“OIL WELL”

“OIL WELL”
• Oil well- Perforation
through earth’s
surface.
• Find and release
Hydrocarbons.
• Hole Pierced through
reservoir rock and
pipe inserted
• 4” or 8” NPS pipe
Commencing out of
the Land or Water
surface.
 “Life of Well”
• Chronological stages- Grouped into 5 segments.

 1. Drilling- Sucker rod Pump.

• Cable tool replaced by Rotary Drills.
• Drilled much greater depths and in lesser time.
• Location- Exploration and 3-D Seismic survey.
• Drilling is carried our by means of Equipment Called Rig.
• Main Components- Derrick Floor, Draw-works, Drive & Mud
Handling.
• Hydraulic or Electric.
“Oil Rig”
 “Life of Well”
1. Derrick: Rigid tower-like structure supports drilling.
• Main Power System: Fulfill the energy demands. Power Unit.
• Diesel Engine: Prime mover for driving the electric Generator.
• Electric Generation: Power Feed to Distribution System.

2. Mechanical System:
• Traveling Block: Set of sheaves that reciprocates in the derrick.
Provides great mechanical advantage.
• Rotary Table: Also known as Turn table. Mechanical device which
turns the drill bit in clockwise direction.
 “Life of Well” ….continued
• Drilling Bit: Cutting or boring element used in drilling oil and gas
wells.
• Roller-Cone bits- Cutting elements and circulation element.
• Circulating element permits the passage of drilling fluid and
improve drilling rates.
• MUD
• Cooling and Removal of chips.
• Drill String: Assembly of drill pipe, bit and drill collar.
• Drill string is hollow so fluid can be pumped down and circulated
back.
 Swivel & Kelly Drive
• Swivel: Mechanical device that suspends the entire weight of the
drill string.
• Allows the rotation of the drill string beneath, but upper portion is
stationary.

• Kelly Drive: Used on oil drilling rigs. 3 important components (Kelly

bush, Kelly, and Kelly hose).
• Transmit rotary motion from Kelly busing to the drill-string.
 “Cooling and Lubrication system”
• Lot of “Heat” generation at the cutting zone.
• Coolant and Lubrication.
• High Pressure Injection- Hollow drill bit.
 Important Constituent of the system:
• Drilling Mud
• Mud Sump
• Mud circulation pump
• Shale Shakers
• Vibrating Mud Screen
“Miscellaneous Components”
BOP
• Blow out Preventer- Most
Important Safety device.
• Valve is closed-Drilling or
well Intervention.
• Control Excessive/Sudden
pressure.
 Drilling Operation
• Drill bit- breaks up the earth.
• Drilling fluid is pumped-though the hollow drill string to the
drilling zone.
• Cools the bit, Washes the drill chips away & Lubricates.
“Deviation Drilling”
Directional Drilling

• Intentionally drilling at an
angle other than Vertical.
• Controlled Directional drilling.
• Also used for Horizontal wells
and Multiple completions,
• “where one well may split
into several bores”.
• Sections more than 80
degree from the vertical is
called a Horizontal well.
“Casing and Completion”
• Completion: Well is ready to
produce.
a) Open-Hole Completion:
Barefoot completions- no casing
or Pipe.
b) Perforated Completion:
Perforated Gun/ jet perforation
c) Sand Exclusion Completions:
Applicable- large amount of
Loose sand.
• Only crude- no sand.
d) Permanent Completion: One
time installment.
Cost
saver
e) Drain Hole Completion:
 “Casing and Completion”
• Casing- 1st stage in the process of completing a well.
• Telescopically placement of pipes into freshly drilled hole.
• Functions of Casing:
• Sufficient strength to the wall side.
• Act as Barrier & avoid sand, stone and other debris.
“Different Types of Casing”
• Conductor Casing: 1st ,
prevents caving in.
• Surface Casing: 2nd next
to conductor casing.
• Intermediate Casing:
Longer than both.
• Liner String: Substitute
for I.C.
• Production Casing:
Longest casing.
 Installing well head and Production
Tree
• Once the well is properly cased.
• Opening is properly closed at the surface.
• Well opening is closed by installing specialized devices on the
top.
• These devices are called Production Tree/Xmas
Tree/Christmas tree.
• Primary Function- Controls the formation pressure and flow.
 Lifting and well Treatment:
• Certain tests are performed for Well estimated life.
• Newly drilled wells have sufficient well pressure.
• The data’s and test determines MER (Most efficient recovery)
rate. “ Natural pressure bound to decline”.

• Production: Most important in well’s life- Revenue.

• Production Tree: Top of well-Group of valves.
• Control and regulate flow, Pressure.
 Abandonment:
• A well becomes Liability= Cost of production> Earning.
• In this case the well should be Shut Down termed as
Abandonment.
• Later case- Running cost becomes greater than the revenue
generated by the well.
• Under such conditions- Inevitable for the oil company to close
down the well.
• Process begins- Removal of Production tube.
 Classification of wells:
On the basis of Application of well stream-
Production: Produce hydrocarbons.

On the basis of Produced Fluid-

• Oil wells
• Gas Wells
• Condensate Liquid

On the basis of its Location-

• Onshore wells
• Offshore wells
 Classification of wells…….
• Contributing to the development of Resource.

 Production well- Produce Oil & Gas.

 Appraisal wells- Assess characteristics.

 Exploration Wells- Exploration

 Wild Cat Wells- Drilled Randomly. Little is known about the

surface.
 Oil Extraction and Recovery
 Oil Extraction and Recovery-
• Primary Recovery- “Newly drilled and completed”
• 20% estimated through Primary Recovery.
• “Natural Pressure of the well”
• Secondary Recovery- Continuous extraction results in
depleted pressure.
• To improve production- EOR (enhanced oil recovery)
Techniques.
• Techniques grouped under Secondary recovery-EOR and TEOR
• Primary & Secondary recovery- 25% to 35%
 Methods of Harnessing reservoir
capacity( EOR/TEOR)
• EOR- Artificial lift, Lighter oil content reservoir.
By pumping out oil from reservoir by means of-
• Donkey Pump: Large cylinder with both fixed and moveable
elements.
• Main purpose-gather fluid from beneath and lift them to the
surface.
• Electric Submersible Pump(ESP)- widely accepted method of
artificial lift.
• By Pressurizing reservoir through injection of external fluid inside
the reservoir:
• Water Injection:
• Gas lift:
• Thermally enhanced Oil recovery (TEOR)/ Tertiary Recovery
 “Wellhead”
• Sits on the Top-most portion of the well Tubing.
• Important parameter-Reservoir pressure, temperature,
location (Onshore/offshore), well depth, well size, drilling
methods.
• Confusion between-Wellhead and production trees( also
known as Christmas tree).
• Well head acts as a mounting base for fixing the production
tree.
• Production tree- Assembly of fittings and valves on top of the
well head and casing.
 “Functions performed by the
Wellhead”:
• Provides base for mounting-Production tree.

• Attached BOP during drilling operation.

• Supports the down hole pump.

• Casing suspension.

• Casing pressure isolation-in multiple casing strings.

• Acts as a means of tubing suspension.

“Production Tree” or “XMAS Tree”
• “Heart of any hydrocarbon production system”