
the salt dome.
• To avoid potential drilling problems in
the salt (e.g. severe washouts, moving
salt, high pressure blocks of dolomite) a
directional well can be used to drill
alongside the Diapir (not vertically
down through it) and then at an angle
below the salt to reach the reservoir.
Relief Wells
If a blow-out occurs and the rig is
damaged, or destroyed, it may be
possible to kill the "wild" well by
drilling another directionally drilled
well (relief well) to intercept or pass
to within a few feet of the bottom of
the "wild" well.
The "wild“ well is killed by circulating
high density fluid down the relief
well, into and up the and up the wild
well.
FUNDAMENTALS OF
DIRECTIONAL-WELL
TRAJECTORY DESIGN
WELL TRAJECTORY COMPONENTS
WELL TRAJECTORY
COMPONENTS
• The trajectory of the well must be
considered in 3 dimensions.
• The trajectory of a deviated well
must be the most efficient
trajectory is used to drill between
the rig and the target location
 DEPTH

The depth of any point in the well

path can be expressed in terms of :
• MD is the depth of a point from
the surface reference point,
measured along the trajectory of
the borehole.
• TVD is the vertical depth of the
point below the reference point.
Since there is no direct way of
measuring the TVD, it must be
calculated from the information
gathered when surveying the well.
 INCLINATION

• To calculate TVD, we
need to know the
inclination of the well
• The inclination angle φ
is the angle between
the vertical and the
wellbore.
 AZIMUTH

• To calculate lateral
displacement, the aimuth
angle should be known
• the azimuth angle ϑ is
specified as the direction
between the geographic
north and the projection
of the wellbore onto a
horizontal plane.
DEPTH REFFERENCE AND
GEOGRAPHICAL REFFERENCE
SYSTEMS
DEPTH REFFERENCE
AND GEOGRAPHICAL
REFFERENCE SYSTEMS
The three dimensional system that is
generally used to define the position of a
particular point along the wellpath is:
• The vertical depth of the point below a
particular reference point
• The horizontal distance traversed from the
wellhead in a Northerly direction
• The horizontal distance traversed from the
wellhead in an Easterly direction
DEPTH REFFERENCES
SYSTEM

The depth of a particular point in

the wellpath is expressed in feet
(or meters) vertically below a
reference (datum) point
Datum systems which are most
widely used are:
• Mean Sea Level, MSL
• Rotary Table Elevation, RTE
• 20" Wellhead Housing
DEPTH REFFERENCES SYSTEM
• The Mean Sea Level, MSL is a permanent, national
and well documented datum. The depths of the
formations to be penetrated are generally referenced,
by the geologists and reservoir engineers
• Rotary Table Elevation: datum such as the Rotary
Table Elevation, RTE only exists when the drilling rig is
on site. In most drilling operations the Rotary Table
elevation (RTE) is used as the working depth reference
since it is relatively simple, for the driller for instance,
to measure depths relative to this point.
• The top of the 20" Wellhead Housing: is only
available when the wellhead housing has been
installed and will be removed when the well is
abandoned.
 GEOGRAPHICAL
REFERENCE SYSTEMS
3 parameters that should be defined for lateral
position of the well:
• Well head position
The position of the wellhead is determined by land or
satellite surveying techniques and quoted in latitude
and longitude or an international grid co-ordinate
system (e.g. Universal Transverse Mercator UTM
system).
• Well direction
Well direction is expressed in azimuth
• The lateral displacement
is expressed in terms of feet (or meters) from the
wellhead in a Northerly and Easterly direction or in
degrees of latitude and longitude. All displacements
are referenced to the wellhead position.
Geographical Coordinate System

• The geographical coordinate

system measures location from only
two values, despite the fact that the
locations are described for a three-
dimensional surface.
• The two values used to define location
are both measured relative to
the polar axis of the Earth.
• The two measures used in the
geographic coordinate system are
called latitude and longitude.
 UNIVERSAL TRANSVERSE
MERCATOR SYSTEM (UTM)
• This rectangular coordinate system is
metric, incorporating the meter as its
basic unit of measurement.
• UTM also uses the Transverse
Mercator projection system to model
the Earth's spherical surface onto a
two-dimensional plane.
• The UTM system divides the world's
surface into 60 - six degree longitude
wide zones that run north-south
 Universal Transverse
Mercator System (UTM)
• On the image we can see 283000
m E. and 5458000 m N. The red
dot is found in the center of the
grid defined by principle
numbers 85 to 86 easting and 57
to 58 northing.
• A more complete UTM grid
reference for this location would
be 285500 m E. and 5457500 m
N.
TYPES OF WELL TRAJECTORY
PLANNING THE
PROFILE OF THE WELL
There are basically three types of
deviated well profile:
• Build and Hold
• S-shaped
• Deep kick-off/Horizontal
BUILD AND HOLD

