The country with the world's first oil well. Oil well

Litigation 02.11.2020

Litigation

For most people, having your own oil or gas well means deciding financial difficulties for the rest of your life and live without thinking about anything.
But is it so easy to drill a well? How is it structured? Unfortunately, few people ask this question.

Drilling well 39629G is located very close to Almetyevsk, in the village of Karabash. After the night rain, everything around was foggy and hares kept running in front of the car.

And finally, the drilling rig itself showed up. The drilling rig master was already waiting for us there - main man on the site, he makes all operational decisions and is responsible for everything that happens during drilling, as well as the head of the drilling department.

Basically, drilling is called destruction rocks at the bottom (at the lowest point) and removing the destroyed rock to the surface. A drilling rig is a complex of mechanisms, such as a drilling rig, mud pumps, drilling mud cleaning systems, generators, living quarters, etc.

The drilling site on which all the elements are located (we will talk about them below) is an area cleared of the fertile soil layer and filled with sand. After completion of the work, this layer is restored and, thus, no significant harm is caused to the environment. A layer of sand is required, because... At the first rains, the clay will turn into an impassable slurry. I myself saw how multi-ton Urals got stuck in such slurry.
But first things first.

At well 39629G, a rig (actually a tower) SBU-3000/170 (stationary drilling rig, maximum lifting capacity 170 tons) was installed. The machine is made in China and compares favorably with what I have seen before. Drilling rigs are also produced in Russia, but Chinese rigs are cheaper both to purchase and to maintain.

Cluster drilling is being carried out at this site; it is typical for horizontal and directional wells. This type of drilling means that the wellheads are located at close distances from each other.
Therefore, the drilling rig is equipped with a self-moving system on rails. The system works on the “push-pull” principle and the machine seems to move itself with the help of hydraulic cylinders. It takes a couple of hours to move from one point to another (the first tens of meters) with all the accompanying operations.

We go up to the drilling site. This is where most of the drillers' work takes place. The photo shows the pipes of the drill string (on the left) and a hydraulic wrench, with the help of which the string is extended with new pipes and continues drilling. Drilling occurs thanks to a bit at the end of the column and rotation, which is transmitted by a rotor.

I was particularly delighted workplace driller Once upon a time, in the Komi Republic, I saw a driller who controlled all processes with the help of three rusty levers and his own intuition. To move the lever from its place, he literally hung on it. As a result, the drill hook almost killed him.
Here the driller is like a captain spaceship. He sits in an isolated booth, surrounded by monitors, and controls everything with a joystick.

Of course, the cabin is heated in winter and cooled in summer. In addition, the roof, also made of glass, has a protective mesh in case something falls from a height and a wiper for cleaning the glass. The latter causes genuine delight among drillers :)

Let's climb up!

In addition to the rotor, the rig is equipped with a top drive system (made in the USA). This system combines a valve block and a rotor. Roughly speaking, this is a crane with an electric motor attached to it. The top drive system is more convenient, faster and more modern than a rotor.

Video of how the top drive system works:

From the tower you have a great view of the site and the surrounding area :)

In addition to beautiful views, at the top point of the drilling rig you can find the workplace of a riding pombur (driller's assistant). His responsibilities include pipe installation work and general supervision.

Since the horseman is at the workplace for the entire 12-hour shift and in any weather and at any time of the year, a heated room is equipped for him. This never happened on the old towers!

In the event of an emergency, the rider can evacuate using a trolley:

When a well is drilled, the trunk is washed several times to remove drilled rock (sludge) and a casing string, which consists of many pipes twisted together, is lowered into it. One of the typical internal diameters of the casing is 146 millimeters. The length of the well can reach 2-3 kilometers or more. Thus, the length of the well exceeds its diameter by tens of thousands of times. For example, a piece of ordinary thread 2-3 meters long has approximately the same proportions.

Pipes are fed through a special chute:

After running the casing, the well is flushed again and cementing of the annulus (the space between the well wall and the casing) begins. Cement is fed to the face and forced into the annulus.

After the cement hardens, it is checked with a probe (a device lowered into the well) AKTs - acoustic cementation control, the well is pressurized (checked for leaks), if everything is OK, then drilling continues - the cement cup is drilled at the bottom and the bit moves on.

The letter “g” in well number 39629G means that the wellbore is horizontal. From the wellhead to a certain point, the well is drilled without deviation, but then, with the help of an articulated whipstock and/or a rotary whipstock, it goes horizontal. The first is a pipe with a hinge, and the second is a bit with a directional nozzle, which is deflected by the pressure of the drilling fluid. Usually, in pictures, the barrel deflection is depicted at almost an angle of 90 degrees, but in reality this angle is about 5-10 degrees per 100 meters.

To ensure that the well bore goes where it needs to go, special people - “slingers” or telemetry engineers. Based on readings of the natural radioactivity of rocks, resistivity and other parameters, they monitor and adjust the drilling course.

Schematically it all looks like this:

Any manipulations with anything at the bottom (bottom) of the well turn into very exciting activity. If you accidentally drop a tool, a pump or several pipes into a well, then it is quite possible that you will never get what you dropped, after which you can give up on a well worth tens or hundreds of millions of rubles. By delving into cases and repair stories, you can find real pearl wells, on the bottom of which there is a pump, on top of which lies a fishing tool (for removing the pump), on top of which lies a tool for extracting the fish
nal tool. In my presence, they dropped, for example, a sledgehammer into a well :)

In order for oil to flow into the well at all, holes must be made in the casing and the cement ring behind it, since they separate the reservoir from the well. These holes are made using shaped charges; they are essentially the same as, for example, anti-tank ones, only without a fairing, because they don’t need to fly anywhere. The charges penetrate not only the casing and cement, but also the rock layer itself several tens of centimeters deep. The whole process is called perforation.

