Page 28 - Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual

Section 1 revised 11/00/bc 1/17/01 2:55 PM Page 4

[ ] Well Design
1.1.1

Circulate the Design for Comment Write the Drilling Program
Distribute for comment, Methods by which the well
including: design will be safely and
Requesting department efficiently implemented
Drilling department Show the assumptions and
Other qualified reviewers decisions made while writing
the program (technical
justification)

Circulate the Program for Comment Pre-spud Meeting
Distribute for comment, Onshore briefing
including: Distribute the program
Requesting department Offshore briefing
Drilling department Distribute the program to
Other qualified reviewers each person in supervisory
Approval once finalized position (drillers, geolo-
gists, T/P, mud loggers, etc.)

1.1.2. Data Acquisition and Analysis
The success or failure of a well, from a drilling viewpoint, is heav-
ily dependent on the quality of well planning prior to spud. The qual-
ity of the well planning in turn is heavily dependent on the quality and
completeness of the data used in planning. The successful drilling
engineer is a natural detective, snooping around for every snippet of
useful data to analyze.
The starting point in your data analysis trail is the well proposal.
Usually the need for drilling a well starts as a request from the explo-
ration or production department. They will put together a package of
information for drilling that will define what the well should achieve
and where it should be.
Well proposal checklist. The proposal should contain the follow-
ing elements as relevant to the particular well:

1. Well objectives (exploration, appraisal, development, or
workover)
2. Envisaged timescale (earliest/latest spud date desired)

4