Directional/complex wells
Extended-reach drilling (ERD) and complex wells have emerged as pivotal techniques, enabling access to previously unreachable reserves. ERD allows operators to access oil and gas reservoirs far from the drilling site, minimizing the environmental footprint and optimizing resource recovery.
This paper presents a continuous passive magnetic ranging technique that can provide real-time distance and direction to the offset well while drilling without interrupting drilling operations.
This paper highlights nontraditional methods to cure oil-based-mud losses in horizontal wells drilled in unconventional plays.
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The Apollonia tight-gas chalk play is located in the Abu Gharadig Basin in the Western Desert of Egypt. This has long been ignored as a gas play in the overburden, while the Jurassic and Cretaceous oil fields deeper in the basin have been explored and developed. -
Plug-and-abandonment (P&A) operations can be expensive, leading to negative net present value. Historically, P&A operations in the North Sea—estimated to hold some 3,000 wells of declining production—were performed with either drilling or workover rigs.
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The complete paper describes a recent directional coiled-tubing drilling (DCTD) job completed for an independent operator in the Appalachian Basin.
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This paper discusses the successful design, laboratory testing, and performance of an innovative, low-solids, organophilic-clay-free invert-emulsion fluid (OCF-IEF) used to drill the reservoir section of an extended-reach-drilling (ERD) well.
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Current long-reach technology already has a large effect on oil recovery. Many possible improvements, however, remain, and we see new contributions every year.
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The Peregrino project, located in the post-salt zone of the Campos Basin, presents immense challenges for drilling extended-reach wells. This paper shares challenges imposed by the well profile and downhole environment on the design and execution phases.
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This paper presents a concept that enables simultaneous drilling and completion, with an aim to extend well reach substantially and with an ultimate objective of constructing 30-km-long production wells.
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A producer and a service company have collaborated to develop a downhole system to merge multilateral technology and intelligent completions to create “smart laterals.”
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Advancements in extended-reach drilling continue from the ExxonMobil-operated Sakhalin-1 project. The latest “super complex” horizontal well stretches 15,000 m, which partner Rosneft says is a “world record.”
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new drilling method provides a solution for challenges encountered in drilling of long horizontal wells, incorporating a dual drillstring with a separate channel for the return fluid from the well.