To reduce tool friction, remove destroyed rock, prevent shedding of the well walls and compensate for the difference in reservoir pressure and pressure at the wellhead (at the bottom the pressure is several times greater), the well is filled with drilling fluid. Its composition and density are selected depending on the nature of the cut.
The drilling fluid is pumped by a compressor station and must constantly circulate in the well to avoid shedding of the well walls, tool sticking (a situation where the string is blocked and it is impossible to rotate or pull it out - this is one of the most common drilling accidents) and other things.

We get down from the tower and go look at the pumps.

During the drilling process, the drilling fluid carries cuttings (drilled rock) to the surface. By analyzing cuttings, drillers and geologists can draw conclusions about the rocks that the well is currently passing through. Then the solution must be cleaned of sludge and sent back into the well to work. For this purpose, a system of treatment plants and a “barn” are equipped, where the purified sludge is stored (the barn is visible in the previous photo on the right).

The vibrating sieve is the first to take the solution - they separate the largest fractions.

The solution then passes through sludge (left) and sand separators (right):

And finally, the finest fraction is removed using a centrifuge:

Then the solution enters the capacitive blocks, if necessary, its properties are restored (density, composition, etc.) and from there it is fed back into the well using a pump.
Capacitive block:

Mud pump (made in Russia!). The red thing on top is a hydraulic compensator; it smoothes out the pulsation of the solution due to back pressure. Typically, drilling rigs have two pumps: one is working, the second is a backup in case of breakdown.

All this pumping equipment is managed by one person. Due to the noise of the equipment, he wears earplugs or ear protection throughout his entire shift.

“What about the daily life of drillers?” - you ask. We didn’t miss this moment either!
At this site, drillers work in short shifts of 4 days, because... drilling is taking place almost within the city, but the residential modules are practically no different from those used, for example, in the Arctic (except for the better).

There are a total of 15 trailers on the site.
Some of them are residential, where drillers live for 4 people. The trailers are divided into a vestibule with a hanger, washbasin and cabinets, and the living part itself.

In addition, a bathhouse and a kitchen-dining room are located in separate trailers (in local slang - “beams”). In the latter, we had a wonderful breakfast and discussed the details of the work. I won’t retell the story, otherwise you’ll accuse me of very frank advertising, but I’ll say , that I immediately wanted to stay in Almetyevsk... Pay attention to the prices!

We spent about 2.5 hours at the rig and I was once again convinced that such a complex and dangerous business as drilling and oil production in general can only be done good people. They also explained to me that bad people they don't linger here.

Friends, thank you for reading to the end. I hope now you understand the process of drilling wells a little better. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. I myself or with the help of experts will definitely answer!

The well does not imply the possibility of direct human access inside it.

In the vertical structure of a well, a distinction is made between the beginning (mouth), trunk and end (bottom). Wells are constructed by sequential drilling of rocks, removal of drilled material and strengthening the walls of the well from destruction (if necessary, depends on the nature of the rocks). Drilling rigs, drill bits and other mechanisms are used for drilling.

Hydrocarbon production through an oil well can be carried out by flowing (in the presence of excess pressure in oil reservoirs), using pumps, by artificially creating low pressure in the well, thereby ensuring the flow of oil to the bottom.

Story

The world's first well drilling for oil production purposes was carried out in 1846 at the suggestion of a member of the Main Administration of the Transcaucasian Territory Vasily Nikolaevich Semenov (1801-1863) in the village of Bibi-Heybat near Baku, which was then part of Russian Empire. The depth of the well was 21 m. The work was carried out under the leadership of the director of the Baku oil fields, Corps of Mining Engineers - Major Alekseev, the well was an exploratory one. In 1864, the first production well in Russia was drilled in the Kuban, in the village of Kievskoye, in the valley of the Kudako River.

The first American oil was obtained from a 15 m deep well by engineer Williams in 1857 in Enniskillen.

However, it is most often believed that the first oil from an industrial well was obtained by the American Edwin Drake on August 27, 1859.

The first directional wells had a curved trajectory: from the surface, drilling is first carried out vertically downward, and then the inclination angle is increased to bring it to a given direction. Straightforward an inclined oil production well was first drilled at the Old fields of Grozneft in 1949 (developed by engineer M. M. Buzinov)

Based on inclined drilling, a cluster drilling method was developed, in which a “cluster” of 10-12 inclined wells, covering a large oil-bearing area, diverges from one cluster pad. This method allows drilling to be carried out at greater depths - up to 6000 meters.

