!

3PE
SPE 20929
Effeot of Steerable BHA on Dra~ and Torque In Wells
by T.V. Aarrestad, State!! Norway

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produos a planned weilpath Both optkms ara

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6000mandwkh ankUnadonan$auptoa
bout
50deQ~The
topdfivehadbaen
set toa
maximumtorquedabout3Sfflm,and thadrllllng
thaCMxehadtobestoppeda about45wmaThia
WeUlainthafolkmdng @bdwf#l A
Studleaonw#t Ahmmpointed outseveral ~
sbla reasons thatoanaxplakltha anoowm@
~mbmtiumly
dlscusatheeffaots
oonoaml~wil+ath Induoedtoqw ~
A
oornputerprogramfor simuladngtoqua and drag
inwetlahavebsen ussd+llwslmulatorhaa basn
tunsdtathe actualwell meawmema w Wiw
the mottonwor,
SrWafsimulaUonaonanotherwalla raalso ~
a4wnfMThlswek in the followingoaUedB, dld mx
hws the same toqua problemsas \vell A Howavar,ttlashownthatthe dku@onaforwallAoan
atleastbepardy Oonnrmadbytharssultafotwall
B,
The shnulator wet is conneotsd to a wellpath
planningprogram,(Rsf.1),The wa(lp@hplannlng
Referencesand illustrationsat end01paper.

WaUAwasdrlWadtoatotaldepthc#about 4500rm
P@uelpresamstheinoUnatMdataforth
welll
~Qm---aFkJ=
LUa2preamta s4nikMdam brthacMactkm(azh
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toqueanddrqirltllaweuasm uohaafordaepar
inoM@xliabwfor thlapfutdtha
~s&losttm

AssMnffomnguralandatheplannsdwllpah
andrsdwaupamarafaldydoaa
l?lfslaoMowJy
aobaoauaethaplannad welt has besnllttsdto
tharealwattinthlsstudy, Hwavar, ttlaeasytosee
thattherealwsll iamuohmore urwanthantha
mu
TllemUlw&wyldldquawaaadju!4sd
by
meaaumdwsildfma
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falrlywellwhatta MppsrMginaraal#tuat&mln
flguratl Slmulatedtorqusafortha actualweuand
tie piannad WlarepmsmecLTha flgun3pmsents thehstanttorquaabngthedrtlfstrtngwith the
bitatabout4500m, Toqueonbitla assumedtoba
WOONm,andthainputdatato thashnukorfor
thatwodmulatkms whkhara a%actthaamq
aaoeptfofthewellpathttis Intaresdngtonotethat
Iortholowarpart (betwaan22s0 mand4500m)
thetorqwabng
thedtillstrln glntharsaland
w~*afafnofaorleasthasalMThis
indkatas that thomraawnfortheh~h
;%WylnthanaaIwallpathiaintha
upparpart
An Mkadononprobl
amswirhhig ht~rquaand
~osno(tanbsfoundhaetmwkhrqald
chmgss
in wall tra@Xwy,sooalledhigh dogleg _
[n
tigura4 thedoglsg (dagraes changa per 30 m) IS

Page 429

plotted against measured depth. These cuwes

clearlyshow the difference betweenthe smooth
plannedwellandthe more rough actualwell.Even
ifit iepossibleto seethe moremughcurveinfigure
1and2for the realwell,thed.~erencebetweenthe
MO curvesbecomesmoredistinct in figure4,
lhevariatlonsindogleg!ntheactusl wellare close
to extreme.There are some high spikes in the
build-ratesinthearea between500mand 1500m.
It is therefore highly recommendedthat drillers
ehouidbe awareof these possibie side-effectsof
usingdirectionaldevices contlnuousty.tfthe main
goal of drliling is to be exactly ot; !he planned
wellpath all W3s, you may have pmbierns in
&aching your final goai,Tl).
Figure 5 illustratesfalrfy weli the same as discussedabove,The curvesreflecta quite theoretical approach to driiiing! However, it is rather
Iilustrattve.Again the same input data is usedfor
the two simulations(i.e. actual and piannedwelipaths).The thscweticalapproach of the simuiator
is basedon usingthe sameBHA+wellboreetc.for
allthe calcuiationeoTheslmuiatorperformsasetof
bitdepthcaicuiationsforeach100m andgiveathe
~m
simuiatedtc@rfvetorqueoAs seen
from the curves in figure 5, the top- drive torque
starts deviating at about 700 m. This is In fact
beyondthe first the dogleg. However,the normal
force betweenthe drillstringand weliborewiii not
differvery much at this stage, sincethe drillstring
is in compression or very iow tension when the
simuiated bitdepth is so shaiimt The indications on weli problemsdue to torque and drag in
drillingwillthereforeat the earliest be discovered
afterthe BHAhas passedthe problemarea That
maybe too late.
Astheslmuiated bitdec:h increases,the deviation
betweenthe two curvesincreases (figure5). It is
alsointerestlngtoobsme theeffectonthetorque
In the smooth planned planned part of the well
between4000 and 4500 m. The overalldogleg is
higherin the pianned welicomparedto the actual
weii, As the bit- depth increases,the change in
torque at the top is rather dramatic, However,
again the change occures after the BHA has
passedthe rough areaof the weiipath,
WeliA maybe describedas a very unevenweil, In
the followinga much smootherdriiiedweli wiii be
discussed,weilB,Figure6presents thedoglegas
calculatedfrom the surveyln~ data in the wtusi
well, and deveioped for the wellpath piannlng
program.Thewelieesuch seemsmuchsmoother
than weilA Alithoughnot shown herethe inclination angieof weli B is at ieastas high asfor well&
it Isalso possibieby comparingfigure4andfigure
6 to state that the peak ievei of the dogleg is at
ieastas high for weii B as it Is for weiiA
Fromabout3000mtheactuaiweliBshowsa drop,
Thisisshowninfigure6forthe actuai weiipath,but
notforthepianned, sincethere isastraightsection
in the sameareafor weli ~. In figure 7 the normal
contactforce between the drillstringand the weli-

