Drilling Engineering
EE047-4-2-DRE / VE1
Overview of Drilling Activities
TOPIC & STRUCTURE OF THE
LESSON
• Types of drilling activities
• Description of the sequence and requirements of the
drilling activities
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
• At the end of this topic, YOU should be able to:
– Categorize the drilling activities into rig move, drilling, and
tripping
– Description and investigate the drilling activities (C4,
PLO2)
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KEY TERMS YOU MUST BE ABLE
TO USE
• If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to use
the following terms correctly in your assessments: -
– Rig move
– Drilling/cutting phase
– Tripping phase
– Stepwise sequence of activities
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Outlines
• Drilling activities and well types
• Entrapment of oil and gas
• Pressure sampling and identification of fluids
• Overview for a well planning
• General well preparation workflow
• Drilling campaign preparation
• Main activities while drilling
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Drilling activities/responsibilities
Drilling activities are characterized by:
• Safety: zero accident objective in a harsh and dangerous environment.
• Environment: increasing importance; zero pollution objective
• Team work: multidisciplinary tasks and works with contractors
• Adaptation: activities in different countries
• Decisions: diagnostic to be done immediately under delicate circumstances,
immediate sanctions
• Choice: technologies, programme, rig, equipment, etc.
• Economics: in permanent evolution
• Reservoirs: more and more complex and difficult to discover
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Well types
• Wildcat: is an exploration well drilled in land not
• known to be an oil field (or little) geological (subsurface) foundation.
Or a well drilled in unproven or fully exploited areas.
• Exploratory: Usually used to describe the wildcat well that has been
drilled without prior seismic testing. Appraisal / Step-out: delineates
the reservoir’s boundaries to determine the size of HC field and how
to develop it efficiently. The well is drilled after the successful
exploratory discovery(ies).
• Infill: Adding new wells in an existing field within the original well
patterns to accelerate recovery or to test recovery methods.
• Reentry: existing well re-entry to deepen track, sidetrack
(directional/horizontal well or multi-laterals well), various activities
depending on purpose of re-entry.
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Drilling Activities
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Geology & Geophysics
• Seismic data acquisition:
– Seismic data acquisition involves applying a seismic energy source,
such as a vibroseis truck (seismic vibrator) or shot-hole dynamite at
discrete surface location.
– The resulting energy is reflected back from interfaces where rock
properties change.
– By recording this reflected energy at an array of geophones placed in
the ground surface, the results can be processed to produce an image
of reservoir and a range of attributes that can be used to infer the
physical reservoir rock properties.
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Reservoir Engineering
• Pressure sampling and reservoir fluid characterizations.
• Information of reservoir fluids include:
– Composition; nature, proportion of mixture
– Volumetric properties; expansion coefficient for oil/gas
– Physical properties; viscosity, density
• Dynamic behavior of the fluids in reservoir provides information on
the potentiality of production and flowing conditions.
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Reservoir Engineering
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Reservoir Engineering
• Exploration and appraisal drilling includes:
– Logging of drilled sections; formation/rock characteristics,
nature of formation fluids
– Coring; formation/rock characteristics
– Rock cuttings: Characteristics and lithology
– Testing; nature of formation fluids, reservoir dynamic data
– Lab analysis; physical properties and behavior of fluids sampled
while testing
• Information of rock data includes:
– Mineralogy
– Texture and granulometry
– Physical properties (porosity, permeability, etc.)
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Types of Drilling Activities
• Exploration drilling:
– Provide exploration department with required information; quality of
acquired data is the main objective of drilling or drilling success criteria.
– Many technical uncertainties; high risks; safety is a major concern.
• Development drilling:
– Provide production department with a good well producer / well injector;
optimum productivity (or injectivity) is the success criteria.
• Well interventions:
– Additional production is one of the main objectives (improving
performance). New technical difficulties (old wells, depleted reservoirs,
access to additional HC reserves).