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing Oil well

And then, after a short moment, real Hell unfolded before our eyes, wide open with amazement... The vision was reminiscent of the paintings of Bosch (or Bosc, depending on what language you translate it into), a “crazy” artist who once shocked the whole world with his art world... He, of course, was not crazy, but was simply a seer who for some reason could only see the lower Astral. But we must give him his due - he portrayed him superbly... I saw his paintings in a book that was in my dad’s library, and I still remembered the eerie feeling that most of his paintings carried...
“What a horror!..” whispered the shocked Stella.
One could probably say that we have already seen a lot here, on the “floors”... But even we were not able to imagine this in our most terrible nightmare!.. Behind the “black rock” something completely opened up unthinkable... It looked like a huge, flat “cauldron” carved into the rock, at the bottom of which crimson “lava” was bubbling... The hot air “burst” everywhere with strange flashing reddish bubbles, from which scalding steam burst out and fell in large drops to the ground, or to the people who fell under it at that moment... Heartbreaking screams were heard, but immediately fell silent, as the most disgusting creatures sat on the backs of the same people, who with a contented look “controlled” their victims, not paying the slightest attention to their suffering... Under the naked feet of people, hot stones turned red, the crimson earth, bursting with heat, bubbled and “melted”... Splashes of hot steam burst through huge cracks and, burning the feet of human beings sobbing in pain, were carried into the heights, evaporating with a light smoke ... And in the very middle of the “pit” flowed a bright red, wide fiery river, into which, from time to time, the same disgusting monsters unexpectedly threw one or another tormented entity, which, falling, caused only a short splash of orange sparks, and then but, turning for a moment into a fluffy white cloud, it disappeared... forever... It was real Hell, and Stella and I wanted to “disappear” from there as soon as possible...
“What are we going to do?” Stella whispered in quiet horror. - Do you want to go down there? Is there anything we can do to help them? Look how many there are!..
We stood on a black-brown, heat-dried cliff, observing the horror-filled “mash” of pain, hopelessness, and violence stretching below, and we felt so childishly powerless that even my warlike Stella this time categorically folded her ruffled “wings.” “and was ready at the first call to rush off to her own, so dear and reliable, upper “floor”...
And then I remembered that Maria seemed to be talking to these people, so cruelly punished by fate (or by themselves)...
- Tell me, please, how did you get down there? – I asked, puzzled.
“Dean carried me,” Maria calmly answered, as a matter of course.
– What so terrible did these poor fellows do that they ended up in such hell? – I asked.
“I think this concerns not so much their misdeeds as the fact that they were very strong and had a lot of energy, and this is exactly what these monsters need, since they “feed” on these unfortunate people,” the little girl explained in a very adult way.
“What?!..” we almost jumped. – It turns out that they just “eat” them?
– Unfortunately, yes... When we went there, I saw... A pure silvery stream flowed out of these poor people and directly filled the monsters sitting on their backs. And they immediately came to life and became very happy. Some human beings, after this, almost couldn’t walk... It’s so scary... And nothing can be done to help... Dean says there are too many of them even for him.
“Yeah... It’s unlikely that we can do anything either...” Stella whispered sadly.
It was very hard to just turn around and leave. But we understood perfectly well that at the moment we were completely powerless, and just watching such a terrible “spectacle” did not give anyone the slightest pleasure. Therefore, having once again looked at this terrifying Hell, we unanimously turned in the other direction... I cannot say that my human pride was not wounded, since I never liked losing. But I also long ago learned to accept reality as it was, and not to complain about my helplessness if I was not yet able to help in some situation.
– Can I ask you where you girls are heading now? – asked the saddened Maria.

The first wells in human history were drilled using the percussion-rope method 2000 BC for production pickles in China. Until mid-19th century oil was mined in large quantities ah, mainly from shallow wells near its natural outlets to the surface. From the second half of the 19th century, the demand for oil began to increase due to the widespread use of steam engines and the development of industry based on them, which required large quantities of lubricants and light sources more powerful than tallow candles.

Research in recent years has established that the first oil well was drilled using a manual rotary method on the Absheron Peninsula (Russia) in 1847 on the initiative of V.N. Semenov. In the USA, the first oil well (25m) was drilled in Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake in 1959. This year is considered the beginning of development oil producing US industry. The birth of Russian oil industry It is customary to count from 1964, when in the Kuban in the valley of the Kudako River A.N. Novosiltsev began drill the first oil well (55 m deep) using a mechanical shock-rope drilling.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, diesel and gasoline engines internal combustion. Their introduction into practice led to the rapid development of the world oil producing industry.

In 1901, a rotary rotor was first used in the USA. drilling with flushing of the bottom with a circulating fluid flow. It should be noted that the removal of drilled rock by a circulating stream of water was invented in 1848 by the French engineer Fauvelle and first used this method when drilling an artesian well in the monastery of St. Dominica. In Russia, the first well was drilled using the rotary method in 1902 to a depth of 345 m in the Grozny region.

One of the most difficult problems that arose when drilling wells, especially with the rotary method, was the problem of sealing the annular space between the casing pipes and the walls of the well. Russian engineer A.A. solved this problem. Bogushevsky, who developed and patented in 1906 a method of pumping cement slurry into a casing string and then displacing it through the bottom (shoe) of the casing string into the annulus. This cementing method quickly spread in domestic and foreign drilling practice.

In 1923, a graduate of the Tomsk Technological Institute M.A. Kapelyushnikov in collaboration with S.M. Volokh and N.A. Korneev invented a hydraulic downhole motor - a turbodrill, which determined a fundamentally new path for the development of drilling technology and techniques. oil And gas wells In 1924, the world's first well was drilled in Azerbaijan using a single-stage turbodrill, called the Kapelyushnikov turbodrill.

