Directional drilling has become an essential technique used in the oil and gas industry to access reservoirs located in difficult terrain or beneath obstacles. By controlling the trajectory and direction of drilling, directional drilling services allow operators to maximize extraction from reservoirs that would otherwise be inaccessible using vertical or conventional horizontal wellboring methods
What is Directional Drilling?
Directional drilling refers to any drilling process in which the wellbore is purposefully deviated from vertical to a specified underground target location. This is achieved through the use of downhole motors and specialized drilling assemblies that can rotate and push the drill bit sideways as it cuts through rock. Directional drilling services involve measurement-while-drilling tools to monitor wellbore inclination and azimuth in real-time to guide the well along its planned trajectory.
Some key advantages of directional drilling include:
- Accessing reservoirs located beneath obstacles such as environmentally sensitive areas, bodies of water, pipelines or existing infrastructure.
- Drilling multiple drainholes to effectively drain reservoirs with irregular shapes or boundaries.
- Increasing reservoir contact and extraction by drilling long horizontal or multi-lateral sections within the productive formation.
- Minimizing surface footprint and reducing environmental impact by extending the productive section underground.
Directional Drilling Techniques
There are several techniques used in directional drilling to achieve the desired wellbore placement:
Slide Drilling
Slide drilling involves intentionally sliding or dropping the drill string while rotating to change the wellbore angle. It is one of the earliest directional drilling techniques but provides less control over wellbore placement than more advanced methods.
Rotary Steerable Systems
Rotary steerable systems (RSS) integrate a downhole steering tool into the drill string that can adjust drilling angles while continuously rotating. This provides excellent wellbore control for drilling horizontal and multilateral well sections. RSS tools are now commonly used for complex reservoir development projects.
Measurement-While-Drilling Systems
State-of-the-art Measurement-While-Drilling (MWD) tools transmit wellbore survey data such as inclination, azimuth and toolface orientation to the surface in real-time. This allows directional drillers to precisely adjust wellbore placement based on downhole measurements. MWD is essential for developing extended reach wells and complex multilateral wells.
Directional Drilling Services and Reservoir Extraction
Directional drilling services play a key role in optimizing reservoir extraction for oil and gas producers:
Horizontal and Extended Reach Drilling
By drilling long horizontal or extended reach sections within productive reservoir formations, a single wellbore can effectively drain a much larger reservoir contact area compared to a vertical well. This significantly boosts production rates from mature oil and gas fields.
Multilateral Well Designs
Multiple lateral wellbores drilled off a single vertical pilot well allows a producer to access different hydrocarbon-bearing zones or sections of a large, irregularly shaped reservoir from one surface location. This reduces the surface footprint and environmental impacts of development.
Complex Platform Wells
Directional well control is critical for accurately placing subsea wells from offshore oil platforms targeting deepwater subsea reservoirs located several miles below the seafloor. Directional drilling services enable maximized oil and gas recovery from remote deepwater fields.
High Angle Wells
Steeply inclined or horizontal wellbores are often necessary to effectively penetrate and drain thin, steeply dipping reservoirs that could not be accessed using vertical drilling alone. Directional drilling expertise is required to deliver these technically challenging high-angle wells.
As hydrocarbon reserves become increasingly challenging to develop, directional drilling will continue playing an essential role in optimizing oil and gas extraction. Advanced directional well construction techniques and measurement-while-drilling technologies maximize production potential from tight formations, extended reach reservoirs and complex multilateral projects. Oil and gas producers rely on the specialized skills, equipment and directional drilling services industry to unlock energy resources located in difficult drilling environments. Going forward, innovations in directional well delivery will help enhance recovery from both mature and undiscovered hydrocarbons fields around the world.
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