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Entrapment of Oil & Gas
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Elements of Petroleum System
• Source rock:
– Where hydrocarbons are generated
• Reservoir rock:
– Where hydrocarbons migrate, accumulate and trapped
• Cap rock:
– Impermeable overlying layer which prevents further
migration of hydrocarbons
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Types of Traps
Anticline / Fold Fault Diapirism/ Salt Dome
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Drilling Campaign Preparation
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Drilling Campaign Preparation
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General Well Preparation Workflow
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Reservoir Sec./Env.
Geotechnics
Geology Civil works
Geophysics. Logistics
Drilling / well
activities
Contracts Production
Purchasing
Projects
Cost control Construction
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• A well drilling programme is prepared by the Drilling team, which
includes:
– The well description
• General data (well identity, position, etc.)
• Well objectives (prospect description, etc.)
• Well main data (anticipated pressure/temperature, deviation, casing architecture,
mud summary, etc.)
• Well duration and cost (tentative progress curve)
– Well operating program:
• Number of drilling sections (listed by hole diameters) for each section
• Section objectives
• Outline of drilling operations
• Data acquisitions
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– A detailed technical program
• Specifications for drill string, drill bits, casing, cementing, formation
evaluation, completion
• Detailed procedures for positioning, moving, skidding, tripping, BOP
and tests, coring, logging, L/MWD, mud logging, fluid sampling, etc.
• Well equipment list for consumables
– Appendices
• General safety measures
• Reports to be prepared
• All contact list
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Drilling progress Drill pipe …. one drilled section
conductor pipe Drill collar
(pre-set)
Drill bit
Drilling set casing
(e.g. 17 ½”) and cement
(e.g. 13 3/8”)
Drilling set casing
(e.g. 12 ¼”) and cement
(e.g. 9 5/8”)
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Well Types
• Wildcat: no known (or little) geological foundation for site selection
• Exploratory: site selection based on seismic data; no known drilling data
in the prospective horizon
• Appraisal / Step-out: delineates the reservoir’s boundaries; drilled after
the exploratory discovery(ies); site selection usually based on seismic
data
• Infill: drills the known productive portions of the reservoirs; site
selection usually based on patterns, drainage radius, etc.
• Reentry: existing well re-entry to deepen track, sidetrack, various
activities depending on purpose of re-entry
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Steps to Drilling a Well
1. Complete or obtain seismic, log, scouting information or other data
EE047-4-2-Drilling Engineering Ch3-Overview of Drilling Activities
Steps to Drilling a Well
2. Lease the land or obtain concessions (Production Sharing Contract,
PSC)
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Steps to Drilling a Well
3. Calculate reserves or estimate from best data available
4. Reserves estimates show payout, proceed with well
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Steps to Drilling a Well
5. Obtain permits from conservation/national authority
6. Prepare drilling and completion program
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Steps to Drilling a Well
7. Ask for rig bids from contractors
8. Modify program to fit contractor’s needs
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Steps to Drilling a Well
9. Construct roads, location/platform, etc.
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Steps to Drilling a Well
10. Gather all personnel concerned for meeting prior to commencing
drilling
11. If necessary, modify program
12. Drill well
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Steps to Drilling a Well
13. Move contractor if workover is to be used to complete
well
14. Complete well
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15. Install surface facilities.
16. Analyze operations with concerned personnel
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Objectives of Drilling Operations
• Drill safely
– HSE consideration supersede all other goals even if they require changing plans,
delaying operations or incurring extra cost.
• Provide a fit-for-use well
– Whether it is drilled for exploration, prospect appraisal or field development, a well
must meet the need that led to it being produced in the first place.
– As a minimum standard, it should be drilled without damaging the borehole or any
potential producing formations and it should satisfy the design requirements for
formation testing, data gathering, oil and gas production or other post-drilling
activities.
• Minimize overall well cost
– It is therefore in everyone’s interest to control well costs. It is important to consider
total cost over the life of the well, and to balance this cost against HSE and well
usability.
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QUICK REVIEW QUESTIONS
• How drilling is initiated by well planning and what
are the steps?
• How rig move is carried out?
• How drilling is performed?
• How tripping is performed?
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SUMMARY OF MAIN TEACHING
POINTS
• Categorized phases of drilling activities
• Description of the sequence of activities
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QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
Q&A
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WHAT WE WILL COVER NEXT
• Mud rheology, circulating system and pumps
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