Turbo drilling occupies a special place in the history of the development of inclined well drilling. The first inclined well was drilled using the turbine method in 1941 in Azerbaijan. The improvement of such drilling has made it possible to accelerate the development of deposits located under the seabed or under very rough terrain (swamps Western Siberia). In these cases, several inclined wells are drilled from one small site, the construction of which requires significantly less costs than the construction of sites for each drilling site. drilling vertical wells. This method of constructing wells is called cluster drilling.

In 1937-40. A.P. Ostrovsky, N.G. Grigoryan, N.V. Aleksandrov and others developed the design of a fundamentally new downhole motor - an electric drill.

In the USA in 1964, a single-throw hydraulic downhole motor was developed, and in 1966 in Russia a multi-threaded downhole motor was developed, allowing drilling of directional and horizontal wells for oil and gas.

In Western Siberia, the first well that produced a powerful fountain of natural gas On September 23, 1953 it was drilled near the village. Berezovo in the north of the Tyumen region. Here, in the Berezovsky district, it originated in 1963. gas production industry of Western Siberia. First oil a well in Western Siberia flowed on June 21, 1960 in the Mulymyinskaya area in the Konda River basin.

For the first time in the world, in 1803, Baku resident Haji Kasymbek Mansurbekov began offshore oil production in Bibi-Heybat Bay from two wells 18 m and 30 m from the shore. The existence of the first sea fishery ceased in 1825, when a strong storm in the Caspian Sea destroyed the wells.

In 1834, the director of the Baku oil fields, Nikolai Voskoboynikov (1801-1860), invented a special distillation apparatus for producing kerosene from white and black oil.

In 1837, in Balakhany, the first oil refinery in Absheron and in the world, Nikolai Voskoboynikov, began operating (the first similar plant in the USA would be built in 1855 by Samuel Kayer). At this plant, for the first time in the world, oil distillation with water steam was used, and the oil was heated using natural gas.

In 1846, in Baku on Bibi-Heybat, at the suggestion of a member of the Main Administration of the Transcaucasian Territory Vasily Semenov (1801-1863), the world's first well, 21 m deep, was drilled for oil exploration; that is, for the first time in the world, oil drilling was carried out with a positive result. The work was carried out under the leadership of the director of the Baku oil fields, the Corps of Mining Engineers, Major Alekseev.

In 1847, on July 8-14, in his documents, the governor in the Caucasus, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov (1782-1856), officially confirmed the completion of the drilling of the world's first oil well on the shores of the Caspian Sea (Bibi-Heybat) with a positive result.

In 1848, a well was dug in the Baku village of Balakhany, which produced 110 pounds of oil per day.

In 1849, industrialist M.G. Selimkhanov laid a well on the slope of Mount Bibi-Heybat, from which he extracted 17-18 thousand pounds of oil per year.

In Russia, oil drilling was officially prohibited until 1869 (the government listened to the findings foreign specialists, proving the unsuitability and futility of drilling for oil production). Eg; when in 1866 the Transcaucasian Trading Society petitioned the government for permission to begin drilling work, it was refused.

In 1869, tax farmer I.M. Mirzoev drilled his first well, 64 m deep, in Balakhany, but was unsuccessful. In 1871, almost in the same place, he drilled a second well with a depth of 45 m, which turned out to be very productive: it produced an average of up to 2 thousand pounds of oil per day.

Since 1872, intensive construction of wells with a depth of up to 45-50 m began, which led to an almost complete cessation of the construction of new wells in the Baku region.

With the abolition of farming, intensified oil drilling began in the Baku region. Their number grew rapidly: in 1872 there was one well, in 1873 - 17, in 1874 - 50, in 1875 - 65, and in 1876 - 101 wells. Powerful fountains appeared, showing an abundance of oil in Balakhany, Romany, Sabunchi, Zabrat, Bibi-Heybat.

The first wells were drilled manually using a rotary method. Then they began to use percussion rod drilling with steam drive. When drilling in hard rocks, a balance beam was used, to one end of which a drilling tool was attached. The other end of the balancer was connected to the drive pulley via a crank. The pulley was rotated by a steam engine. When drilling deep wells, sliding rods or scissors were used. Deep wells were secured with casing pipes.

The lowering and raising of drilling tools and casing pipes, the chiseling of rock, the lowering and raising of a bailer to extract the drilled rock was provided by a drilling rig, the main shaft of which was rotated by a steam engine. The chain drum received movement from the main shaft, with the help of which the drilling tool was raised and lowered. The balancer was driven by a connecting rod with a crank mounted on a slotting shaft.

The first installation for rotary drilling with a derrick 15 m high appeared in Baku in 1902. Its machine consisted of a transmission shaft and three gears. The movement from the steam engine was transmitted to one gear in a single gear, and the movement was transmitted to the winch drum and rotor from the other two gears. The clay solution for removing the drilled rock was supplied to the drill pipes by a steam pump.

Oil was extracted from boreholes using cylindrical buckets up to 6 m long. At the bottom of the bucket there was a valve that opened upward. Such a bucket, intended for cleaning wells, was called a bailer, and the method of extracting oil with a bailer was called tartar.

The first experiments in using deep-well pumps for oil production in Baku were made in 1876. But these pumps quickly became clogged with sand, and oil industrialists returned to the usual bailer. In the 70s 19th century V.G. Shukhov proposed a compressor method for extracting oil from wells, in which compressed air was used to lift oil (air lift). This method was tested in Baku in 1897. Another method of lifting oil from wells - gas lift - was proposed by M.M. Tikhvinsky in 1914. Of all known methods Tartar remained the main source of oil production. With its help, in 1913, 95% of all oil was extracted.

