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HOW IT WORKS
The process involved in transforming a drilled well into a producing one, well completion incorporates casing, cementing and perforating a well....
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Completions
Expandables are used for a variety of purposes in both drilling and production applications.
Drilling Equipment
The most stable type of floating rig, semisubmersibles are able to drill where jackups leave off -- working in waters measuring anywhere from 400 feet deep all the way up to ultra-deepwaters.
The most widely used type of mobile offshore drilling unit, jackups are capable of drilling to great depths in waters measuring up to 350 feet deep.
The process of setting pipe in a recently drilled well, casing is part of the completion process.
Suspended from the drilling derrick, a top drive rotates the drill string during drilling operations.
Learn the history, purpose and advantages of using drillships for offshore exploration and production.
Blowouts are easily the most dangerous and destructive potential disasters in the world of oil drilling.
An integral part of the drilling process, iron roughnecks connect and disconnect drill pipe. Whether pipe is being fed into the wellbore or it is being taken out, the iron roughneck uses a rotary table and torque wrench(es) to make up or break down pipe.
A drill bit is what actually cuts into the rock when drilling an oil or gas well. Located at the tip of the drillstring, the drill bit is a rotating apparatus that usually consists of two or three cones made up of the hardest of materials.
Drilling deeper, longer and more challenging wells has been made possible by improvements in drilling technologies, including more efficient and effective drilling fluids.
Enhancing safety on the rig, automated drillers cabins consolidate drilling controls, automated pipe handling controls, computer hardware and data processing systems into single temperature-controlled room on the rig.
Drilling Support Services
Important for drillers and operators, well logs are measurements acquired at specific depths of the well that identify subsurface formations.
Drilling, completion and workover operations have evolved recently to offer development solutions for HP/HT wells that were previously considered uneconomical.
The process involved in transforming a drilled well into a producing one, well completion incorporates casing, cementing and perforating a well.
Conducted to determine the presence of oil or gas in a well, formation testing methods include well logging, core samples and drill stem tests.
A process in completing the well, cementing a well seals the well and permanently positions the well casing into place.
Preventing formation damage that can be caused during conventional drilling practices, underbalanced drilling exerts less pressure on the well.
If not properly monitored, changes in pressure that can occur while the well is being drilled can cause combustible hydrocarbons to flow unchecked and at high pressures and flow rates.
MWD provides real-time information to help with steering the drill.
Directional drilling has been an integral part of the oil and gas industry since the 1920s. While the technology has improved over the years, the concept of directional drilling remains the same: drilling wells at multiple angles, not just vertically.
LWD is a type of well logging that incorporates the logging tools into the drill string, administering, interpreting and transmitting real-time formation measurements to the surface.
Well logging chronicles the depths, subsurface formations and events encountered while drilling.
Floating Production Systems
A floating platform alternative that can support drilling, production and storage operations, the spar consists of a large vertical cylinder bearing topsides with equipment.
A type of floating production system, tension leg platforms (TLPs) are buoyant production facilities vertically moored to the seafloor by tendons.
FPSOs are offshore production facilities that house both processing equipment and storage for produced hydrocarbons.
Geology
A method of understanding reservoir characteristics, core analysis studies samples of rock taken from the well during drilling activities.
A type of geophysics, 4-D seismic encompasses multiple 3-D surveys over the same reservoir and a given time period.
The significant financial perils of drilling an unsuccessful well on dry land are only magnified when the unprofitable well is drilled in several thousand feet of water.
Drilling for oil is an expensive gamble: With project costs
rising every year, an oil company can stand to lose an
incredible amount of money exploring or developing a
property that fails to yield hydrocarbons in commercial
rates.
Heavy Oil
Heavy oil is thick crude oil that is viscous and has a low API gravity, making it difficult to produce using conventional methods.
Because the challenging, yet almost entirely untapped, deposits of heavy oil hold some of the largest reserves of hydrocarbons in the world. According to Bill Bush of the API, "Heavy oils, oil sands, and potentially shale, could contribute substantially to future U.S. and world oil supplies."
Because heavy oil is so viscous, conventional methods, such as vertical wells, pumps, and pressure maintenance, are inefficient at extracting the oil. So, new technologies are being used to recover heavy oil including: cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), vapor extraction (VAPEX), and thermal in situ methods.
Heavy oils are found around the world, with an estimated 69 percent of the world's technically recoverable heavy oil and 82 percent of the technically recoverable natural bitumen located in the Western Hemisphere.
Information Systems
Thirty years ago communications between offshore facilities and onshore locations was limited to a two-way radio and daily reports. Back then, oilfield workers stationed offshore were virtually cut off from the rest of the world.
LNG
Allowing a previously domestic product to reach international borders, LNG is becoming a popular choice for stranded natural gas or overproducing regions.
Marine Installation
A method of keeping a vessel on position, dynamic positioning is employed in both drilling and development operations offshore.
As offshore installations have become larger, heavy lift marine installation methods and equipment have risen to the challenge.
Pipelines
While natural gas production has increased in the North Sea, most of the natural gas being used in Europe is imported via pipelines from Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and even Africa.
A massive transmission and distribution system, the natural gas pipeline network in the United States is comprised of more than 210 pipeline systems spanning 305,000 miles that can deliver to virtually anywhere in the Continental US.
There are three main ways that subsea pipe is laid -- S-lay, J-lay and tow-in -- and the pipelay vessel is integral to the success of the installation.
While buildup in a pipeline can cause transmittal slows or even plugging of the pipeline, cracks or flaws in the line can be disastrous.
Production
A form of Enhanced Oil Recovery, water injection is a technique used to recover more oil from producing wells.
Known as wet gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a clean-burning fossil fuel naturally derived from processed natural gas and crude oil.
Onsite nitrogen generation has various uses in oil and gas fields, including drilling, workover and completion operations.
Acidizing is a type of stimulation that dissolves permeability inhibitors within the reservoir in an effort to increase or restore production from a well.
A way to increase or restore production in a well, reservoir stimulation can be achieved via well fracturing.
Artificial lift comprises various methods employed to bring oil to the surface, including sucker rod, hydraulic and submersible electric pumps, as well as gas lift.
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) employs various techniques to increase oil production beyond primary and secondary recovery methods.
Subsea
Remotely Operated Vehicles, or ROVs, are subsea tools used in the oil and gas industry for drilling and construction support.
A new technology, subsea processing incorporates seafloor separation, injection and boosting to achieve production from challenging offshore environments.
Transferring power, chemicals, communications and more, umbilicals are literally the lifeline to subsea developments.
Conduits to transfer materials from the seafloor to production and drilling facilities atop the water's surface, as well as from the facility to the seafloor, subsea risers are a type of pipeline developed for this type of vertical transportation.
Used on offshore oil and gas fields, a subsea tree monitors and controls the production of a subsea well. Fixed to the wellhead of a completed well, subsea trees can also manage fluids or gas injected into the well.
Workover
When equipment breaks or falls into a well, fishing is performed to remove the stray object and get drilling back on track.
A type of remedial or well intervention operation performed on a producing well, coiled tubing is used as a cost-effective solution that can be employed while the well continues production.
Cables lowered into the wellbore, wirelines and slicklines are used in logging and workover operations.