The build and hold profile

is the most common
deviated well trajectory
and is the simplest
trajectory to achieve when
drilling.
Applications:
• Single Targets
• Moderate Depths
• Large Horizontal
Departure
BUILD ,HOLD
and DROP
The S-shaped well is
more complex but is
often required to
ensure that the well
penetrates the target
formation vertically
Applications:
• Multiple Pay Zone
• Lease or target
constraints
The Deep Kick Off
The deep kick-off profile
may be required when
drilling horizontal wells
or if it is necessary to
drill beneath an obstacle
such as the flank of a Salt
Diapir.
Applications:
• Salt Dome Drilling
• Fault Drilling
• Sidetracking/Redrilling
4.1 Parameters
Defining the Well
path
These parameters combine to
define the trajectory of the
well and are the:
• Kick-off Point
• Buildup and Drop off Rate
and
• Tangent Angle of the well
The Kickoff Point
(KOP)
The kick off point is the along hole measured
depth at which a change in inclination of the
well is initiated and the well is orientation in
a particular direction (in terms of North,
South, East and West).
In general the most distant targets have the
shallowest KOPs in order to reduce the
inclination of the tangent section of the well
It is generally easier to kick off a well the
shallow formations than in deep formations.
The kick-off should also be initiated in
formations which are stable and not likely to
cause drilling problems, such as
unconsolidated clays.
Buildup Rate (BUR) and
Drop Off Rate (DOR)
• The build up rate and drop off rate (in
degrees of inclination) are the rates at which
the well deviates from the vertical (usually
measured in degrees per 100 ft drilled).
• The build-up rate is chosen on the basis of
drilling experience in the location and the
tools available, but rates between 1 degree
and 3 degree per 100 of hole drilled are
most common in conventional wells.
• Since the build up and drop off rates are
constant, these sections of the well, by
definition, form the are of a circle.
• The build up rate is often termed as the
dogleg severity.
Tangent (or Drift)
Angle
• The tangent angle (or drift angle) is the
inclination (in degrees from the vertical) of
the long straight section of the well after
the build up section of the well.
• This section of the well is termed the
tangent section because it forms a tangent
to the arc formed by the build up section
of the well.
• The tangent angle will generally be
between 10 and 60 degrees since it is
difficult to control the trajectory of the well
at angles below 10 degrees and it is difficult
to run wireline tools into wells at angles
PLANNING THE DIRECTIONAL
WELL TRAJECTORY
DEFINING THE POINTS ON THE WELLPATH
Having fixed the target and the rig position, the next stage
is to plan the geometrical profile of the well to reach the
target.
The most common well trajectory is the build and hold
profile, which consists of 3 sections vertical, build-up and
tangent
The trajectory of the wellbore can be plotted when the
following points have been defined:
• KOP (selected by designer)
• TVD and horizontal displacement of the end of the build
up (EOB) section.
• TVD and horizontal displacement of the target (defined
by position of rig
and target)
DEFINING THE POINTS
ON THE WELLPATH
Since the driller will only be able to determine the
along hole depth of the well the following
information will also be required:
• MD of the KOP (same as TVD of KOP)
• Build up rate for the build up section (selected
by designer)
• Direction in which the well is to be drilled after
the KOP in degrees from North (defined by
position of rig and target)
• MD at which the build up stops and the
tangent section commences and
• MD of the target
These depths and distances can be defined by a
simple geometrical analysis of the well trajectory
EXERCISE

Design J Type Well Trajectory with the data above.

EXERCISE
EXERCISE
Calculate the maximum inclination angle for build and hold trajectory
using this following data:
• Target Depth TVD - 9,800 feet TVD
• Kickoff Point TVD - 2,000 feet TVD
• Horizontal Departure - 2,926 feet
• Direction of Departure - N20°E
• Rate of Build - 2°/100 feet
SUMMARY