Onshore Horizontal Drilling and

Completion Design and Execution

© K&M Technology Group 2022

Introduction
• Welcome to K&M’s 4-Day Course
• Schedule
─ 8:00 – 16:00 every day
─ Breaks every hour (roughly)
─ One hour break for lunch
• Please turn cell phones OFF or to vibrate
• This is an informal setting – please ask questions.
• Have a great time!

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 Course Objectives
• Improve understanding of high-angle drilling
• Be able to explain why certain practices worked (or
didn’t work) on previous wells
• Be able to anticipate when (and why) different
techniques may be required on future wells
• Gain confidence in an engineering approach to
drilling
• Experience fewer problems on future wells!

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Introductions
• Name
• Title
• Location/Project (optional)
• Type of wells you are drilling now
• ERD or horizontal drilling experience
• Specific topics or questions you’d like to address

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 What is possible?
Current record reach is ExxonMobil’s Orlan O-05RD
– TD = 49,213’ MD (15,000 m)
– Reach = 46,347’ (14,126 m) at 8,610’ (2,624 m)TVD
– Step-out ratio = 5.4:1

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What is possible?
Previous record well in Qatar (Maersk’s BD04A)
– TD = 40,320’ (12,292m) MD
– Reach = 37,956’(11,571m) at 3,500’ (1,067m) TVD
– Step-out ratio = 10.8:1
– Drilled with; 2x1600hp pumps, TDS4, WBM, 5”x4” drillpipe
– Spud to TD in <30 days

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 What is possible?
A lot is possible….
Biggest constraint is
imagination or a
perception of what is
possible

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What is possible?
ERD or longer reach wells are generally more expensive
and/or technically challenging than vertical wells or shorter
reach wells…. So why do we drill them?

Three main reasons for ER

1. Surface location constraints
2. Reduced infrastructure cost Economics!
3. Increased reservoir contact

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 What is possible?
A lot is possible….
Biggest constraint is
imagination or a
perception of what is
possible

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What is possible?
ERD or longer reach wells are generally more expensive
and/or technically challenging than vertical wells or shorter
reach wells…. So why do we drill them?

Three main reasons for ER

1. Surface location constraints
2. Reduced infrastructure cost Economics!
3. Increased reservoir contact

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 What is possible?
Successfully pushing the boundaries of what has been achieved
(either by industry or your organization) is achieved in two ways

1. Trial and error

• Assuming you do not run out of money or give up
2. Significant front-end effort to ensure
• The well designed to succeed
• Operational practices are appropriate during execution

Option 2 saves money and results in a faster learning curve

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What is possible?
There are many factors that affect well feasibility. Some we have
control over, some we do not.
We do not have control over: We do have control over:
• Type of formation we are • Rig
targeting • Casing and hole sizes
• How deep the formation is • Casing points
• Overburden (land or water • Mud
depth) • Drill pipe
• Possibly surface location • Drilling practices
• Etc. • Etc.

There is so much that we control that affects how easy or difficult/

impossible it is to drill a well.
Simply getting a bigger hammer is not the solution!
(can actually increase risk via a false sense of security)

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 ERD – What’s Different?
1. Hole Cleaning
─ Hole cleaning and cuttings behavior is dependent on hole size and trajectory
─ Understanding hole cleaning is key to understanding what practices are
appropriate to your well.
─ Are high flow rate, high rpm, thick or thin mud appropriate?
─ When and how do practices need to change
─ “Clean” Hole is actually a myth…

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ERD – What’s Different?

2. Tripping, wiper trips, and backreaming
– Because hole cleaning and cuttings bed development and movement
depends on so many factors, how you trip must be modified
throughout the well construction process
– Stuck pipe practices must also be different in horizontal wells
– Value & meaning of wiper trips is different
• May induce shale instability problems due to cyclical fatigue

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 ERD – What’s Different?
3. ECD and Surge and Swab Management
– ECD, Sure and Swab is related to the differential pressure caused while moving mud.
– ECD and surge and swab magnitude increase with longer laterals, longer reach wells, and
shallower formations because the differential pressure go up relative to the TVD
– The consequences of lost returns are much more severe than a vertical well
1
2 @ 10,000’ MD/4,000’ TVD @ 20,000’ MD/3,500’ TVD
ECD = 11.4 ppg EMW ECD = 13.3 ppg EMW
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4
5 • Same 10.0 ppg mud & 300 psi annulus P in both wells @ 20,000’ MD/4,000’ TVD
ECD = 12.9 ppg EMW
6 • ECD is much greater in a shallow-TVD ER well than in a
vertical well at same MD
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…AND the problem gets worse as wells get longer!
8 • As the MD gets larger, so does the P.
• If P was 300 psi @ 10,000’, it will be ±600 psi @ 20,000’
9 @ 10,000’ MD/TVD
ECD = 10.6 ppg EMW …AND a slight decrease in TVD has a large effect on EMW
10
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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ERD – What’s Different?

4. Torque, Drag, and Buckling

– Shallow directional work has a
much bigger impact on torque than
drag
– At over 65o inclination pipe no
longer slides down under its own
weight
– Knowing the point where pipe will
not trip in conventionally is not
trivial
– Understanding how torque and
drag is generated is key to
successfully mitigating problems
associate with them.

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 ERD – What’s Different?
5. Hole Condition Monitoring
– Indications of problems are more subtle and difficult to detect
– Torque and ECD are both of little value for hole cleaning
– What data is important to collect and how should it be evaluated?

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ERD – What’s Different?

6. Wellbore Instability
– High angle wells usually require more mud weight for stability
– High angle wells are also less tolerant of an unstable wellbore
– The safe mud weight window is smaller while ECD and surge and
swab loads are larger… this obviously causes a problem
Mud Weight Required for Stability

Stable Region

Unstable Region

0° 30° Inclination 60° 90°

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 ERD – What’s Different?
• Additional complications…
─ Casing and liner running
─ Cementing
─ Completion running for conventional wells or plug clean out for
unconventional well
─ Drill String Design
─ Additional Risks – Navigating tight mud weight windows, casing,
drill pipe and sucker rod pump wear, differential sticking…

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ERD – What’s Different?

All of these aspects will be discussed in great detail

throughout the course

With a better understanding of what the main divers

are and what is happening downhole, better decisions
can be made both in the planning phase and well
construction phase

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 K&M’s Systems Approach
– Each element will have an impact on the entire operation.
– No design aspect or practice can be treated in isolation.
– Focus on the “Hub of the Wheel”

Practices

Fluids WBS

BHA Success Rig

Trajectory Drill pipe

Casing

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Why rely on K&M?

• Drilling Engineering Consultancy specializing in complex wells
• Ultra Extended Reach Wells
• HPHT
• Deep Water
• Unconventional
• Company founded in late 1980’s
• Historically focused on Extended Reach Drilling Since 1989
• Experience all across the globe in all formation types and types of drilling
(land and offshore) with experience drilling the most challenging wells
• Acquired by Schlumberger in May 2008
• Operating as an independent business unit
• ~ 40 Employees World Wide
• ~ 8 Project Engineers

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 Why rely on K&M?
Engineering

Training Wellsite

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Questions

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