Well and Production Engineering

Hossein Hamidi, PhD - Coordinator

Lateef Akanji, PhD
Course Overview
 Objectives
• Familiarize and explore the drilling concepts and technologies for
oil and gas wells, production technologies, design technologies,
as well as associated safety and environmental considerations.
 Recorded Lectures: Approximately 33 hrs (3 hours per week)
 Tutorials:11 hrs
 Assessments:
• Assessment 1(20%), drilling fluid laboratory report submission
• Assessment 2 (40%), online test from drilling and completion
engineering chapters.
• Assessment 3 (40%) is a course work from production
engineering chapters.
 MyAberdeen & discussion board
www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Engineering
Hossein Hamidi, PhD

hossein.hamidi@abdn.ac.uk
References

 Applied Drilling Engineering

by Adam T. Bourgoyne et al. (1986)
SPE Textbook Series

 Fundamentals of Drilling Engineering

by Robert F. Mitchell and Stefan Z. Miska(2011)
SPE Textbook Series

www.abdn.ac.uk
Course objectives

Lecture I

Rotary drilling rig

www.abdn.ac.uk
Course objectives

1. To Identify drilling personnel and responsibilities on

a rig

2. To describe the overall function of conventional

rotary drilling rigs

3. Identify rig types and components

www.abdn.ac.uk
Big Bang

www.abdn.ac.uk
Structure of the earth
• The Earth is made up of 3 main layers:

• Core Mantle

• Mantle
Outer core
• Crust Inner core

Crust

www.abdn.ac.uk
Structure of the earth

www.abdn.ac.uk
Structure of the earth
Petroleum Is one of the energy resources that can be
found in the crust

www.abdn.ac.uk
What is Petroleum?
Petroleum:
Is made of a mixture of different hydrocarbons

Hydrocarbon:
Is a organic compound consisting entirely of
hydrogen + carbon

The simplest
hydrocarbon is
Methane (CH4)
www.abdn.ac.uk
Crude oil
A natural, yellow-to-black, flammable, liquid hydrocarbon
found beneath the earth’s surface

Crude Oil (Courtesy of Houston Geological Society)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Crude oil
is defined as "a mixture of hydrocarbons that existed in
the liquid phase in natural underground reservoirs and
remains liquid at atmospheric pressure after passing
through surface separating facilities“.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Where is Petroleum?

Petroleum is contained in underground

hydrocarbon reservoir

www.abdn.ac.uk
Basic concepts:
Aim:
to get it from the reservoir to the surface in a
SAFE, EFFICIENT and COST EFFECTIVE
manner
 This usually involves:
Exploration -finding the petroleum

Exploitation - drilling, producing and

processing it

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration and Production Licences :

In the UK
the secretary of State for Energy invite
companies to apply for

Exploration & Production Licences

on UKCS.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration and Production Licences :

?! www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration and Production Licences :
Exploration licences
do not allow a company to drill any deeper than
350 metres (1148 ft.)

Deepwater drilling in New Zealand (Courtesy of Greenpeace)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration and Production Licences :
Exploration licences
are used primarily to enable a company to obtain
seismic data from a given area,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6FPfGe9lIo
www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration, Development and Abandonment:

Then

production licence www.abdn.ac.uk

Exploration and Production Licences :
Production licences
allow to drill from whatever depth is necessary.

Before drilling an exploration well an oil company will

have to obtain a production licence.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration, Development and Abandonment:

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration, Development and Abandonment:

Despite improvements in seismic techniques the only

way of confirming the presence of hydrocarbons is to
drill an exploration well.

Drilling Rig

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration, Development and Abandonment:

The presence of hydrocarbons in a reservoir is never

certain until we have:
 drilled a well into that reservoir (this is the last step in the
exploration stage)
 obtained a sample of the reservoir fluids at the surface

www.abdn.ac.uk
The life of an oil or gas field:

Exploration
Appraisal
Development
Maintenance
Abandonment

www.abdn.ac.uk
Exploration and Production Licences :
Joint ventures :

to

The cost of field development are so great that major

oil companies have formed partnerships
Aim:
to share these exploration and development costs
(e.g. Shell/Esso).

www.abdn.ac.uk
Overview of Drilling Operations
Drilling Personnel
Operator
• The oil company who manages the drilling & production
operations.
Drilling contractor
• Oil company will employ a drilling contractor to actually drill
the well. The drilling contractor owns and maintains the drilling
rig and employs and trains the personnel required to operate
the rig.
Service companies
• During the course of drilling the well certain specialised skills
or equipment may be required (e.g. logging). These are
provided by service companies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aLCFLWMOg
www.abdn.ac.uk
Overview of Drilling Operations
Drilling Personnel

Typical drilling rig organization (Bourgoyne et al. 1986)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities
Company man
The operator will generally have a representative on
the rig to ensure drilling operations go ahead as
planned, make decisions affecting progress of the
well, and organise supplies of equipment.

