It is common knowledge in the oil industry that the typical cost of drilling a new offshore well is in the range of $30-40 million, but the chance of that site being an economic success is 1 in 10. Recent advances in drilling technology and data collection methods have led to oil companies and their ancillary companies collecting large amounts of geophysical/geological data from production well...

Deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could resume within weeks under a policy by the US government, which has come under increasing criticism from the oil industry and politicians in the region over the impact of the drilling halt and worries from scientists that the full impact has not yet been assessed. Oil and gas exploration in the gulf’s deep waters has been stopped since May, when Ob...

Well "X-01" is a slant (J-Type) directional well and will be subjected to appropriate technically qualified drilling casing planning in order prevent problems such as burst, collapse, tension that can cause increased internal external pressure loads experienced by the casing. The methodology used this research document study quantitative analysis using Drilling Software taking into account load...

Piedmont tectonic belts are rich of oil and gas resources, however the intense tectonic stress and broken formation may cause great drilling problems in piedmont structures such as borehole collapse, lost circulation and gas cutting. Through analysis of in situ stress properties, bedding structure and mechanical characteristics, wellbore instability mechanism was expounded from rock mechanics, ...

control of well drilling operations poses a challenging issue to be tackled. the loss of well control could lead to the occurrence of blowout as a severe threat, involving the risk of human lives and environmental and economic consequences. conventional proportional-integral (pi) controller is a common practice in the well control operation. the small existing margin between pore pressure and f...

This paper provides model-based estimates of the value of oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The best estimate of economically recoverable oil in the federal portion of ANWR is 7.06 billion barrels of oil, a quantity roughly equal to US consumption in 2005. The oil is worth $374 billion ($2005), but would cost $123 billion to extract and bring to market. The difference, $25...

North Carolina has no history of large-scale commercial oil and gas extraction, and the state’s legis la tive framework for regulating drilling was, until recently, based on laws passed in the 1940s. However, areas of the state are likely to undergo hori zontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil in the near future. North Carolina thus has a unique opportunity to produce a...

Solids control equipment at the rig site is used to remove rock cuttings or low-gravity solids (LGS) from drilling fluids to allow the fluid to return to the active system in a re-usable condition. Typical equipment, such as shakers and centrifuges, remove LGS particles greater than 5-7 microns. Build up of finer solids in the fluid can create problems for efficient drilling such as drillpipe s...

The oil well drilling process is the selected representative of a challenging industrial process. The drilling process is becoming more complex as oil fields mature and technology evolves. At the same time, the amount of information is increasing in volume and frequency. Although technology is advancing, failures occur at almost the same rate as before, leading to loss of valuable time. Wheneve...