Technical Program
Monday, 16 November
0900–1000 hours
Short Course Registration
1000–1800 hours
Short Course - Deep Drilling Design Concepts by Dr. Abdel-Sattar Dahab
1700–1800 hours
Workshop Registration
1800–1900 hours
Networking Hour
Tuesday, 17 November
1000–1330 hours
Session 1: Well Planning
Well planning has paramount significance for oil and gas companies. In the case of deep wells, planning becomes more essential for accomplishing successful projects. Normally, in deep horizons drilling and completion, we encounter all types of well challenges. Because such well costs are normally high, proper planning will reduce costs through safe operations, time optimisation and appropriate decision making. Well planning starts from the time the company agrees on the well coordinates, all the way through authority approval, well location, well design, and material procurement, until the well is safely handed over to the production department. While planning for a deep well, engineers consider the latest technologies in the market and make sure they have the proper applications. HSE, well control, suitable human skills and innovative ideas are also contributing in achieving this target.
1430–1800 hours
Session 2: Well Integrity
A stable wellbore promotes personnel safety, efficient drilling operations, high-quality wellbore logs and trouble-free completions. A destabilised wellbore can impair or prohibit its use, compromise the well plan and reduce or eliminate production. Preventing these costly stability problems requires an accurate prediction of the conditions that cause wellbore failures. This understanding helps in management of the often delicate relationship between wellbore stability and internal wellbore pressure. A very high differential can create wellbore fracturing and losses. Also, the compatibility of the utilised fluids with the formation fluids has to be managed to avoid formation damage. Often, these critical wellbore failures were limited to reacting to problems once they occurred. New analysis processes and technologies present in the industry are providing reliable, timely pre-drill predictions of the near-wellbore pressure and stress environment, formation damage avoidance by accurate fluid selection criteria and proposed process to design the correct fluid for reservoir drilling, completion, clean-up and interventions.
1800–2000 hours
Welcome Reception
Wednesday, 18 June
1000–1330 hours
Session 3: Equipment
Drilling equipment is the key for successful wells and deep wells normally require particular equipment to meet the unusual conditions that may be encountered. A few years ago, 20,000 feet depth was considered the limit for deep wells. At the present time, operators target and drill more than 30,000 feet wells in many places. However, such depths, several challenges face the industry and consequently technology intervenes. Several examples for such requirements will be discussed in this session. Drilling rigs with high specifications allow drillers to carry out deep operations. Deep water and deep wells will necessitate more sophisticated rigs. Drill string, casing and tubing and downhole motors are all different from those used in shallower wells. Deeper formations become harder and that requires special bits and BHA. Surface equipment like BOP’s, wellheads and christmas trees should be well designed and selected from material that will withstand the abnormal surface pressure. These are a few examples of the challenges that will be addressed in this session.
1430–1815 hours
Session 4: Economics
Well cost is one of the main issues that concerns oil and gas companies as it represents a major part of the exploration and development budget. From the well spud to the tie-in of the production facilities there are several areas that can be investigated for cost optimisation. When the drilling engineer prepares an Authorisation For Expenditure (AFE) for a new well, he endeavors to study possible solutions to bring the cost of the well down. In spite of the technology, it is normally expensive, but if rationally applied, it will definitely save money. Selecting right skills, equipment and material will enhance performance and consequently save time and decrease cost. Innovative drilling concepts, drilling without damaging reservoirs, drilling and completing wells with zero loss time, are all contributing factor to achieve good and economically drilled wells. In deep wells the need to consider economical methodologies in well construction is increasing as deep wells are usually associated with more difficult situations. Deep wells usually take more time and that is why all financial and economical performance indicators should be evaluated. Indicators may include Net Present Value (NPV), Pay Back and Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
