A 2 day course by Dr. Bernt S. Aadnoy Rock Well Consultants
Modern Well Design Instructor: Professor Bernt S. Aadnoy
The course presents a unified approach for the well design process. It is aimed at personnel performing work related to petroleum wells, that is drilling engineers, production engineers, drilling supervisors, exploration geologists and others. The objective is to provide a good overview over the well design process. Understanding of the design premises are emphasized. The participants will learn elementary rock mechanics and how to analyze borehole stability problems in a simple manner. Furthermore, this information will be used to design a fracture gradient curve. This serves as input to the well design process where also optimization potential will be investigated. Methodology for casing seat selection, and optimal mud weight selection to minimize borehole stability problems will be defined. The complete casing design process is covered, including pressure testing of casing. A separate chapter is included on HPHT wells. Other elements covered are: experience transfer from reference wells, hydraulic optimization and interpretation of ballooning in deep wells. Completion and production requirements are covered. Well design issues related to special wells like deep-water wells, multilateral wells and long-reach wells are covered, as well as well friction, bottom-hole-assembly design a.s.o. Many of the practical solutions given in the course are results of many years experience in the North Sea, and they are not published elsewhere. The participants will be given excerpts from “Modern Well Design” and also “Mechanics of Drilling” by B.S.Aadnoy.
About the instructor : Bernt S. Aadnøy is a professor of drilling engineering at Stavanger University in Norway. He holds B.S. and MS. degrees in mechanical, control and petroleum engineering from the U. of Wyoming and the U. of Texas, and a Ph.D. degree in petroleum rock mechanics from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He started working for Phillips Petroleum in Odessa, Texas in 1978, and has since also worked for Statoil and Saga Petroleum for a number of years. Most of his work relates to drilling and completion. He is also advisor for Rogaland Research. In the period 1998-2003 he was adjunct professor at the University of the Faroe Islands where he developed a petroleum engineering curriculum in connection with the deep-water petroleum activities. He is expert advisor for the Norwegian Petroleum Authorities on well failures in the North Sea. He also developed the well design manual used by Statoil, Norsk Hydro and Saga Petroleum, and has written more than 100 technical papers and several books, and hold several patents. Dr. Aadnøy has a unique blend of industrial and academic experience, and has developed a lot of experience in providing engineering solutions to practical problems. He has received a number of awards. He was recipient of the 1999 SPE International Drilling Engineering Award, and twice the Best Paper Award from the SPWLA, the Scanas Research Award 2000 for his contributions to drilling technology, twice the SPE Outstanding Technical Editor Award, as well as the 2003 ConocoPhillips Award. He is elected into both the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
Outline of the course:
Day 1: Application of geomechanics for well planning. Introduction to the well design process. -experience transfer to minimize cost. -how to select the optimal mud weight to minimize stability problems. -hydraulic optimization for improved hole cleaning. Analysis of leak-off data - data normalization - interpretation - determine the in-situ stresses - how to derive a frac prognosis Analysis of borehole collapse - collapse mechanisms - field evaluation of caliper logs - time dependency (7-day shale?) - mechanical or chemical effects? Geomechanic issues
- using drillability to identify clay diapers - drillability as a tool in relief well drilling - pore pressure depletion - the physics of circulation losses- a new understanding
Review of methods to perform geomechanical analysis and to develop prognosis. -demonstration of the "leak-off inversion" data p rogram. -optimizing well directions
Well design premises
-well integrity -casing sizes and setting depth -completion and production requirements
Casing design
-design criteria -casing test pressure -casing design example
Day 2: Advanced wells. The second day will focus on applications. Topic covered are: Review of casing design. exploration and production wells. Design of HPHT wells - North Sea knowledge - challenges with narrow mud weight window - review of successful well design - ballooning problems Deepwater drilling - geomechanic issues for top casings - a new "world-wide" frac model Well path design - torque and drag as important design parameters - ultra long wells, challenges and limitations - catenary profiles, potential and limitations - hydraulics and cementing - design of Bottom-Hole-Assemblies Stuck pipe analysis - simple buoyancy model for all applications in drilling and well intervention - mechanistic analysis of differential sticking - depth to stuck point in deviated wells - engineering methods to free the pipe Multilateral wells - review of different types and applications - borehole stability of multilateral junctions - application and limitation from a reservoir engineering point of view - smart wells Other topics of particular interest if time permits
