Drilling Unconventional Shale Wells Remotely

Abstract

Abstract After a successful pilot application in the Haynesville Shale, Shell Upstream Americas is currently taking steps to conduct all of its directional drilling, MWD/LWD and geosteering operations in the Americas and beyond from remote drilling centers. The main drivers for the use of these centers are: More wells can be directionally drilled with the involvement of the most knowledgeable / most experienced directional drilling / MWD/LWD / geosteering staff, while at the same time new staff can be trained and developed effectively from a central location. Safety is improved by having less staff commuting back and forth to the rig site (i.e. reducing the number of driving-related accidents), and by reducing occupational exposure through the decrease in number of people "in harm's way" present at the rig-site itself. Remote geosteering at a central facility allows for efficient communication between geologists and interpreters, with a single geosteering expert and a single geologist being able to handle a large number of geosteering operations at the same time, while at the same time greatly improving the speed of decision-making. Staying within the shale target zone and reduction of the number of geosteering corrections and doglegs while landing the horizontal section, resulting in noticeably improved wellbore quality, which yields immediate benefits in the ease of running production casing and will ultimately translate in higher hydrocarbon recovery. The learnings and best practices associated with the ongoing implementation of the remote drilling centers for unconventional shale drilling operations in the Americas are compiled. This includes a review of the technologies involved, the new workflows that were implemented, how the "people issues" were addressed, and what results - including a 90% improvement in the speed of decision making, clear improvements in wellbore placement and quality, and the drilling of best-in-class directional wells in the Eagle Ford Shale - were obtained. In addition, the future of remote directional drilling and its extension into drilling automation is briefly discussed.