Abstract
Prior to the advent of rotary steerable technology, directional drillers controlled trajectories using nonintelligent drilling tools such as downhole motors. Drilling a directional wellpath using this technology was relatively inefficient and had adverse effects on wellbore positioning and quality. The introduction of rotary steerable systems (RSS) enabled fast, efficient, and accurate wellbore placement and construction. This step change in steering technology tested the limits of human operators to assimilate the MWD data, compare the actual well trajectory with the planned, and take corrective actions to get back to the desired well plan.
RSS are very sophisticated tools with downhole intelligence. This intelligence provides the framework to implement advanced and automatic downhole trajectory-control algorithms. These have no lag times and can consistently perform accurate, efficient, and reliable corrective actions.
This paper presents the field results of the application of a novel trajectory-control algorithm which regulates inclination and azimuth downhole. The examples illustrate the impact of the technology on extended-reach wells. The paper ends with analyses, lessons learned, and conclusions from the field trial runs.
