DRILLING PROCESS 1
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
4TH STAGE (2021-2022)
DRILLING PROCESS
NAME OF STUDENTS:
WAISI AZEEZ WAISI
PARISHAN ARAB RASHOU
SUPERVISOR: MR SARKAR
DRILLING PROCESS 2
Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................ 3
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3
ROTARY DRILLING ................................................................................................................................... 3
How to Drill an Oil Well........................................................................................................................... 4
Plan the Well ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Perform Shallow Gas Survey ................................................................................................................... 4
Prepare the wellsite ................................................................................................................................ 5
Set the Conductor Casing ........................................................................................................................ 5
Move-in and Rig Up................................................................................................................................. 5
Spud the Well .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Drill Down to the Surface Casing Depth.................................................................................................. 6
Run and Cement the Surface Casing ....................................................................................................... 6
Continuing the Process to Drill the Next Casing Point ............................................................................ 7
Continue this Process to Drill to each Casing Point ................................................................................ 7
Continue this Process to Drill to Total Depth (TD) .................................................................................. 7
With the Open Hole logs, Log the Well................................................................................................... 7
Run and Cement the Production Casing Strings or Liner ........................................................................ 7
Complete the Well .................................................................................................................................. 8
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 9
DRILLING PROCESS 3
ABSTRACT
Drilling indicates the whole process of a complex operation necessary to
construct wells through excavations of circular sections. Drilling is the process
of cutting holes in solid material into a circular cross section by the use of a drill
bit. Usually the drill bit is that is often in multi-point and a rotary cutting tool.
Usually while its pressed against the work piece the drill bit is rotated from rates
of hundreds to rates of thousands of revolutions per minute.
INTRODUCTION
The oil or gas drilling is a long process that requires a very ordered sequence. The
drilling steps are almost universal in the way they are applied during the drilling
of wells. Drilling a well requires simultaneous actions so that the process can be
well done. The actions can be crushing the rocks into small particles to avoid
resistance from the rock, removing rock particles, the walls in the holes must be
maintained stable, fluids in the drilled formation prevented from entering the
well. The rotary drill rigs can achieve it and they function in the fields where
exploration and production of hydrocarbon is done. The following are the steps
taken during the drilling process:
ROTARY DRILLING
In rotary drilling a cutting tool called the bit is used to bore into the rock and its
forced simultaneously as it rotates at the bottom of the hole against the rock.
There is also a drill string which consists of a steel pipe that’s hollow of circular
section screwed together. The drilling fluid usually transports to the surface the
cuttings generated by the bit. Down the bit the fluid is circulated and on to the
surface and the fluid is either a liquid such as mud or water or gas. The rotary
table transmits the rotation from the surface to the bit or as a backup in the
modern ring from the rotary table through a top drive. Also, the downhole motors
which is located directly above the bit can add an additional rotation.
In order to guarantee the stability of the hole after its been drilled for a certain
length, steel pipes which are called casings are joined together by threaded
sleeves and are used to case it. Slurry cement is then used to fill up the space
between the casings and the hole to ensure a seal of mechanical and hydraulic.
DRILLING PROCESS 4
How to Drill an Oil Well
Plan the Well
Exploration geologists are usually the one’s who generate the exploration well
prospects while the development geologists are the ones responsible for the
development of well objectives and locations. The drilling engineers work with
the geologists once the objectives and the surface location for the well are known
for the development of a detail proposal for drilling. In addition, during the final
stage of the planning process all permits are acquired such as environmental
permit, regulatory and safety after a solid well is developed.
During the search for the oil and gas site engineers use different types of
geophysical surveys;
Magnetometers are used during the magnetometric survey to measure the
variation of the magnetic fields so as to locate the sedimentary rocks which
generally have low magnetic properties when compared with other rocks and the
magnetometers usually hung from the plane as they measure.
Three dimensional views of the earth provided by the special cameras from the
plane are used to determine potential lands with oil and gas deposit.
Gravimeters are used to provide information the pull of gravity is increased by
the large masses of dense rocks. The information provided is by measuring the
minute differences in gravity of the underlying formations.
Perform Shallow Gas Survey
A shallow gas survey is conducted so as to make sure shallow gas hazards are not
there that can cause a blow out or a kick and the shallow gas hazard is done to
bring out the potential depths and locations. To avoid these trajectories in the well
can be preliminary changed from the original well proposal and the surface
location.
DRILLING PROCESS 5
Prepare the wellsite
In order to prepare the site the land has to be cleared so as to allow the rig to use
it, road access should be built to the well pad or the well site, facilities should be
constructed for water disposal, electricity, water, digging and lining all mud pits
that will prevent the ground water or contamination of the water table, for
eventual disposal reserve pits should be dug for cutting storage, and eventually
holes should be drilled and they will become mousehole and rat holes. For all the
work required to be done at the site preparation, many companies and contractors
may be involved. If multiple well pads are used, a lot of time may be minimized
for the environmental footprint and site preparations.
Set the Conductor Casing
In hard rock regions, the Auger Unit will be used before the drilling rig arrives
and it will drill a hole with a large diameter that’s capable of accommodating a
conductor casing that is approximately 18 in to 36 in. To install the conductor
casing into place in offshore locations or in soft rock region a diesel hammer may
be used sometimes. Depending on the location, a conductor casing can be set up
to 40 to 300 ft depths. Through the loose rocks and the loose rocks that’s where
the conductor casing is normally set to the bed rock. During the operations in
early drilling, the work of the conductor casing is set to make sure the debris that
are loose cannot be able to enter the well by separating the top soil from the
wellbore during the first drilling operations. After the conductor casing has been
set in place it is cemented.