With the increase in the number of drilling wells in Baku, oil production increased. In 1872, 23 thousand tons were produced, in 1875 - 81 thousand tons, in 1885 - 1.9 million tons, and in 1901 - 11.6 million tons. The Baku region provided 95% of total oil production in Russia.

The number of oil refineries in Baku also increased, and even residential buildings began to be converted into factories. The factories used oil as fuel, using the most primitive combustion method - on the hearth of the furnace. The city was covered in soot. Residents were suffocating in smoke. At the beginning of 1873, the city administration forced the factory owners to move their “factories” to the territory adjacent to the city, two miles away. There, with feverish speed, the Black City arose, in which already in the spring of 1873. there were 80 factories. At the end of the 1870s. the number of small oil refineries in the Baku region has already reached 200. The plants of the Baku Oil Society and the I.M. plant were technically advanced. Mirzoeva. The Nobel brothers' plant was also equipped with advanced technology.

In 1878, the company "Bari, Sytenko and Co" was built according to the design of V.G. Shukhov's first oil pipeline from the Baku fields to the Black City. In 1879, the construction of the Baku field was completed railway. In 1907, kerosene began pumping through the world's first Baku-Batumi main pipeline.

General information about drilling oil And gas wells

1.1. BASIC TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Rice. 1. Well design elements

A borehole is a cylindrical mine opening, constructed without human access and having a diameter many times smaller than its length (Fig. 1).

Main elements of a borehole:

Wellhead (1) – intersection of the well route with the surface

Borehole bottom (2) – the bottom of the borehole, moving as a result of the impact of the rock-cutting tool on the rock

Well walls (3) – side surfaces drilling rig wells

Well axis (6) - an imaginary line connecting the centers cross sections borehole

*Wellbore (5) is the space in the subsurface occupied by a borehole.

Casing strings (4) – strings of interconnected casing pipes. If the well walls are made of stable rocks, then casing strings are not lowered into the well

The wells are deepened, destroying the rock over the entire face area (with a continuous face, Fig. 2 a) or along its peripheral part (with an annular face, Fig. 2 b). In the latter case, a column of rock - a core - remains in the center of the well, which is periodically raised to the surface for direct study.

The diameter of wells, as a rule, decreases from the mouth to the bottom in steps at certain intervals. Initial diameter oil And gas wells usually do not exceed 900 mm, and the final one is rarely less than 165 mm. Depths oil And gas wells vary within several thousand meters.

According to their spatial location in the earth's crust, boreholes are divided (Fig. 3):

1. Vertical;

2. Inclined;

3. Rectilinearly curved;

4. Curved;

5. Rectilinearly curved (with a horizontal section);

Rice. 3. Spatial arrangement of wells

Complexly curved.

Oil and gas Wells are drilled on land and offshore using drilling rigs. In the latter case, drilling rigs are mounted on racks, floating drilling platforms or ships (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. Types of boreholes

IN oil and gas industries drill wells for the following purposes:

1. Operational- For oil production, gas And gas condensate

2. Injection - for pumping water into productive horizons (less often air, gas) in order to maintain reservoir pressure and extend the flow period of field development, increase production operational wells equipped with pumps and air lifts.

3. Exploration – to identify productive horizons, delineate, test and assess their industrial significance.

4. Special - reference, parametric, evaluation, control - for studying the geological structure of a little-known area, determining changes in reservoir properties of productive formations, monitoring reservoir pressure and the front of movement of the oil-water contact, the degree of production of individual sections of the formation, thermal effects on the formation, ensuring in-situ combustion , oil gasification, reset Wastewater into deep-seated absorption layers, etc.

5. Structural search - to clarify the position of promising oil-gas-bearing structures according to the upper marking (defining) horizons repeating their outlines, according to the data of drilling small, less expensive wells of small diameter.

Today oil And gas wells are capital, expensive structures that last for many decades. This is achieved by connecting the productive formation to the surface with a sealed, strong and durable channel. However, the drilled wellbore does not yet represent such a channel, due to the instability of rocks, the presence of layers saturated with various fluids (water, oil, gas and mixtures thereof), which are under different pressures. Therefore, when constructing a well, it is necessary to secure its trunk and isolate (isolate) the layers containing different fluids.

Casing

Fig.5. Casing pipe in a well

The wellbore is secured by lowering special pipes called casing into it. A series of casing pipes connected in series with each other makes up the casing string. Steel casing pipes are used to secure wells (Fig. 5).

The layers saturated with various fluids are separated by impenetrable rocks - “tires”. When drilling a well, these impermeable isolation seals are broken and the possibility of interlayer flows, spontaneous outflow of formation fluids to the surface, watering of productive formations, pollution of water supply sources and the atmosphere, and corrosion of casing strings lowered into the well is created.

During the process of drilling a well in unstable rocks, intensive cavern formation, screes, landslides, etc. are possible. In some cases, further deepening of the wellbore becomes impossible without first securing its walls.

To eliminate such phenomena, the annular channel (annular space) between the well wall and the casing string lowered into it is filled with plugging (insulating) material (Fig. 6). These are compositions including a binder, inert and active fillers, chemical reagents. They are prepared in the form of solutions (usually aqueous) and pumped into the well with pumps. Of the binders, Portland cement cements are the most widely used. Therefore, the process of separation of layers is called cementation.

