Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Drilling and Well Engineering
Advanced Directional Drilling and Advance Surveying Techniques
Format and Duration:
5 days
This course will deliver an advanced understanding of modern directional drilling techniques and the industry standards used in well placement and wellbore surveying. The evolution of directional drilling tools and techniques that are used to achieve high accuracy well positioning are detailed with reference to the fundamental engineering that underlies the equipment we work with, and the procedures and practices we work to.
This is very much an operationally focused course which looks to deliver a detailed understanding of not just the narrow field of the Directional Driller’s work, but all the associated areas of risk that can result from the practices, tools and techniques that they may use. The knowledge from this course can be directly applied to ongoing drilling operations or future well planning and will have a dramatic impact on drilling performance. All the topics are placed in their operational context and an understanding of how each topic is interrelated with the other subject areas in the course is developed throughout the week. Throughout the course areas in which directional drilling and surveying can adversely impact the well cost or increase the well risk are detailed and the mitigations for these risks are discussed.
The course can be delivered at Foundation or Skilled level depending on the audience.
This course is delivered in partnership with Black Reiver Consulting Ltd.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures, discussion, case studies, and practical exercises.
- Practical demonstrations of all the key principles using models and simulations in the classroom.
- Mixed instructor led delivery of theoretical content with blend of PowerPoint overview, whiteboard explanations of detail and class interactive exercises.
- A narrative that runs through the course where each topic is interrelated and build on the previous learnings.
- Extensive allowance for class led questioning within the course delivery.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Understand why life threatening well to well collisions happen and how even large technically driven companies make mistakes. You will be given the knowledge to understand how to avoid these catastrophic events.
- How the role of the Industry Steering Committee on Wellbore Surveying Accuracy has shaped the requirements for modern well placement. You will understand what these standards are and why we must work to them. The Consultation on an API standard for surveying.
- When to use high cost technology like rotary steerable systems and when these systems all little value.
- How to push the drilling envelope further and increase the drilling radius of any rig to deliver more fluids back to the asset.
- How to use the evolving science of Geomechanics alongside the increasing volume of Formation evaluation while drilling data available in real time to deliver substantially lower NPT on any drilling project.
- How work with a geology team to geoplace or geosteer a well path within specific lithology’s or a specific fluid type.
- Working with positional and geological uncertainty.
Course Content
1. Introduction to Directional Drilling
- Types of Directional Wells, Benefits, and Applications
- The Evolution of Directional Drilling Technology
- Historical advancements and modern techniques
- Key drivers for the use of high cost rotary steering tools
2. Pushing the ERD Envelope to Increase Step-Out Distances
- Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) capabilities
- Factors influencing maximum horizontal displacement
3. Wellbore Surveying and Positional Accuracy
- Introducing uncertainty of position
- Basic Positional Surveying – Recap of tools and techniques
- Surveying Principles
- First Angle Corrections (FAC) and ISCWSA QA/QC Standards
- Understanding wellbore positioning quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC)
4. Surveying Tools: Types and Operational Principles
- Measurement While Drilling (MWD) and Logging While Drilling (LWD)
- Inertial navigation, gyro surveys, and wireline survey tools
5. How Wellbore Surveys are Corrected and Accuracy Improved
- Grid Reference System (GRS), InField Referencing (+IIFR), and Multi-Station Survey Analysis
- How Mistakes in Well Positioning are Made
- Impact of survey errors and misalignment
- Influence of rig site practices on wellbore accuracy
- Surveying the Well: Key Technologies and Methods
- Magnetic, gravity, and inertial tool face measurements
- Comparison of survey methodologies and correction techniques
6. Geodesy and Cartography in Directional Drilling
- Impact of coordinate system distortions on directional accuracy
- Catastrophic errors in rig positioning
7. Anti-collision Awareness & Wellbore Uncertainty
- The Importance of Anti-collision Awareness
- Anticollision strategies and risk mitigation
- Avoiding wellbore intersections in congested fields
- The Principle of Uncertainty and Its Effect on Well Anti-collision & Target Sizing
8. Torque, Drag, and Hole Cleaning Considerations
- The Origins of Torque and Drag in the Wellbore
- Friction and mechanical interactions between the drillstring and wellbore
9. How Increasing Hole Angle Creates Significant Problems
- Hole cleaning challenges, Non-productive Time (NPT), and wellbore stability issues
- Mitigation strategies to optimize wellbore conditions
10. Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) Design and Well Steering
- How to Design the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) for Low Angle Wells
- Key components: Drill collars, stabilizers, motors, rotary steerable tools (RST)
- How BHA Design Must Change as Well Inclination Increases
- Adjustments for high angle and horizontal wells
- BHA Tendency: Building, Dropping, and Holding Angle
- How BHA design influences well trajectory and tortuosity
- Matching BHA to the planned well profile
11. Well Steering Methods and Techniques
- How Wells are Deflected and Steered
- Magnetic, gravity, and inertial tool face measurements
- Steering modes: Rotary vs. sliding drilling
- New Technologies in Directional Drilling
- Automated and AI driven directional drilling advancements
- Autonomous drilling systems and real time adjustments
12. Shock, Vibration, and Performance Optimization
- Shock and Vibration in Downhole Equipment
- Origins, impact, and common causes of vibration
- Effects on downhole tools, wellbore stability, and rate of penetration (ROP)
- How to Reduce or Remove Unwanted Vibration
- Best practices for mitigating shock and reducing tool damage
- Vibration damping technologies
13. Wellbore Stability and Geomechanics in Directional Drilling
- Stability issues in directional wells
- Principles of the stresses acting around the wellbore
- Effects of Formation Stress on Wellbore Deviation
- Managing geomechanical risks in high angle wells
- Avoiding Differential Sticking in Directional Wells
14. Drilling Fluids and Hydraulics Considerations in Directional Wells
- Effect of Mud Rheology on Directional Drilling
- Controlling pressure drops, hole cleaning, and wellbore stability
- Optimizing Hydraulics for performance
15. Types of Drill Bit and their Selection
- Advances in bit design and cutter technology improvements
- Stability, Steerability, Durability and ROP criteria for technical limit performance
This structured course outline provides a comprehensive approach to Directional Drilling, covering: Surveying principles and positional accuracy, BHA design and well steering strategies, Torque, drag, and hole cleaning challenges, Advanced technologies and Realtime data applications.
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is ideal for drilling engineers, well site supervisors, tool pushesr, rig managers and field support personnel. Geoscientists or reservoir engineers looking to get better value from your interactions with the drilling team. Anyone involved with improving drilling performance and cutting drilling costs.
Instructors
Kevin Gray
Kevin can offer the experience of over 5000 days of operational experience and operations support positions from an oilfield career of over 31 years as well as working as lead trainer for a multi award winning ERD engineering team based in Perth Scotland. Kevin has been consistently the highest rated drilling training instructor in a major multinational training company over the last four years and throughout his offshore career was repeatedly graded in top 5% within both offshore and onshore positions for the largest oilfield service company.
Kevin has designed and overseen the delivery of multi week training programs for offshore drilling, well intervention and fluid supervisors for a number of clients. This has included competency assessment and skills gap analysis throughout the programs. Kevin is also able to draw on his well documented teaching skills to deliver courses or programs in directional drilling and surveying, stuck pipe, extended reach drilling and various other drilling related subject areas. He wrote the first Operation support centre SOP for directional drilling which was later adopted globally. In addition, he has designed and delivered various 'Real Time Centre' training courses including human dynamics training. In his former role as directional drilling coordinator, based in Aberdeen he still holds a number of world records for drilling achievements with motor and RSS tools.
In his earlier career he led an offshore team that developed the first multi axis drill vibration measurement tool to report measurements in real time, and subsequently wrote the core documentation on vibration control for D&M. Later he was responsible for the introduction and field testing of Powerdrive RSS tools and had considerable input into their re-design as the X5 variant. Kevin has led many teams into both new fields and mature field redevelopment. Outside the industry he enjoys skiing and exploring, taking these two activities to the extreme in 2015 when he skied to the South Pole dragging a sledge behind him.
Courses Taught
- N687: Advanced Directional Drilling and Advance Surveying Techniques
- N688: Drillstring Design
- N689: Drilling Fluids
- N690: Stuck Pipe, Design and Operational Practices for Avoidance
- N691: Well Integrity Management & Barrier Verification
- N692: Well Cost Control & Forecasting
- N693: Casing Design & Well Integrity Engineering
- N694: Basic Drilling Technology
- N695: Introduction to Drilling, Completion, and Workover Operations
- N696: Drilling Rig Selection & Inspection for Performance Optimization
- N697: Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) Program
- N698: HPHT Well Engineering
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 3.5 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 35 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.