Drilling superintendent
Company man will be in daily contact with his drilling
superintendent who will be based in the head office
of the operator. He is responsible for overseeing the
entire drilling operation.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities
• The drilling contractor will employ a toolpusher (rig
manager) to be in overall charge of the rig.
• He liaises with the company man to ensure
progress is satisfactory.

Driller trainee coordinating with

senior toolpusher before
commencing operation

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities
Driller:
• The manual activities associated with drilling the well are
conducted by the drilling crew.
• Supervises the derrickman and roughnecks

• there are usually 2 drilling

crews in 24 hours. Each crew
works under the direction of the
driller

Drilling crew (Courtesy of Oil Rig Jobs)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities
Derrickman
• To handle the pipe at the monkey
board by feeding the stands of drill
pipe into the elevators or removing
them from the elevators during a
trip
• Monkey board is a small platform
high in the derrick on which the
derrickman stands and performs
his job. It is between 15-34 m high.
• Responsibilities include pipe
handling during tripping operations Derrickman (courtesy of Heartland
and maintaining and repairing mud Energy Colorado)
pumps and associated equipment
while drilling. monkey board

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities

Derrickman (courtesy of Heartland Energy Colorado)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities
Roughnecks (floorhands)
• To handle the lower end of the pipe and stab it in to a drill pipe
to make a new connection or un-torque and remove the pipe
from the string.
• They use the equipment called tongs to makeup or break a
connection in the drill string.
• Usually, a set of two floorhands are required to get the job
done but if the rig is bigger and has more equipment to
handle, then the job is done by three floorhands.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities

Roughnecks (Courtesy of the Theatlantic)

plus a mechanic, an electrician, a crane operator and

roustabouts (general labourers).

www.abdn.ac.uk
Roles and Responsibilities

Iron Roughnecks (Courtesy of the Ocean Leadership)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rotary Drilling
• Today 85% or more of all wells are drilled with rotary drilling
rigs.
• Rotary drilling creates a “hole” in the ground through the
combination of the turning action with the downward pressing
action that moves the drill bit through the ground and creates
the required hole.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs
The drilling contractor owns fleet of drilling rig
Land

Offshore

Land and offshore rigs (Courtesy of the Monitor Systems)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs- Land
Conventional mobile

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs- Land
1. Conventional rigs:
• will take longer to be moved from one location to another
• use a standard derrick that needs to be built on location
before drilling
• usually dismantled before moving to the next location

2. Mobile rigs:
• more easily transported
• have a portable mast that is raised and lowered
• The rig-up and rig-down operation is less time-consuming
than on conventional rigs

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs- Land
• Maximum operating depth, is closely related to its derrick
loading capacity
1. Light Land Rigs –Singles
• Pull 1 pipe joint at a time
• Move quickly
• Haul on as little as 7 trucks
• Set Up quickly (in hours)
• Drill < 1500 m deep
• Usually have 1 mud pump
• Usually have 1 diesel engine
Light land rig (Courtesy of the World-rigs)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs- Land
2. heavy Land Rigs – Triples
• Pull 3 pipe joints at a time • 2 –3 mud pumps

• Move / set up slowly • Usually > 3 diesel engines

• Hauled on many trucks • Common in the mountains and

• Drill < 5000 m deep foothills

Heavy land rig (Courtesy of the World-rigs)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Drilling Rigs- Land
3. Medium Land Rigs – Doubles

• Pull two pipe joints at a time

• Sized between singles and triples
• Drill < 3000 m deep

www.abdn.ac.uk
Overview of Drilling Operations
OFFSHORE DRILLING
About 25% of the world’s oil and gas is currently being
produced from offshore fields (e.g. North Sea, Gulf of
Mexico).