Thus, as a result of drilling a shaft, its subsequent fastening and isolation of layers, a stable underground structure of a certain design is created.

Well design is understood as a set of data on the number and dimensions (diameter and length) of casing strings, wellbore diameters for each string, cementing intervals, as well as methods and intervals for connecting the well to the productive formation (Fig. 7).

Information on the diameters, wall thicknesses and steel grades of casing pipes at intervals, on types of casing pipes, equipment The bottom of the casing is included in the concept of casing design.

Casing strings for a specific purpose are lowered into the well: direction, conductor, intermediate columns, operational Column.

The direction is lowered into the well to prevent erosion and collapse of rocks around the mouth when drilling under the conductor, as well as to connect the well to the drilling fluid cleaning system. The annular space behind the direction is filled along the entire length with cement mortar or concrete. The direction goes down to a depth of several meters in stable rocks, to tens of meters in swamps and muddy soils.

The conductor usually covers the upper part of the geological section, where there are unstable rocks, layers that absorb drilling rig solution or developing, supplying formation fluids to the surface, i.e. all those intervals that will complicate the process of further drilling and cause pollution of the environment. The conductor must cover all layers saturated with fresh water.

Rice. 7. Well design diagram

The conductor also serves to install a blowout preventer wellhead equipment and suspension of subsequent casing strings. The conductor is lowered to a depth of several hundred meters. To reliably separate the layers and provide sufficient strength and stability, the conductor is cemented along its entire length.

Operational the column is lowered into the well to extract oil, gas or injection of water into the productive horizon or gas in order to maintain reservoir pressure. The height of rise of the cement slurry above the roof of productive horizons, as well as the device for stage cementing or the connection unit for the upper sections of casing strings in oil And gas wells should be at least 150-300 m and 500 m, respectively.

Intermediate (technical) columns must be lowered if it is impossible to drill to the designed depth without first isolating the zones of complications (shows, collapses). The decision to lower them is made after analyzing the pressure ratio that occurs during drilling in the well-reservoir system.

If the pressure in the well Рс is less than the formation Рpl (pressure of the fluids saturating the formation), then fluids from the formation will flow into the well, and manifestation will occur. Depending on the intensity, manifestations are accompanied by self-outflow of fluid ( gas) at the wellhead (overflows), emissions, open (uncontrolled) flowing. These phenomena complicate the well construction process and create the threat of poisoning, fires, and explosions.

When the pressure in the well increases to a certain value, called the absorption onset pressure Rpogl, fluid from the well enters the formation. This process is called absorption drilling solution. Рgl can be close to or equal to the reservoir pressure, and sometimes approaches the value of vertical rock pressure, determined by the weight of the rocks located above.

Sometimes absorption is accompanied by fluid flows from one formation to another, which leads to contamination of water supplies and productive horizons. A decrease in the fluid level in the well due to absorption in one of the formations causes a decrease in pressure in the other formation and the possibility of manifestations from it.

The pressure at which natural closed cracks open or new ones form is called hydraulic fracturing pressure Pgrp. This phenomenon is accompanied by catastrophic absorption drilling solution.

It is characteristic that in many oil and gas bearing In areas, the formation pressure Ppl is close to the hydrostatic pressure of the fresh water column Pg (hereinafter simply hydrostatic pressure) with a height Hj equal to the depth Hn at which the given formation lies. This is explained by the fact that the fluid pressure in the formation is often caused by the pressure of marginal waters, the feeding area of which is connected with the day surface at significant distances from the field.

Since the absolute values of pressures depend on the depth H, it is more convenient to analyze their ratios using the values of relative pressures, which are the ratios of the absolute values of the corresponding pressures to the hydrostatic pressure Pr, i.e.:

Rpl* = Rpl / Rg;

Рgr* = Рgr / Рг;

Rpogl* = Ppogl / Pr;

Rgrp* = Rgrp / Rg.

Here Рпл – reservoir pressure; Рgr – hydrostatic pressure of drilling fluid; Рpgl – absorption onset pressure; Pgrp – hydraulic fracturing pressure.

Relative reservoir pressure Ppl* is often called the anomaly coefficient Ka. When Rpl* is approximately equal to 1.0, the reservoir pressure is considered normal, when Rpl* is greater than 1.0 it is considered abnormally high (ABPD), and when Rpl* is less than 1.0 it is considered abnormally low (ANPD).

One of the conditions for a normal uncomplicated drilling process is the ratio

a) Rpl*< Ргр* < Рпогл*(Ргрп*)

The drilling process becomes more complicated if, for some reason, the relative pressures end up in the following ratio:

b) Rpl* > Rgr*< Рпогл*

c) Rpl*< Ргр* >Rpogl* (Rgrp*)

If relation b) is true, then only manifestations are observed, if c), then both manifestations and absorptions are observed.

Intermediate columns can be continuous (they are lowered from the mouth to the bottom) or non-solid (not reaching the mouth). The latter are called shanks.

It is generally accepted that a well has a single-column structure if no intermediate columns are lowered into it, although both the direction and the conductor are lowered. With one intermediate string, the well has a two-string design. When there are two or more technical strings, the well is considered multi-string.

The well design is specified as follows: 426, 324, 219, 146 – casing diameters in mm; 40, 450, 1600, 2700 – casing running depths in m; 350, 1500 – level of cement slurry behind the shank and operational column in m; 295, 190 – bit diameters in mm for drilling a well for 219 and 146 mm columns.

