Examination arrangement

Course content

Review of mechanisms that create pore pressure, and use of these for reservoir applications. Wellbore stability theory such as fracturing and wellbore collapse and practical application of these. Normalising and modeling of drilling data to create prognosis for new wells. Application of pore- and fracture pressure for well design. Mud design such as mud weight, circulation losses, hydraulic optimization and hole cleaning.
Establishing design premises for wells using design examples for production wells and HPHT wells. Review of drilling operations and their time consumption for a typical subsea well. Review of other aspects such as wellbore friction, analytical methods for stuck pipe, and review of well components causing well integrity problems.
Conventional well control, pressures while circulating out a kick. Alternative methods such as managed pressure drilling (MPD), underbalanced drilling (UBD) and coiled tubing drilling(CTD).

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
The student should understand:
- Pressure integrity of a well.
- How to handle a well control situation.
- Methods to reestablish well control.
- Gas behavior in wells.
- Wellbore stability regarding fracturing and wellbore collapse, and its relevance for well construction.
- Design premises for well construction.

Skills:
The student should master:
- The use of subject-specific digital tools including programming where relevant.
- Design methods for drilling into high pressure hydrocarbon reservoirs.
- Circulating out unwanted inflow, both conventional and unconventionally.

General competence:
Design skills and ability to assess drilling risks.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures and compulsory exercises. The lectures will be held in English if international master's students attend. Exercises also includes the use of programming tools (e.g. MS Excel and Python). Course evaluation is undertaken using reference group.

Compulsory assignments

• Exercises

Further on evaluation

80% of the exercises must be approved before the exam. The exam counts 100%.
If the teaching is given in English, the examination papers will be given in English only. Students are free to choose Norwegian or English for written assessments. If there is a re-sit examination, the form of assessment may be changed from written to oral examination.

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

Basic topics in drilling engineering.

Course materials

Modern Well Design – Second Edition, by Bernt S. Aadnøy, CRC Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-415-88467-9.
SPE Fundamentals of Drilling Engineering, 2011, Chapter 2: Introduction to geomechanics in drilling. This chapter will be supplied free of charge.
Supplementary materials.

Credit reductions