Offshore rigs (Courtesy of the TheHill)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Overview of Drilling Operations
OFFSHORE DRILLING
Although the same principles of rotary drilling used
onshore are also used offshore there are certain
modifications to

procedures and equipment

which are necessary to cope with a more hostile

environment.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Overview of Drilling Operations
Offshore rigs
Bottom supported Floating vessels

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs- Bottom Supported
Fixed platform
• usually of jacket-type construction and
are supported by piling
• Installation of such large structures will
be possible only up to a certain water
depth (1,700 ft = 520 m) because
construction and transportation of
platforms for very deep areas would be
either extremely expensive or
technically unfeasible

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs- Bottom Supported
• Normally, the main purpose of fixed platforms is to remain in
place permanently after drilling has been concluded,
producing and processing the oil and gas from the wells.
• Actually, there are fields where the wells are drilled
previously by another drilling vessel and it is only afterward
that a fixed structure is installed and the wells are tied back
to the platform to initiate production.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs- Bottom Supported
jack-up:
• floating hull and retractable legs
• used in shallow water 400 ft (120m).
• The most common
• More expensive than land rigs
• Cost > $150,000/day
• most widely used bottom-supported marine
vessel
• When drilling is completed, the rig is lowered to
the water level, the legs are raised, and the rig
is towed to the next location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRpR_bbVGs
www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs- Bottom Supported

Jackup rig (Courtesy of Maersk Drilling)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs - Floating
semi-submersible :
• Is not bottom supported but is designed to float.
• Semi-submersibles can operate in water depths of up to
3500 ft = 1066 m.
• More expensive than jackups
• usually has two lower hulls that provide flotation. When
drilling, the ballasted lower hulls, filled with water, grant
stability to the rig

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs - Floating
In the North Sea, exploration wells are drilled from a
jack-up or a semisubmersible drilling rig.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs - Floating
Drillships:
• It is most often used for exploratory
drilling of new oil or gas wells in very
deep water (up to 12000 feet or
3660m)
• drillships are limited to site locations
where the wave action is not severe,
that is, calm waters.
• are not used when wave height
exceeds 5 ft (1.5 m)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs
Other types of stationary platforms where drilling can
take place are the tension leg platform (TLP) and
spar platform.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs
TLP:
floating deepwater-compliant structure designed for offshore
hydrocarbon production with its hull moored to the ocean floor
by high-strength cables, giving the platform vertical and lateral
stability. The drilling equipment and production facilities, as well
as crew quarters, are installed at surface on top of the
structure.

TLP (Courtesy of the Mapio)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Marine Rigs
Spar:
The spar platform concept comprises a
huge cylindrical steel hull that supports
both the drilling operations and
production facilities. Compartments on
the upper portion of the cylinder provide
buoyancy, while water-filled tanks on the
bottom give weight and stability. The hull
is attached to the seafloor by catenary
mooring systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OIKe3fX1l4
www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Drilling rig equipment can
be categorised into:

Power system;
Hoisting system;
Circulating system;
Rotary system;
Well control system

www.abdn.ac.uk
 crown block

Bulk mud component storage

Derrick
Drilling line

Water tank Monkey board

Fuel storage

traveling block
Engine and Mud gas
generators separator
Mud pits
Hook
Mud pumps Rotary hose Elevator
swivel
Kelly Mud return line
Mud discharge lines
drawworks
kelly bushing Choke manifold
Doghouse Master bushing
Mousehole
Pipe rack
Accumulator unit Rathole

Substructure Cat walk

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
1. Crown block
the stationary section that contains a set of pulleys or
sheaves through which the drill line is threaded or
reeved and is opposite and above the traveling block.