1.2. WELL DRILLING METHODS

Wells can be drilled using mechanical, thermal, electric pulse and other methods (several dozen). However industrial application they only find ways mechanical drilling- impact and rotation. The rest have not yet left the experimental development stage.

1.2.1. IMPACT DRILLING

Impact drilling. Of all its varieties, percussion-rope drilling is the most widespread (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8. Scheme of percussion-rope drilling of wells

The drill bit, which consists of a bit 1, an impact rod 2, a sliding scissor rod 3 and a rope lock 4, is lowered into the well on a rope 5, which, bending around the block 6, the draw roller 8 and the guide roller 10, is unwound from the drum 11 of the drilling rig . The speed of descent of the drilling rig is controlled by brake 12. Block 6 is installed on the top of the mast 18. Shock absorbers 7 are used to dampen vibrations that occur during drilling.

The crank 14, with the help of the connecting rod 15, sets the balancing frame 9 into oscillatory motion. When the frame is lowered, the draw roller 8 pulls the rope and lifts the drill bit above the bottom. When the frame is raised, the rope is lowered, the projectile falls, and when the bit hits the rock, the latter is destroyed.

As the well deepens, the rope is lengthened by unwinding it from drum 11. The cylindricity of the well is ensured by turning the bit as a result of the rope unwinding under load (during the lifting of the drill bit) and twisting it when the load is removed (during the bit hitting the rock).

The efficiency of rock destruction during percussion-rope drilling is directly proportional to the mass of the drill, the height of its fall, the acceleration of the fall, the number of impacts of the bit on the bottom per unit time and is inversely proportional to the square of the borehole diameter.

During drilling of fractured and viscous rocks, the bit may jam. To release the bit in the drill, a scissor rod is used, made in the form of two elongated rings connected to each other like chain links.

The drilling process will be more effective the less resistance the drill bit has to the drill bit that accumulates at the bottom of the well, mixed with formation fluid. If there is no or insufficient flow of formation fluid into the well from the wellhead, water is periodically added. Uniform distribution of drilled rock particles in the water is achieved by periodic pacing (raising and lowering) drilling projectile As destroyed rock (sludge) accumulates at the bottom, the need arises to clean the well. To do this, with the help of a drum, they lift the drill bit out of the well and repeatedly lower the bailer 13 into it on a rope 17, wound from the drum 16. There is a valve at the bottom of the bailer. When the bailer is immersed in the slurry liquid, the valve opens and the bailer is filled with this mixture; when the bailer is lifted, the valve closes. The sludge-laden liquid raised to the surface is poured into a collection container. To completely clean the well, you have to lower the bailer several times in a row.

After cleaning the bottom, a drill bit is lowered into the hole and the drilling process continues.

With shock drilling the well is usually not filled with liquid. Therefore, in order to avoid the collapse of the rock from its walls, a casing string is lowered, consisting of metal casing pipes connected to each other by threading or welding. As the well deepens, the casing is advanced to the bottom and periodically extended (increased) by one pipe.

The impact method has not been used for more than 50 years oil and gas industries of Russia. However, in exploration drilling in placer deposits, during engineering-geological surveys, drilling water wells, etc. finds its application.

1.2.2. ROTAL DRILLING OF WELLS

During rotary drilling, rock destruction occurs as a result of the simultaneous impact of load and torque on the bit. Under the influence of load, the bit penetrates into the rock, and under the influence of torque, it breaks it off.

There are two types of rotary drilling - rotary and with downhole motors.

During rotary drilling (Fig. 9), power from engines 9 is transmitted through winch 8 to rotor 16 - a special rotational mechanism installed above the wellhead in the center of the tower. The rotor rotates drilling column and a bit screwed to it 1. The drill string consists of a leading pipe 15 and drill pipes 5 screwed to it using a special sub 6.

Consequently, during rotary drilling, the bit deepens into the rock when the rotating drill string moves along the axis of the well, and when drilling with downhole motor – non-rotating drilling columns. A characteristic feature of rotary drilling is flushing

At drilling with a downhole motor, bit 1 is screwed to the shaft, and the drill string is screwed to the motor housing 2. When the motor is running, its shaft with the bit rotates, and the drill string receives the reactive torque of the motor housing, which is damped by a non-rotating rotor (a special plug is installed in the rotor).

Mud pump 20, driven by engine 21, pumps drilling fluid through manifold (high-pressure pipeline) 19 into riser - pipe 17, vertically installed in the right corner of the tower, then into flexible drilling hose (sleeve) 14, swivel 10 and drilling column. Having reached the bit, the flushing fluid passes through the holes in it and rises to the surface through the annular space between the well wall and the drill string. Here in the system of tanks 18 and cleaning mechanisms (not shown in the figure) drilling rig the solution is cleared of drilled rock, then enters the receiving tanks of 22 mud pumps and is pumped back into the well.

Currently, three types of downhole motors are used - turbo drill, screw motor and electric drill (the latter is used extremely rarely).

When drilling with a turbodrill or screw motor, the hydraulic energy of the flow of drilling fluid moving down the drill string is converted into mechanical energy on the shaft of the downhole motor to which the bit is connected.

When drilling with an electric drill, electrical energy is supplied through a cable, sections of which are mounted inside drilling column and is converted by an electric motor into mechanical energy on the shaft, which is directly transmitted to the bit.

