METHODS OF DEFLECTING A WELLBORE con't 2

Rotary BHA
  • The rotary BHA consists of a bit, drill collars, stabilizers, reamers, subs and other special tools run below the drill pipe
  • Motors were used to put the wellbore on course and rotary BHA’s were used to drill the majority of the well
  • Even though rotary assemblies are used only occasionally, we will still look at them
  • Steerable motor assemblies in the rotating mode are still rotary BHA’s subject to the same influences as the rotary BHA
  • A slick assembly is simply a bit and drill collars
 
  • The deviation tendency is caused by the bending of the drill collars
  • The point at which the collars touch the wall of the hole is the tangency point
  • The resultant force applied to the formation is not in the direction of the hole axis but in the direction of the drill collar axis
  • The resultant force can be broken up into its components FB and FP
 
  • FB is the side force caused by the bending of the collars or building force
  • FP is the force due to gravity or pendulum force
  • Ideally, if
  1.        FP > FB, the hole inclination will drop
  2.        FP < FB, the hole inclination will increase
  3.       FP = FB, the hole inclination will remain constant
  • The building force can be increased by increasing bit weight, which drives the tangency point down
  • The building force is also affected by the stiffness of the collars
  • Stiffer collars will bend less
  • As the diameter of the collar increases, the stiffness of the collar increases

  • The pendulum force can be increased by reducing bit weight and using larger diameter collars
  • ØSome inclination is required to have a pendulum force
  • ØFor a slick assembly, the building and pendulum force will balance at relatively low inclinations; therefore, they are not expected to build much inclination




  • So why does the inclination exceed 1 to 2o in some areas while it does not in other areas?
  • If the bed dip is relatively flat, we seldom have any deviation problems
  • When bed dip is encountered, we can experience deviation problems in harder rock
  • Deviation problems are associated with formation dip
  • The anisotropy of the formation causes deviation
 


  • If the formation deviation tendency can be defined as a force FF, the resultant force at the bit would be
    -FB + FP + FF   
  •  The wellbore will continue to build angle until the sum of the forces is equal to zero 
  •  Unfortunately it is difficult to define FF and it changes with depth     
Rule of thumb
  • If the bed dip is less than 45 degrees, the bit will have a tendency to deviate perpendicular to the bed dip (up dip)   
  • If bed dip is above 65 degrees, the bit will have a tendency to deviate along the bed dip 
  • Between 45 and 65 degrees, the bit can do either
  • In directional drilling, it is the difference between the bit angle and the formation dip 
  • The formation may want the bit to drop inclination when the wellbore is at an inclination greater than bed dip 
  • The two forces associated with a rotary assembly are the building force (FB) and the dropping force (FP) 
  • If we want to make a building assembly, the building force must be maximized 
    Stabilizers are used as fulcrums in order to increase the side force at the bit
     


Building assembly
A building assembly is constructed by placing a stabilizer near the bit
Bending of the drill collars above the stabilizer causes the building force at the bit to increase substantially
  • At low inclinations, the drill collars are bent by increasing bit weight
  • At higher inclinations, gravity will bend the collars and the build tendency is less affected by bit weight   
  • In order to make a dropping assembly, the pendulum force is maximized by placing a stabilizer at least 30 to 90 feet above the bit
 

  •     If the collars touch the wall of the hole between the stabilizer and the bit, the tangency point becomes the place where the collars first touch the wall of the hole
  •     If the stabilizer is too far above the bit, the collars will touch the wall and the pendulum force will be reduced  
-A holding assembly is constructed by placing stabilizers closer together so that the collars are more rigid
-Bit side force is minimized
  • Holding inclination is the most difficult with a rotary assembly
  • Analysis by Amoco indicated that
  1. -Assembly A proved to be the most successful even though it maintained inclination only 60 percent of the time
  2. -Assembly B maintained inclination less than 50 percent of the time
  3. -Assembly C held inclination less than 50% of the time 
To better understand the forces on a rotary BHA, lets look at a single stabilizer assembly with the stabilizer positioned at various distances from the bit












  • Rotary BHA’s were not very efficient as it was difficult to predict the actual performance of any rotary BHA
  • Frequent trips were required to change stabilizer placement and size
  • The build, hold or drop tendency of the rotary BHA could be adjusted but the walk tendency could not be changed substantially
  • A pure rotary assembly is used only occasionally today
  • Derivatives of the rotary assembly are used frequently
  • Steerable motor assembly 
  • Rotary steerable assembly
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METHODS OF DEFLECTING A WELLBORE

METHODS OF DEFLECTING A WELLBORE con't

 



METHODS OF DEFLECTING A WELLBORE con't 4

 

METHODS OF DEFLECTING A WELLBORE con't

Jetting
Jetting was used as an alternative to whipstocks 
  • Jetting was only effective in softer rocks since formations have to be eroded to change the trajectory of the wellbore 
  • A bit with a larger diameter nozzle facing the side of the hole was used to erode the formation to one side of the bit                       



  • The larger nozzle was oriented in the desired direction
  • The formation was washed as the assembly was lowered into the hole 

  •  If the rocks were too soft, the entire bottom of the hole may wash out without substantially altering the hole trajectory
  • In harder formations, the bit often had to be turned slightly left and right to erode the side of the hole 
  • Penetration rate while jetting, was very slow 
  • Once a portion of the hole had been jetted and the bit worked to bottom, the assembly was rotated to continue drilling ahead   
  • Jetting created a high dogleg severity in a short interval even though surveys may not indicate it   
  • The jet deflection bit was actually the first steerable assembly 
  1.   While jetting, the drill string was not rotated in order to effect a trajectory change (slide drilling) 
  2.   After jetting, the drill string was rotated to drill ahead