Lecture 13

Deflection of wells and directional

and horizontal drilling

Types of the wells

By its wellpath we distinguish the following wells:

straight holes
directional wells
horizontal wells
multilateral wells
Drilling of any well should proceed under a strict
control its position

To drill a well in conformity with the planning

wellpath it is necessary to do two things:

to know the current position of well path;

possibility to the direction of bit

movement.

We define the two following angles

which are characterized current
position of the well while drilling
process:
Drift or inclination or zenith angle is an angle between
axis of the well in given point 1 and the vertical axis 2
below rig site. It is designated .
Direction or azimuth angle , i.e. an angle taken in
horizontal plane between the well plane and orientation
with respect to the north.
We measure these angles with the help of MWD or
inclinometers.

Profile and plan of directional well

Deviation of the well in the
point O is characterized by
following angles:

drift (inclinational) angle ;

Direction or azimuth
angle ;
1 horizontal plane;
2 hole axis;
3 axis plane;
4 vertical line;
5 direction to the north;
6 horizontal projection of hole axis.

Two types of well deflection:

1) Plane deflection

2) Spatial deflection

A1

Direction angle is constant

1
Direction angle is changed

Well path of the wells on the

Gullfaks field (North Sea)

Causes of well deflection:

geological causes;
technical causes;
technological causes.

Geological causes:

Anisotropism and lamination of the rocks.

Alternation of rocks of varying hardness
and the degree of the beds dip to
horizontal.
Tectonic disturbances in the beds.
Hard inclusions in the layers, caverns
and voids.

Technical causes:

Misalignment of the derricks axis, rotor

and protective casing axis.
The presence in the drilling string of bent
drill pipes and Kelly.
Skewing of threaded connections in the
bottom section of the drilling string.

Technological causes:

Lost stability of the BHA and its bending.

Incorrect selection of bottom hole
assembly.
Application of drilling practices, whose
parameters dont correspond the bottom
hole assembly.

Preventing deflection
of straight wells
A general measure preventing deflection
of straight wells is a proper choice of the
bottom hole assembly that should ensure
drilling of the straight well with high bit
performance under different geological
conditions.

Three types of bottom hole

assembly:
1. BHA based on utilization of the plumb bob
effect or pendulum principle.
2. Stiff BHA (principle of the drill string
centering in the well).
3. Gyroscope BHA based on rotation of drill
collar with big mass and which is attached to
the rotor of turbo drill.

Pendulum BHA
Guide section of Drill string
(from the bit to tangency point)

tangency point

Q- the weight of Guide section

the weight on the bit

Different cases while drilling

P 3 Q P
2 straighten force

2 deflecting (deviating) force

3

1
2

Increasing possibility
of drift angle reducing

Increasing possibility
of drift angle growth

Stabilization of drift angle

P3 P1
P2 0

const

Under drift angle stabilization 2=geol

Dotted line is the axis of the well

BHA influence

Increasing the BHA stiffness (for example drill collars diameter)

we increase the possibility of drift angle reducing. In opposite
case the possibility of drift angle growth is increased.
But under complicated conditions increasing the drill collars
diameter is not enough. In this case the centralizer is installed
at definite distance from the bit. It helps us to control the
further drill bit movement. The American scientist A. LUBINSKI
was the first who create theory of directional drilling with a
single centralizer. It allows to define the optimum distance
from the bit to the centralizer. Using such BHA we can increase
the weight on the bit (for 30-40%) without risk of drift angle
growth.

BHA with one centralizer

centralizer

P1|

K
L
P2

IF 2>1, drift angle is reduced.

IF 2<1, drift angle is increased.
IF 2=1, drift angle is constant.

Stiff BHA
Its used under drilling the competent formations in
complicated geological conditionals. In this case we use
reamer stabilizer (calibrator) above the bit surely and
several centralizers which are located higher at definite
distance.
Such BHA is to use from the start of the well drilling.
Due to this assembly we can hold vertical direction of the
well for a long time.
But anyway drift angle is increased in this case very
slowly.
When it reaches 5-6 degree we recommend to change
Stiff BHA for Pendulum BHA.