Crown block (Courtesy of the Teficopetro)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
2. Mast or Derrick
• A derrick or mast is the steel tower-like structure whose
function is to support the traveling and crown blocks, the
weight of the drillstring, and the drillpipe and drill collars
when they are pulled out of the hole.
• Derricks can handle sections called stands, which are
composed of two, three, or four joints of drillpipe. Because
common drillpipes are between 8 and 10 m long
(approximately 26 to 33 ft), a derrick designed to handle
three-drillpipe stands will be taller than a 10-story building.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
3. Monkey board
• The monkey board is
where the derrick
man works while trip
in hole (TIH) or trip
out of hole (TOH)
pipe.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
4. traveling block
• Basically a block and pulley
arrangement are used to lift the
drill pipe, drill collars and bit in
and out of the hole
• Supports most of the weight of
the string while drilling
• Crown blocks are a series of
pulleys on the top of the derrick
• Traveling blocks –below the
crown blocks -complete with
drilling line as viewed from above
Traveling block(Courtesy of the Equip Up Store)
www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
5. Hook
The J-shaped hook hangs from the traveling block
and picks up heavy loads. The photograph to the left
shows a swivel and hook. In the photograph to the
right, the hook is picking up the swivel and the kelly.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
6. Swivel
• It is a connecting point between the
circulating system and the rotary system.
• The swivel is located at the top of the Kelly.
• It also allows mud to be pumped down to the
drill string while the string rotates
• The upper section of the swivel has a bail for
connection to the elevator hook, and the
gooseneck of the swivel provides a
downward-pointing connection for the rotary
hose.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components

Rotary swivel (Steven M. Hain Company, Inc. 2010)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
7. Elevator
To ensure that drillstring components do not fall into the wellbore,
elevators are used when lifting or lowering the drillstring. They
attached to the hook.

Elevator (Courtesy of the DIYTrade)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
8. Kelly
The kelly transfers rotary motion from the rotary table or
kelly bushing to the drillstring. It is 40-42 feet. Attached
to the drill pipe.

rotary table
Drilling rig floor (Courtesy of the North American Drilling Corporation)
www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
• the first section of pipe
below the swivel
• The outside cross section
of the kelly is square or
(most commonly)
hexagonal to permit it to
be gripped easily for
turning

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
• During drilling operations, in
every connection, a new pipe
is added below the Kelly
• To avoid premature wear in
the kelly’s threads, a kelly
saver sub is used between the
kelly and the first joint of
drillpipe

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
9. Kelly bushing
The kelly bushing connects the
kelly to the rotary table.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
10. Master bushing
The master bushing turns the Kelly bushing.

Master bushing (Courtesy of the Paramount Oil Tools)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
11. mousehole:
Is the storage area on a
drilling rig where the next
joint of drilling pipe is held
until needed.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
12. Rathole
is the hole through the rig floor where the kelly can be
stored when it has to be disconnected.

Rathole (Courtesy of the OSHA)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
13.Drawworks
• Provide the hoisting and braking power required to
raise or lower heavy string of pipe

• It also stores the drilling

line to move the traveling
block the length of the
derrick

drawworks (Courtesy of the Rigfinder)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
16. doghouse
A small enclosure on the rig floor used as an office for
the driller or as a storehouse for small objects.

Dog house (Courtesy of the Offshore Post)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
17. rotary hose
visible in the lower right of the photograph, connects the
standpipe to the swivel and allows drilling fluid to
circulate while the drillstring rotates.

Rotary hose (Courtesy of the Schlumberger)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
19. catwalk
The ramp at the side of the drilling rig where pipe
is laid to be lifted to the derrick floor

Catwalk (Courtesy of the OSHA)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
23. mud return line (flowline)
The flowline is simply an inclined, gravity-flow conduit to
direct mud coming out the top of the wellbore to the mud
surface-treating equipment.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
24. Shale shaker:
• first phase of a solids control system on a drilling rig
• used to remove large solids (sizes >74µm) (cuttings) from the
drilling fluid ("Mud").
• Removes about 22 –27% of drilled solids.

https://ww
w.youtube.c
om/watch?v
=olm8OOTJs
EI

Shale shaker (Courtesy of the GN Solids Control)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
25. choke manifold
choke manifold systems manage well pressure
fluctuations encountered during drilling by diverting flow
through a series of valves and chokes.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
26. mud gas separator
It captures and separates large volume of free gas
within the drilling fluid.

Mud gas separator (Courtesy of the GN Solids Control)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
27. degasser:
A degasser is a device used in drilling to remove small
amount of entrained gas from drilling fluid

Degasser (Courtesy of the GN Solids Control)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
28. Reserve Pit:
used in conjunction with drilling rig for collecting spent drilling
fluids; cuttings, sands, and silts

Reserve pit(Courtesy of the GN Solids Control)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
30 & 31. Desander & Desilter
• Desanders and desilters are solid control equipment with
a set of hydrocyclones that separate sand and silt from
the drilling fluids in drilling rigs.
• Desanders are installed on top of the mud tank following
the shale shaker and the degasser, but before the desilter.
• The desander removes the abrasive solids (sizes 45 - 74
μm) which cannot be removed by shakers
• The desilter removes the particles (sizes 15 – 44 μm).