Move-in and Rig Up
The rig is brought on location once the conductor casing has been set in place and
the wellsite is prepared. Multi trucks are usually used to transport most land rigs
especially those in the North America. The process of rigging-up usually begins
once the rigs are on the well site or well pad. Assembling the rigs after taking the
rig modules from the trucks is what rigging-up consists of.
DRILLING PROCESS 6
Spud the Well
Spudding means starting the operation for rotary drilling of the well. Spudding of
the well takes place after the inspection of the rig and all the system testing has
been completed.
Drill Down to the Surface Casing Depth
The part that occupies the lower side of the surface casing depth is also called the
casing point is the first part to be drilled. Compared to the inner diameter which
is large, the casing point of the wellbore, the diameter of the drill bit is smaller of
the conductor casing. Fresh water for both personal and municipal use exits
through the section of the wellbore that is shallow. Shallow gas hazards may also
exist as discussed earlier. The casing surface cementing and setting is the main
reason of drilling of drilling the first section of the well. The reason is to:
a) To prevent the fresh water with the drilling fluids to be cut by
protecting the well from the aquifer.
b) Isolating the water table from the well by placing concrete and steel
barriers so as to protect the fresh water aquifer.
c) And prevent the shallow gas hazards so as to protect the well.
Through depths that are most environmentally sensitive, that’s how this section
of the well is drilled. Consequently, to remove any potential possibility of the
fresh water being contaminated, this section of the hole is drilled with a drilling
fluid such as air or fresh water which is friendliest to the environment. We are
protecting the water table from the activities such as drilling and production of
future well and also placing it behind the pipe through us running the surface
casing string.
Run and Cement the Surface Casing
The casing is cemented into place after running it into a wellbore once we reach
the point of surface casing. This process is performed by:
a) Pulling Out of Hole (POOH) – During the operation of cementing we use
the drill pipe to trip out the hole in order to remove the wellbore.
b) We run the surface casing.
c) In the interior side of the casing, we pump down a cement slurry.
d) To displace the cement, we chase it down with the drilling fluid and its
displaced up the into the space between casing string and the wellbore
which is in the annular space.
e) Finally, we allow the cement to harden.
DRILLING PROCESS 7
Continuing the Process to Drill the Next Casing Point
The next pre-determined casing point is what continues the next drilling process.
The intermediate string casing point is determined by the criteria base of the mud
weight, the drilling formation is what causes the pressure which results to the
formation of the crack also known as the fracture pressure, circulation zones lost
locations, and Zones with High Pressure locations. A potential blowout and a kick
may be as a result of any of these situations as we already discussed earlier. The
intermediate casing strings objectives are:
a. Behind the pipes isolate unstable sections on the hole
b. Behind the pipes, isolate lost circulation zones
c. The under-pressured zones are separated behind the pipes in order to
prevent lost circulations.
d. The over-pressured zones are separated behind the pipes in order to
prevent a kick.
e. Producing zones that are multiple to be isolated.
Continue this Process to Drill to each Casing Point
For every planned casing point the process is usually repeated. The continued
drilling operation uses the drill bits and the small diameter tools while we run and
cement the successive casing strings. In order to maximize the Rate of Penetration
(ROP) are the weight-on-bit and in the Revolutions per Minute (RPM) is the
speed rotational of the rotary system and within the driller control, these are the
most important drilling parameters.
Continue this Process to Drill to Total Depth (TD)
Up to when the well gets to the Total depth after the intermediate casing string is
finally run the drilling process is continued after its also cemented. The well is
said to be TD’ed at this point.
With the Open Hole logs, Log the Well
At this point in the well the Open Hole Logging Tools can be run since the sand
is exposed to the well. Those subsurface formations properties that the geologists
and engineers are interested in are measured using the Open-Hole logs.
Run and Cement the Production Casing Strings or Liner
At this time the casing string of production or the liner production are run and
cemented if they are to be used in the completion.
DRILLING PROCESS 8
Complete the Well
As discussed in other lessons, the well completion is installed; tubing which will
be installed to allow HC flow through the surface, packers seals off the production
casingand the production tubing, gravel packs, sliding sleeves, stimulation
including acidizing the well and fracturing the well hydraulically and finally
artificial lift. At the top of the wellhead, Christmas tree is installed as well as
BOP’s removed. The flow of oil once it reaches the surface is controlled by the
Christmas tree. The flow of hydrocarbon is wellbore and up to the surface is
allowed by the holes.
DRILLING PROCESS 9
REFERENCES
❖ Williams, R. A. (1974). A study of the drilling process.
❖ Asad, M. M., Hassan, R. B., Sherwani, F., Aamir, M., Soomro, Q. M., &
Sohu, S. (2019). Design and development of a novel knowledge-based
decision support system for industrial safety management at drilling
process: HAZFO Expert 1.0. Journal of Engineering, Design and
Technology.
❖ Lee, B. Y., Liu, H. S., & Tarng, Y. S. (1998). Modeling and optimization
of drilling process. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 74(1-3),
149-157.
❖ Bhole, M. P. H., & Chaudhari, G. E. (2020). Optimization of Crankshaft
oil hole drilling process-a review. Optimization, 10(1).
❖ Prasanna, J., Karunamoorthy, L., Raman, M. V., Prashanth, S., & Chordia,
D. R. (2014). Optimization of process parameters of small hole dry drilling
in Ti–6Al–4V using Taguchi and grey relational
analysis. Measurement, 48, 346-354.