Economist Roshdy Ebrahim

  Well planning The drilling of a well involves a major investment, ranging from a few million US$ for an onshore well to 100 million US$ plus for a Deepwater exploration well. Well engineering is aimed at maximizing the value of this investment by employing the most appropriate technology and business processes, to drill a ‘fit for purpose’ well, at the minimum cost, without compromising safety or environmental standards. Successful drilling engineering requires the integration of many disciplines and skills. Successful drilling projects will require extensive planning. Usually, wells are drilled with one, or a combination, of the following objectives: to gather information to produce hydrocarbons to inject gas or water to maintain reservoir pressure or sweep out oil to dispose of water, drill cuttings or CO2 (sequestration). To optimize the design of a well it is desirable to have as accurate a picture as possible of the subsurface. Therefore, a number of discipli...

  Although the drilling of a well is a complex operation involving many different mechanical elements and processes,   the single most important factor upon which the successful completion of the well depends is the drilling-fluid circulation system.   The majority of serious problems encountered during drilling, including lost circulation, stuck pipe, kicking wells, poor penetration performance, high costs, blowouts, and poor-quality well logs,   can all be traced back to poorly designed, misunderstood, and misused drilling-fluid systems. The primary functions of the drilling fluid and its circulation systems are: 1. To remove rock cuttings from the bottom of the hole so that the bit can drill on a fresh rock surface,   thereby increasing the efficiency of the drilling operation. 2. To transport the cuttings to the surface where they can be removed from the drilling fluid. 3. To suspend the cuttings in the hole whenever mud circulation is stop...

  Petroleum occurs in the microscopic pores of sedimentary rocks   that form a reservoir typically, reservoir rock consists of sand, sandstone, limestone, or dolomite.   However, not all of the pores in a rock will contain petroleum   some will be filled with water or brine that is saturated with minerals.   Both oil and gas have a low specific gravity relative to water   and will thus float through the more porous sections of reservoir rock from their source area to the surface unless restrained by a trap.   A trap is a reservoir that is overlain and underlain by dense impermeable cap rock or a zone of very low or no porosity that restrains migrating hydrocarbon.   Reservoirs vary from being quite small to covering several thousands of acres, and range in thickness from a few inches to hundreds of feet or more. In general, petroleum is extracted by drilling wells from an appropriate surface   configuration into the hy...