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components

Desander and Desilter (Courtesy of the GN Solids Control)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Drilling rig equipment can be categorised into:

Power system;
Hoisting system;
Circulating system;
Rotary system;
Well control system

www.abdn.ac.uk
Power System
• Generated by Diesel Engines
• Most rig power is consumed by the hoisting and fluid-
circulating systems.
• Distributed to:
• Mud Pumps
• Rotary System (Top Drive or Table)
• Hoist

• Distribution may be Mechanical (Chains or V Belts) or

Electrical (DC/DC, AC/DC also known as SCR -
silicone cathode rectifier)

www.abdn.ac.uk
The hoisting system

www.abdn.ac.uk
The hoisting system

www.abdn.ac.uk
The hoisting system
• The principal function of the rig hoisting system is to
facilitate lowering or raising drillstrings, casing strings
and other equipment in to or out of the hole.
• Most importantly, the purpose of the hoisting system
is also to keep tension on the drillpipe while weight is
applied to the bit by the drill collars.
• The drillpipe has relatively thin walls and would bend
and break if it were used to put weight on the bit.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rotary system
• The rotary system is used
to rotate the drillstring, and
therefore the drillbit, on the
bottom of the borehole.
• The rotary system includes
all the equipment used to
achieve bit rotation.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rotary system

Conventional Rotary System Top-drive System

• Rotary table Integrates the Kelly, rotary
• Kelly table, and bushings into
• Kelly bushing one unit that drives the pipe
• Master bushing from the top.

• Swivel

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rotary system
The top drive:
• Modern rigs use a topdrive to replace the
kelly, kelly bushings, and rotary table.
• Uses a power swivel at the top of drill
string in place of the Kelly to rotate the drill
string. The power swivel connects to the
travelling block
• The power swivel is powered by large
electric motor remotely controlled from the
driller console.
• It allows 90-foot stands to be added to drill
string instead of the conventional 30-foot
singles saving rig time
Top drive (Courtesy of the Bentec)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Circulating system
to circulate drilling fluid
down through the drillstring
and up the annulus,
carrying the drilled cuttings
from the face of the bit to
surface.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Drillstring:
composed of two major portions, the drillpipes (27 to 30 ft or 8
to 9 m) and the bottomhole assembly (BHA)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
• The BHA is the lower section of the drillstring.
• most of the BHA is composed of drill collars.
• The drill collars are thick-walled, heavy steel tubulars
used to apply weight to the bit.
• The buckling tendency of the relatively thin walled
drillpipe is too great to use it for this purpose. The
smaller clearance between the borehole and the drill
collars helps to keep the hole straight.

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Drill bit
• The bit is at the bottom of the
drill string
• Fluid travels through the bit
where pressure is changed to
velocity by nozzles to allow the
fluid to clean the cuttings out
from under the bit

www.abdn.ac.uk
Circulating system
Mud travel is as follows:
• Mud Tanks
• Mud Pump or pumps
• Surface Lines
• Standpipe (along derrick leg)
• Rotary or Kelly hose
• Gooseneck, Swivel
• Kelly
• Drill Pipe & Collars
• Bit and bit nozzles
• Up the drill string / open hole annulus to surface
• Shale shaker
• Mud Tanks

www.abdn.ac.uk
Well control system
The function of the well control
system is to prevent the
uncontrolled flow of formation
fluids from the wellbore.

Blowout (Courtesy of the Aoghs)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Failure to do this results in the uncontrolled flow of
fluids - known as a blow-out - which may cause loss of
lives and equipment, damage to the environment and
the loss of oil or gas reserves.

Blowout (Courtesy of the Oil Field Accidents)

www.abdn.ac.uk
Rig Components
Blow out preventors (BOPs) must be installed to cope
with any kicks that may occur. BOPs are basically high
pressure valves which seal off the top of the well.

BOP (Courtesy of the Shutterstock)

www.abdn.ac.uk
 Come Here.
Go Anywhere.
That’s the difference