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the perfect well

Perfect Well Analysis is a virtual concept used to improve drilling efficiency. In reality, Occidental drills wells to find and efficiently produce oil and natural gas. For example, above is a depiction of a multilateral horizontal well in Occidental’s Safah field in Oman. Drilling a horizontal well instead of a vertical well increases access to the oil producing Shuaiba reservoir. The multilaterals, or branches off the main wellbore, allow Occidental to produce concurrently from two intervals.

Occidental continuously strives to drill wells better, faster and cheaper. Occidental’s newly developed “Perfect Well Analysis” is helping improve drilling performance. The basic idea is to first determine the shortest drilling time for a specific well under perfect conditions. Engineers can then compare this “perfect well” time to the time it took to drill the actual well and identify opportunities for improvement.

Physics dictates how fast a well can optimally be drilled. Calculating the strength of the rock, the hole size, the horsepower applied and other factors, engineers can determine how quickly the perfect well could be drilled theoretically. Once the actual well is drilled, engineers calculate its “Perfect Well Ratio.” A PWR of 4.1 means that the actual well took 4.1 times longer than the perfect well. In practice, a PWR in the range of 2.0 to 3.0 is viewed as outstanding performance.

In addition to improving its own performance, Occidental is using the analysis to compare the drilling performance of different contractors and to evaluate drilling operations in outside operated assets. Occidental’s Perfect Well Analysis was profiled in a two-part series in the Oil and Gas Journal (March 1 and March 15, 2004 editions).

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