Rocky Seale & Greg Nairn, Sii Smith Services
Converging technologies this decade have provided alternative field development, depletion and drilling practices. These include horizontal drilling, geosteering and casing exit technologies. During the 1990"s, the benefit of horizontal drilling was becoming evident, while milling and geosteering systems were advancing. These technologies together made sidetracking a viable remedial method. Historically, sidetracking was used as a last resort to get around debris stuck in the wellbore or depart from a lower unproductive completion. The ability to drill horizontally geosteered wells from existing wellbores provided an economical means to recover a higher percentage of the hydrocarbons in place, and access nominal hydrocarbon reserves located behind the pipe, that otherwise could not have economically been recovered. As milling technologies evolved through the decade, sidetracking operations became feasible in a single trip. This paper will discuss the applications, mechanics and operation of the one trip sidetracking system.