Operators large and small face a growing list of challenges when planning new wells. Many assets particularly in mature basins have been on the books for several years and during that time tens if not hundreds of wells have been drilled. Add in large-scale asset acquisitions and the number of wells and associated survey data can become unmanageable.
This has resulted in a tangle of close proximity wells in the kick-off zones just beneath the platform or well pad which are notoriously difficult to navigate around. The greatest concern is for a catastrophic collision, but equally problematic is the risk of bypassing reservoir pay. Directional drillers need to constantly adjust often having to build angle significantly to stay within the drilling window.
We have upgraded PetroVue’s trajectory display to tackle these challenges.
By deploying it at the rig the drillers and geologists working in tandem with the directional driller can look at the same real-time survey data and compare it to planned data as the well progresses.