How Directional Drilling Cuts Costs

The technology for directional drilling and horizontal wells dates back to the 1920s, but the practice didn’t really take off until around 1980. Since then, the technology has significantly improved and the practice has become much more popular, particularly in the oil and gas industry for its ability to enable access to reservoirs that would be otherwise impossible to reach and, more importantly, for its ability to keep costs at reasonable levels.

What you should know about directional drilling

Directional drilling services in Roseville, CA can involve either vertical or horizontal/diagonal drilling. It involves installing a wellbore at a specific point in the reservoir, increasing that reservoir’s overall performance. When used for horizontal drilling, it is frequently used to divert a vertical well to a horizontal path, which can be beneficial for a variety of reasons.

Horizontal directional drilling allows multiple wells to be produced from a single location, since you’re not limited to simply drilling straight down. It also allows you to drill under surface locations that would otherwise be inaccessible due to features such as bodies of water, mountains or existing cityscapes, and allows for processes such as side tracking, fault drilling, relief well drilling, exploration of salt domes and the creation of multiple target zones.

Benefits of directional drilling

There are a variety of benefits to directional drilling that make it clear why it has taken off in popularity over the last several decades. Many of these individual benefits help to make it a financially efficient option for drilling operations.

For starters, it is known to reduce water and gas coning, which means a reduction in the amount of remedial work that would be necessary in the future, which means fewer ongoing maintenance and remediation costs. With more surface area in the pay zone, directional drilling increases reservoir production rate by multiple times, meaning you’re getting more production for the investment you put into the drilling operation. It helps to lower the pressure drop and fluid velocity around the reservoir, which reduces the production of sand that could damage the yield and make a reservoir less financially efficient. They have efficient drainage patterns that improve the recovery of the oil and gas reserves, again adding financial value to the drilling process.

Overall, directional drilling helps to cut down significantly on the amount of time and cost it would typically take to produce a sufficient level of oil and gas from a reservoir.

Consider also the savings that come from not having to disrupt surface infrastructure. Say you’re digging out a space underground for utilities like piping or cable to be laid. Rather than digging a trench, which will cause significant surface disruption and a need for a great deal of investment to be made in repairing the resulting damage, you can use directional drilling to get underneath those areas with minimal disruption, thus eliminating many of the potential repair costs.

For more information about the financial benefits of directional drilling services in Roseville, CA, we encourage you to contact Es7 Comm-2 U, Inc. today.

Categorised in: Directional Drilling

This post was written by Writer