University of Zakho

College of Engineering
Petroleum Engineering Department
3rdYear- 2021-2022

Drilling fluid and Cementing

Multilateral wells report

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List of content:-
-
- Introduction about Multi laterals wells…..page2
- How to drill multilateral wells? …………… page3
- The chart that shows the parts of lateral wells………. PAGE4
- The lateral design………. PAGE5
- We have two categories of multilateral junction6
- A multilateral well are ranked depending on the complexity and the type of
junction and this is called (Technology Advancement Multi Laterals or TAML)
so by this way it has been classified into 6 categories…………page7&8&9&10
- Conclusion………………..page11

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 Multilateral wells
Because of the negative effects that drilling techniques cause on the environment due
to the procedures that must be done such as paving roads, cutting trees, digging the
ground, etc., as well as due to the high cost they need, they have designed a new
drilling rig to mitigate technical disasters that harm the environment and also to
reduce the prohibitive cost of drilling techniques, and this new technique is called
Multilateral wells

So what is Multilateral wells?

In the middle of 1990s this type of wells spread globally, Multilateral wells are type
of wells that start by drilling a regular pit like all pits, and then branches emerge from
them according to the location of the oil and of course they are separate from the
main well, this process facilitates work and reduces time and also, as we mentioned
earlier, it reduces the material cost because oil is extracted from several wells,
through one well, the multilateral wells to reach different bottom holes they may be
horizontal or deviated or may be vertical ,

The multilateral wells had been invented since 1920, and after a lot of studies and
practicing and after the development of the technology in the 70's and 80's it became
more practical than before.

Fig.1. shows us multilateral wells in Bashkiria in 1953, as we are watching there are
many wells Branch out from the main well

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How to drill multilateral wells?

1- First of all logging tool lowered in the hole to target the production zones.

2- The next step is taken and another tool is lowered which is sim jet toolis used to
make windows on target zones.

3- After that to drill the multilateral wells, at the ground the micro tubing and the
jetting assembly are enter the sim jet tool screen .

4- The high pressure jet get into the windows that sim jet tool made before at the
second step and then it made a new branch at the window .

5- It produce a special liquid to resist the sim jet tool from entering the branch.

6- This can be done on different targets.

Fig 2; shows as the steps of drilling multilateral wells

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The chart that shows the parts of lateral wells:-

As we are watching in figure 3 there are many parts

in the borehole when we drill a Multilateral well
and now we are going to define one by one :-

- Laterals :- these are the branches or the

wellbores that came out from the mother
wellbore ( main wellbore).

- Branches:- these are the branches or the

wellbores that came out of the horizontal
lateral and run into horizontal plane.

- Splays :- these are also well bores that comes

out of the laterals like branches, but this time
it run into vertical plane .

- Junctions :- junctions are called intersection

points because at this point the lateral
intersect with the main wellbore . And also
we may have junctions at the points where
two branches or splays intersect with a
lateral.

Fig 3: shows us the parts of multilaterals

Under the ground

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The lateral design:-
We can't choose the geometry of the multilateral by our own , it’s determination
depends on the location of the production zone , how much it extents depends on the
target depth the deeper target the more extension will happen , it may take many
shapes so the lateral may be parallel to each other with same depth or different depth ,
they make take different directions or same direction , it may have one lateral or two
or many laterals, and the laterals may have many branches or one branch or doesn't
have at all also in case of splays , all of that depends on the number, location,
direction.. of the targets ( production zones).

Fig 4 : shows as the geometry of the multilateral wells

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We have two categories of multilateral junction:-

1) Uncased junction :-

In this case the lateral doesn't have casing but the main
well (the mother well) may be cased or not , this type of
junction is cheaper and it is also easier to build , but to
apply this type we must make sure that the formation is
strong enough to resist any collapse that may happen or
any problem like sand production .

Fig 5: uncased junction

It is similar To Austin Chalk
formation multilateral wells

2) Cased junction :-

In this case the lateral will be cased , the process is more complicated and more
expensive than the previous one because the hole must be larger it needs
cementing and casing .

Fig 6: cased junction with

Sperry suns liner tieback

System (LTB S)

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A multilateral well are ranked depending on the complexity and the type of junction
and this is called (Technology Advancement Multi Laterals or TAML) so by this
way it has been classified into 6 categories:-

TAML1 (level 1):-

This level is the simplest one because the complexity will increase with increasing
the levels and by this way the cost will also increase and the risk , so by this we
conclude that this type which is uncased is the simplest and is the cheapest and it has
less risk , the rocks which we work on in this type are hard as we mentioned before it
must be like this to prevent collapsing and also problems like sand production , this
type is used a lot because of its simplicity.

Fig 7 level 1

TAML 2(Level 2):-

In this type the main well bore is cased but the laterals will be uncased this type
reduce collapsing because of the mother borehole casing , and in this level we can
produce from each later singly by placing packers or sliding sleeves in the mother
hole ( main hole )

Fig 8 level 2

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TAML 3 ( level 3):-

At this level we will use a liner and lower it in the lateral , at this type the main
borehole is cemented but the lateral is cased without cementing at the junction that
makes it not very expensive and it also make it more stable, here we can also use
packers to produce from single lateral and we can also produce from all of them
together.

Fig 9 level 3

TAML 4 ( Level 4):-

At this level the lateral and the main bore hole are cemented and cased and it will be
supported by tubing also, by this it can work for consolidated and unconsolidated
formations, because the cementing is not enough because it can only resist some
different pressures so it can't provide hydraulic isolation .

Fig 10 level 4

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TAML 5 ( Level5):-

At this level tubing and packers are supply and it provides hydraulic pressure
isolation because of the completion (but all of the levels above can not provide
hydraulic pressure isolation) , this type is more expensive and it is also risky because
any problem may exist in the tubular may cause a problem in hydraulic pressure
isolation and also because it is more risky to run .

Fig 11 level 5

TAML 6 ( level 6):-

At this type full hydraulic isolation is provide, and this is differ in the pressure
isolation here the isolation is from the main wellbore, in this level Expandable metal
junction is used . This type is very suitable for weak formations, as we are watching
in the fig 12 at this case we have two separate wells are drilled from a main wellbore .

Fig 12 level 6

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In conclusion:-
After all of that we can conclude that there are many reason of drilling Multilateral
wells like it saves time because if we have many production zones in the same area
instead of drilling many borehole we will drill only one hole and by the multilateral
well we will reach all of the production zones by one main hole and laterals get out of
it by following the production zones places , this will also reduce the cost of the
drilling process and also it reduce the risk of the drilling process and it is effect on the
environment because when we drill many boreholes we will destroy many places but
this well will let us drill only one borehole instead of many , also when we drill many
boreholes we will cut more tries and more living will effect so multilateral wells will
reduce this , it also increase the recovery of the reservoir and it get us more
understanding of the reservoir , it is also effective in offshore industry because by
this way we will get more wells with the same number of slots . But it also has many
drawbacks like if something stuck in it then it is more difficult to take it and also if
the main borehole is a good producer and the we face a problem with the laterals it
will be difficult to clean them so we have to isolate the main borehole and that will
make a lost especially if the main borehole is a good producer.

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The references:-

- https://www.slb.com/resource-library/oilfield-review/defining-series/defining-
multilateral-wells
- http://www.drillingformulas.com/basic-knowledge-about-multilateral-well-and-
completion/
- https://youtu.be/IrkMpSHAN8c
- https://petrowiki.spe.org/
Multilateral_wells#Advanced_multilateral_wells_application

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