Directional drilling
Directional drilling is more than simply selecting a well
path and hole angle. It includes selection of the most
appropriate survey techniques, applying the best control
equipment and currently gathering geological data. In
addition, the directional program may alter and affect to
the casing and cement program, hydraulics, centralization
and completion techniques.
Rather often vertical wells are useless because of various
reasons. For example when the target zone is located
under residential areas, mountains, lakes, harbour, roads
etc. In these cases a convenient rig site is selected aside
and the directional well is drilled into the target zone.

Types of directional drilling:

Usual directional drilling
Pad drilling;
Sidetracking (multilateral well);
Relief (killed) well drilling.

Wellpath planning
To design wellpath the following initial
characteristics of the well must be given:
lateral or horizontal
displacement (of the target);
total vertical depth (TVD)
plan type (straight kick, Scurve, J-type).
kickoff point (KOP);
build angle rate;
final drift angle;
others.

BHA for directional well drilling

Each interval is drilled with the help of different BHA.

Steering tools device in the BHA for changing angle

and drilling the well in direction to given target.
Another method creation deflecting force on the bit
without steering tools (for example using geological
factors).

Steering tool (kickoff equipment, deflection tool )

Deflected sub

2-230'

Deflector -1

1-2,5

2-3

An example of BHA
1 calibrator
2 bottom hole engine
3 additional support element
4 deflected sub
5 MWD
6 sub for entering logging cable in
the drill string.

The condition of BHE passability into the curved well

Where:
R radius of borehole curvature;
D well diameter;
d BHE diameter;
k clearance between BHE and wellbore;
h distance.

We suppose R>>D, then:

h Dd k
Taking under consideration of right-angled triangle we obtain:
2

L
2
2
R R D d k
2
After simple transformation we obtain:

L2
R 2 R 2 2R ( D d k ) ( D d k ) 2
4
The value in the second brackets may be neglected, then:

Rmin

L2

8 D d k

Radius restrictions:
Drill string stresses in deviated borehole do not exceed yield strength.
Therefore radius have to be satisfied the following condition:

dE
Rmin
2

For pipes located near the mouth of the well:

Rmin

dE
2( )
F

Where:

- yield strength and tensile stress;

d external pipe diameter

Horizontal wells
The main idea of horizontal well is increasing the drainage volume of
producing formation and the area of filtration in the well.
In the issue the oil (or gas) output is increased.

Inflow to the vertical well

Characteristic future of well plan design for pad

(cluster) drilling
We usually apply this method in offshore drilling and when we drill wells in moorland
onshore. In this case we drill several wells from a single site on the embankment.
For drilling pads its necessary to separate each well from another and to prevent
crossing of the wells. To solve this challenge it needs to drill wells with different angle
between drill rig moving direction and well directions.

DRMD

Characteristic future of well plan design

for pad drilling
The height of kick off point depends on the location of the well in
the cluster. The inclinational angles are various for different wells in
the pad. The distance between the mouths of the wells may be 515 meters onshore and 3-4 meters offshore.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

DRMD

First Multilateral well

First Multilateral well was drilled in
Russia in 1953
9 lateral branches from the
mainbore
Increased production by 17 times
Capital expenditures was
increased in 1.5 times only.

Multilateral horizontal well

Types of multilateral wells

Steering tools

Uipstok - deflector
for rotary drilling:
extractive
no extractive

Sidetracking stages:
- Runing into a hole,
positioning of the
whipstock, mooring
anchor
- milling out of the
sidetracking
window
- drilling a second hole

Inflow to horizontal well

Well Planning

Formation exposing by horizontal well

Drilling of lamellar reservoir by

using horizontal borehole
1, 2 horizontal well in
penetrable and
impenetrable layers;
3 - conditional horizontal
well.

Thank you for your

attention
Next lection will include next questions:

Telepilot System
(France)
Consist from:
Short bottom hole engine;
Deflector;
Bottom hole system for deflector
controlling.

Mechanism of deviation consist of engine case

in the form of two pipes which are jointed by
special connection. This system has 5 position
with different angles.

Historical Notes

TAML (Technology Advancement

MultiLateral)

Multi-branched wells can be drilled

in such way:

Different kinds of multibranched wells.

a - profile; - horizontal section; 1 - original borehole; 2 - additional boreholes;

3 - oil reservoir; 4 - reservoir boundary.

Radial branching wells: