CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF EXTENDED REACH DRILLING AND ITS IMPLICATION

This paper reviews the extended reach drilling in China and abroad and points out that the extended reach well features the ?3llmm (12?in) section located in the long tangent open hole with high angle. This feature makes the torque/drag the key factor in extended each drilling. It high lights three key techniques in extended reach drilling such as optimized trajectory design, torque/drag and trajectory control tools. Now China has the drilling capability for horizontal well with horizontal displacement more than 2600m. Although the international experience of taking horizontal displacement of 4000m as the start of extended reach well can be regarded as reference, the capacity of equipment should be evalu-ated, lipgraded or optimized properly.