Drilling and Completion Planning
Drilling and Completion Planning
• When planning a new well, there are a number of
factors that must be considered before drilling the
well
• In many cases, the completion of a well will drive
how we plan the drilling of the well, and we often
have to have the completion design considerations
done before the drilling design
• We will now look at some of the things that must
be considered in the planning of the drilling and
completion of a well
Drilling and Completion Planning
• Government regulations
– Depending on where the well is drilled, there may
be different government agencies and regulations
that dictate some drilling and completion
requirements
– Not all regulations are the same between the
different agencies
Government Regulations
• In federal U.S. offshore waters
– Usually greater than 3 nm miles from the state
coastline
– Two main federal government agencies
• Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
(BSEE)
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
• Both formally Minerals Management Service (MMS)
– Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also
regulates oil and gas development activities
– US Coast Guard
Government Regulations
• Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
(BSEE)
– Develop and enforce safety and environmental
regulations
– Permit offshore exploration development and
production
– Inspections of offshore facilities
– Offshore regulatory programs
– Oil spill response
– Training and environmental compliance programs
Government Regulations
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
– Offshore leasing
– Resource evaluation
– Review and administration of oil and gas
exploration and development plans
– Renewable energy development
– National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis
and environmental studies
Government Regulations
• So for federal offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico,
Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and offshore federal
waters in Alaska (Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, etc.) ,
the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
(BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM) are the primary government agencies drilling
and completion engineers deal with in planning and
daily operations
Government Regulations
• However, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) do not have jurisdiction for
federal lands onshore
• These lands are governed by other federal agencies,
including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
jurisdiction on both offshore and land operations
– Air and water permits
Government Regulations
• The regulations can be found in the Code of Federal
Regulations
• You can also go to the web sites of the individual
agencies for regulations
– For example, boem.gov
Government Regulations
• If you are on land on state or private property, state agencies have
jurisdiction
– Alaska – Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
– Texas – Texas Railroad Commission
– Louisiana – Department of Natural Resources Office of Conservation
– Montana – Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation
– North Dakota – North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Mineral
Resources, Oil and Gas Division
– Other states have rules and regulations governing oil and gas exploration and
production
• Some local governments require permits also
• Many state and federal regulations are similar – but there are differences.
You have to know the regulations that govern where you are working
Government Regulations
• Countries have their own rules and regulations governing the drilling and
completions of wells
– In Nigeria, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) governs the compliance,
safety, licensing, and permitting of the oil industry
– Canada – Four principal Acts
» Canada Petroleum Resources Act
• Governs lease of Federally owned “Frontier lands” (greater than 12 nautical
miles from coastline)
» Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act
• Governs E&P, processing and transportations of federally owned “Frontier
lands”
» Accord Acts
• Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act
• Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation
Act
• Agreements between federal and provincial governments relating to
offshore petroleum resources
» Alberta – Responsible Energy Development Act
Sand Control
• The production of sand with oil and gas production
can create a number of problems
– Sand can partially fill the tubing and cause a reduction in
production or shut if off completely
– It can fill the surface equipment
• Have to clean the equipment of the sand
• Sand may be contaminated and have to be disposed properly
– It can erode the surface equipment, causing holes in
piping and equipment
– It can damage the formation
– It can cause excessive compressive loading on the casing
Sand Control
• If the well will want to produce sand, we have to
consider sand control
– But first, can we live with the sand production
• Possibly lower the production rate to have sand free or lower
sand production
– Lower flow rate gives lower revenue
– However, no sand control equipment expense
– If we can’t live with the sand production, we have to
control the sand before it reaches the surface
• Screens and/or gravel packing
– Sand control is an added cost and adds risk to the
completion operations
Produced Fluids
• Fluid being produced
– API gravity
• Pressure drop in tubing
– Contaminants
• H2S, CO2
– Metalurgy of casing, tubing, and other downhole equipment
– Stainless steel pipe
– Additional costs
– Delivery time of equipment may be longer
– Water
• Have to be able to handle the water at the surface
• Artificial lift needed?
Stimulation
• If the well is damaged in the drilling phase, will we
have to stimulate the well
– Acidizing
– Hydraulic fracturing
• Stimulation may cause high surface and downhole
pressures on the tubing and casing strings
– Have to design the casing and tubing ahead of time to
handle the higher burst pressures well will encounter if
stimulating the well
• Tight formation
Reservoir Conditions
• What is the bottom hole pressure (BHP)?
– The greater the pressure, the greater the burst and
collapse pressures on the tubing and casing
– The BHP partially determines the weight and grade
of the tubulars in the hole
• Flow rates
– Higher the expected flow rate, the larger the tubing
size needs to be
– The larger the tubing size, the larger the production
casing has to be
Logging Program
• What logs will we want to run during the drilling
and completion operations of the well?
– Need to use the properly sized tools for the size casing
and tubing we run in the hole
• Need to check for high doglegs
– Need to run a cement bond log (CBL) to check the
integrity of our cement bond in our production casing
– How will we get logs down in highly deviated holes?
• Logs will generally not go down holes with inclinations
greater than 70 degrees without mechanical aids
Cement
• Cement
– Height of cement behind casing
• Must be sufficient to support casing
– Bending loads
– Bond between pipe and formation
– No crossflow between formations
– Don’t want a water zone and hydrocarbon zone
communicating
– Don’t want high and low pressure zones communicating
– Don’t want wellbore fluids communicating with fresh water
zones used for drinking water
Smart wells
• Some wells have pressure, temperature, flow
rate, fluid composition, and other reservoir
characteristic instrumentation installed
downhole to gather real time production data
– Much of this instrumentation has long lead times
and has to be ordered many months (> year)
before the well is drilled
Zones to be completed
• Number of zones to be completed
– If one zone
• Single completion
– If two separate zones to be produced
• Dual completion
– When two zones are produced at the same time through two
separate tubing strings
• Single selective completion
– Produce one zone now through a single tubing string and have
completion set up to produce another zone in future without
needing a rig
Zones to be completed
• Number of zones to be completed (continued)
– More than two zones
• Triple completion
– When three zones are produced at the same time through
three separate tubing strings
– Very uncommon
• Quad completion
– When four zones are produced at the same time through four
separate tubing strings
– Extremely uncommon
Zones to Complete
• Number of zones to be completed (continued)
– Tells you how many tubing strings you need
– Single – one
– Single selective - one
– Dual - two
– Triple – three
– Quad - four
• The more tubing strings, the smaller they will
probably have to be because numerous strings will
have to fit inside the casing
Future Intervention
• We may we need to do in the future with this
well?
• Will we need to reenter the well in the future to
do operations?
– The answer to this is almost always yes
– So we need to make sure we can get tools and
equipment down the tubing to the perforations
• Need to properly size the tubing and “jewelry” in the tubing
so tools can make it successfully to the bottom of the well
• Horizontal wells are sometimes difficult to work on
We will spend the rest of the semester studying
these topics in more detail
Questions
