1. Drilling Fundamentals (Part -1)

1. What is Directional Drilling ?

Directional drilling is the science of deviating a wellbore along a planned path to a target located at a given lateral distance and direction from vertical. This includes drilling as vertically as possible from a given TVD.

The figure below shows a vertical well and a deviated well.

As a starter one can consider that any well which gets deviated from the vertical axis to achieve the desired target (hydrocarbon reserve in our case) may be termed as deviated well (or Directional well).

What are the concepts one should have a knowledge of before moving ahead to Directional Drilling study ?

As per my experience, to get a clear concept of Directional Drilling one should have a strong basic of conventional drilling methodology. Mentioned below are some of the basic question one should be able to answer before moving ahead to Directional Drilling Technology.

Q1. What is Drilling?

Q2. How do we drill a well to the desired target?

Q3. What is a drilling Rig?

Q4. What are the components of a drilling Rig?

Q5. What are drilling tubulars?

Q6. What is Bottom Hole Assembly?

Q7. What is a Target Zone?

Q8. What is Measered Depth (MD) and True vertical Depth (TVD) ?

Q9. What are Drilling Parameters?

Q10. What is Drilling Fluid?

Q11. What are the Drilling Fluid Parameters?

Q12. What is spud?

Q13.  What is tripping? Trip-in? Trip-out?

Q14. What is Short Trip and Wiper Trip?

Q15. What is Circulation and Mud Conditioning?

Q16. What is Casing?

Q17. What is Cementing?

Q18. What is wellhead and Wellhead fitting?

Q19. what is Cement Drill?

Q20. What is Leak-off Test?

Q21. What is Blow Out Preventor (BOP)?

Q22. What is Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Control?

Q23. What is Leak off Test?

Q24. What is Drilling Break?

Q25. What is kick?

Q26. What are downhole problems?

Q27. What is the difference between Casing and Liner?

Q28. What is drilling jar?

Q29. What is Geo Technical Order (GTO)?

 Q30. Terms used to write a Drilling Progress Report (DPR) and the other abbreviations used in Oil & Gas industry?

I guess if one is able to answer these basic questions or gains knowledge on these topics, he/she can switch over to Directional Drilling at ease.

In my next post I'll answer these question in the simplest possible way to make the learning more enjoyable !