As the energy landscape evolves and drilling complexity increases, relative well positioning becomes more essential than ever. As a result, it's crucial to have technologies that can detect existing wells and accurately gauge their distance and orientation relative to a new well being drilled. In the Catoosa Field test in onshore Oklahoma, the challenge was to determine the distance and direction of an existing cased borehole located close to a new wellsite. However, current ranging technologies were unable to provide real-time data while drilling. Instead, the drilling process would be required to halt so that a wireline-conveyed technology could be used to assess the nearby cased well.
The introduction of active resistivity ranging (ARR) while drilling, facilitated by GeoSphere 360 3D reservoir mapping-while-drilling service, marks a significant advancement in the field of ranging technology. This system represents the first global implementation capable of delivering real-time active resistivity ranging detection throughout the drilling process. It stands alone as the sole while-drilling solution in the logging industry designed to range for target wells cased in metal or filled with conductive mud in open holes. Additionally, it complements the TruLink™ definitive dynamic survey-while-drilling service by providing real-time passive magnetic ranging capabilities.
The results gained during field testing demonstrated the strong effectiveness of the ranging capabilities of this novel approach. Both the lateral distance and the azimuthal direction of the cased well were determined with good accuracy, which was proved by comparing against the true distance and orientation obtained from the well survey data of the borehole trajectories.