troreis presented. Inthe deepestpartofthe weils

the normal force per length is higher In the the
pianned weii then in the actual weii,as expected
by the differencein weilpaths.
Infigure8thetoqueaiong the drillstring forwellB
is presented,for both thepianned and actualwail.
Sincethe normalforce was higher in the pianrw+
weil, the torque aiso is higher, when compared
with the calcuiatiorrsfor the actualweil,However,
at aixiut 750 m the picture changes, in accordance with the differencein dogieg behveenthe
two paths, Accordingly the top drive torque is
calculated to be iowest for the planned weli, atthough at bottomhole !!!e pictureis the opposite.
Well B has been driiied as a smooth weli. There
werenotorqueand drag problemsInthatweli. The
difference in calculationsfor this weii compared
with weil A is therefore significant The two wells
illustrateverywelithe need of carefui planningof
weilpath,and carefui driliingofthe weliinthe most
sensitivezones.The iastpart isas importantasthe
firsti
The calculationsneededforthis presentation,d~
not haveto be accurateto the measumci data in
the weiis. However,the torque and drag model
was tuned to calcuiatemoreor iessthe sameas
measuredwhen driiling.
Themainobjectofthlsstudy hasbeentostudy the
effectfromthewelipathon torque and drag cakmiations.if a weii h to be pianned in an areawhere
severalweiis have already been drill~ use of a
torque and drag model can stiii be very usefu~,if
the rnodei&adjusted to measured d- either~
introducingripples on the plannedweli, or by the
mwthodgiven below
1)Useawellpathpianningprogramto calculate
surveyingdatafor a smooth well,simulatingone
of the
neighboringwells. 2) Tunethe torque
and drag programto the smoothwellcalculated
in 1) by using measureddata in the actualwell
for 1) and by varyingthe frictionfsctor.
3) Usethisfrictionfactorwhen planning therww
weil,
The rm,maldogiegsone gets in realdriiling wiilbe
takencareofbytilsmethod, However,hlemethod
needsthe use of a natural weli, not an extreme
one as weil A The only situation one couid use
such an extremecase for pianning,is if the pianning requiresa very conservativecaicuiatfonresult,

ParlcAA?(I

SteerableBHAor other intensivedirectional contmi methods may resuttIn rather uneven weilpaths, Accordinglyhighfrictioninthe welimayagain
give torque pmbierns,Toque and drag predictionsin pianned weits may therefore not be in
accordancewith driiiing pians,
Basedon toque caicuiationsthispaper presents
thedtierenee betweenapianned smoothweiiand

a rather extremeunevenwell. In addition a comparison betvmn a planned and a smoothdrilled

trajeotofy is given. Both situations illustratethe
importanwof good planningandoarefuldrillingof
welkk
The effeot from natural crooked wells oan be
taken care of when planning new wells by using
exc%t/ngwell data from the samearea
me author would like to thank Den norske stats
c)ljeselskap(STATOIL)foraJlowingthispaper to be
publlshed.
Reference.
1. Aarrestad, T.V. and Tapper, R. Use of mud
mging data in drillingIMrfonnamxanalysis.SPE
19243.Paper presented at OffshoreEurope 89,
Aberdeen,5-8September1989.

Paoe 431

Torque(Nm)

Page 432

Wallforco(N/m)

Torque (Nin)

1
1

Do
0-

Ilog
(

ioqua (Nm)
y

!3

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Page 433