What is are the advantages of multilateral drilling?

What is are the advantages of multilateral drilling?

Multilateral drilling is a new technology developed after directional drilling, sidetrack, and horizontal drilling[1-4]. The technology can increase oil-drainage area, improve oil well production, and greatly reduce reservoir development cost through drilling several lateral wells in one borehole.

What is a multilateral well?

A multilateral well is a well with two or more laterals (horizontal, vertical, or deviated) drilled from a main mother well. This allows one well to produce from several reservoirs. Multilateral wells are suitable for complex geology where drilling more new wells to penetrate to those reservoirs is not economical.

What is completion drill?

Well completion is the process of making a well ready for production (or injection) after drilling operations. After a well has been drilled, should the drilling fluids be removed, the well would eventually close in upon itself.

What is Multilateral well completion?

Multilateral completion systems allow the drilling and completion of multiple lateral boreholes within a single mainbore. This allows for alternative well-construction strategies for vertical, inclined, horizontal, and extended-reach wells. Multilaterals can be constructed in both new and existing oil and gas wells.

What are horizontal wells?

A horizontal well is a type of directional drilling technique where an oil or gas well is dug at an angle of at least eighty degrees to a vertical wellbore. 1 Operators use it to retrieve oil and natural gas in situations in which the shape of the reservoir is abnormal or difficult to access.

How is a horizontal well drilled?

Most horizontal wells are started by drilling a vertical well. After drilling down to the target rock, the pipe is pulled out of the well and a motor is attached to the drill bit. In a horizontal well, the bit and pipe are lowered down into the well and the bit drills a path that curves from vertical to horizontal.

How do horizontal wells work?

Horizontal drilling is the process of drilling a well from the surface to a subsurface location just above the target oil or gas reservoir called the “kickoff point”, then deviating the well bore from the vertical plane around a curve to intersect the reservoir at the “entry point” with a near-horizontal inclination.

What is the importance of wells?

Wells are extremely important to all societies. In many places wells provide a reliable and ample supply of water for home uses, irrigation, and industries. Where surface water is scarce, such as in deserts, people couldn’t survive and thrive without groundwater, and people use wells to get at underground water.

What is the general classification of wells?

Broadly, water wells can be classified into four groups according to their functions: (a) water supply wells, (b) recharge wells, (c) drainage wells, and (d) monitoring wells.

What happens after a well is drilled?

Well completion incorporates the steps taken to transform a drilled well into a producing one. These steps include casing, cementing, perforating, gravel packing and installing a production tree. After a well has been drilled, should the drilling fluids be removed, the well would eventually close in upon itself.

What is a multilateral well completion plan?

Field development plans define well counts required to drain the reservoir―often with significant technical constraints and uncertainty. Multilateral well completions maximize reservoir contact per well, reducing the number of wells required.

Can drilling a multilateral well underbalanced with the main bore producing?

Drilling a multilateral well underbalanced with the main bore producing can be done, but the drawdown on the reservoir is small. A further setback is that the cleaning up of the lateral is difficult if the main bore is a good producer.

Is re-entry into the legs of a multilateral well possible?

Re-entry into both legs is possible by use of a selective system. However, more detail as to the exact requirements from a multilateral system must be reviewed. Drilling a multilateral well underbalanced with the main bore producing can be done, but the drawdown on the reservoir is small.

What is an ML well and what are its applications?

The most frequent applications of ML wells are in reservoirs that require sand control and in heavy oil reservoirs. In the case of sand control, the reason is often slot management on offshore platforms. More reservoir can be accessed from a single casing string to surface.