In Abu Dhabi marine area, the first horizontal well was drilled from one of the existing wells in 1989. Since then, 168 horizontal wells have been drilled by the end of 1997. The horizontal wells are commonly applied in all the developing fields by drilling new wells as well as re-entry wells. This report reviews the progress of horizontal drilling techniques in the last nine years.
Our horizontal drilling is categorized into four phases where different drilling/completion techniques were applied, namely single horizontal wells with single completion, single horizontal wells with dual completion, dual lateral horizontal wells and multi lateral horizontal wells. The change from one phase to the next took place owing to the improvement of drilling methods and availability of the new tools. The feature of these methods and tools are also described with field experiences.