As the well deepens drilling a column suspended from a pulley system consisting of a crown block (not shown in the figure), a traveling block 12, a hook 13 and a traveling rope 11 is fed into the well. When the leading pipe 15 enters the rotor 16 to its full length, turn on the winch, lift the drill string to the length of the leading pipe and hang the drill string using wedges on the rotor table. Then the leading pipe 15 is unscrewed together with the swivel 10 and lowered into a pit (casing pipe pre-installed in a specially drilled inclined well) with a length equal to the length of the leading pipe. A hole for the pit is drilled in advance in the right corner of the tower approximately halfway from the center to its foot. After this, the drill string is extended (increased) by screwing a two-pipe or three-pipe stand (two or three drill pipes screwed together) onto it, removing it from the wedges, lowering it into the well to the length of the stand, hanging it using wedges on the rotor table, lifting it out drill the leading pipe with a swivel, screw it to the drill string, free the drill string from the wedges, bring the bit to the bottom and continue drilling.

To replace a worn bit, the entire drill string is lifted out of the well and then lowered again. Lifting and hoisting work is also carried out using a pulley system. When the winch drum rotates, the traveling rope is wound onto or from the drum, which ensures the raising or lowering of the traveling block and hook. The drill string being raised or lowered is suspended from the latter using slings and an elevator.

When lifting, the BC is unscrewed onto the candles and installed inside the tower with the lower ends on the candlesticks, and the upper ends are placed behind special fingers on the balcony of the riding worker. The BC is lowered into the well in the reverse order.

Thus, the process of operation of the bit at the bottom of the well is interrupted by the extension of the drill string and tripping operations (HRO) to change the worn bit.

As a rule, the upper sections of the well section are easily eroded deposits. Therefore, before drilling a well, a shaft (pit) is built to stable rocks (3-30 m) and a pipe of 7 or several screwed pipes (with a cut-out window in the upper part) 1-2 m long greater than the depth of the pit is lowered into it. The annulus is cemented or concreted. As a result, the wellhead is reliably strengthened.

A short metal trench is welded to the window in the pipe, through which, during the drilling process, the drilling fluid is directed into the system of tanks 18 and then, after passing through the cleaning mechanisms (not shown in the figure), it enters the receiving tank 22 of the mud pumps.

The pipe (pipe column) 7 installed in the pit is called the direction. Setting the direction and a number of other works performed before the start drilling, are considered preparatory. After their completion, an act of commissioning is drawn up exploitation drilling rig and begin drilling the well.

Drilling through unstable, soft, fractured and cavernous rocks that complicate the process drilling(usually 400-800 m), cover these horizons with a conductor 4 and cement the annular space 3 to the mouth. With further deepening, horizons may be encountered that also need to be isolated; such horizons are covered with intermediate (technical) casing columns.

Having drilled the well to the design depth, it is lowered and cemented operational column (EC).

After this, all casing strings at the wellhead are tied to each other using a special equipment. Then, several tens (hundreds) of holes are punched against the productive formation in the EC and cement stone, through which, during testing, development and subsequent oil exploitation (gas) will flow into the well.

The essence of well development is to ensure that the pressure of the drilling fluid column located in the well becomes less than the formation pressure. As a result of the created pressure difference, oil ( gas) from the formation will begin to flow into the well. After the complex research work the well is handed over to exploitation.

A passport is created for each well, where its design, location of the mouth, bottom and spatial position of the trunk are accurately noted according to inclinometer measurements of its deviations from the vertical (zenith angles) and azimuth (azimuth angles). The latest data is especially important when cluster drilling directional wells in order to avoid the barrel of a drilled well from falling into the barrel of a previously drilled or already operating well. The actual deviation of the face from the design one should not exceed the specified tolerances.

Drilling operations must be carried out in compliance with labor protection and environmental laws. Construction of a drilling site, routes for moving the drilling rig, access roads, power lines, communications, pipelines for water supply, collection oil And gas, earthen pits, treatment facilities, sludge dumps should be carried out only in areas specially designated by the relevant organizations. After completion of the construction of a well or well cluster, all pits and trenches must be backfilled, and the entire drilling site must be restored (reclaimed) to the maximum extent possible for economic use.

1.3. BRIEF HISTORY OF DRILLING OIL AND GAS WELLS

The first wells in human history were drilled using the percussion-rope method 2000 BC for production pickles in China.

Until mid-19th century oil was mined in small quantities, mainly from shallow wells near its natural outlets to the surface. Since the second half of the 19th century, the demand for oil began to increase due to the widespread use of steam engines and the development of industry based on them, which required large quantities of lubricants and more powerful light sources than tallow candles.

Research in recent years has established that the first well in oil was drilled using a manual rotary method on the Absheron Peninsula (Russia) in 1847 on the initiative of V.N. Semenov. In the USA, the first well oil(25m) was drilled in Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake in 1959. This year is considered the beginning of development oil producing US industry. The birth of Russian oil industry is usually counted from 1964, when in the Kuban in the valley of the Kudako River A.N. Novosiltsev began drilling the first well in oil(depth 55 m) using mechanical percussion-rope drilling.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, diesel and gasoline internal combustion engines were invented. Their introduction into practice led to the rapid development of the world oil producing industry.

In 1901, in the USA, rotary rotary drilling with flushing of the bottom with a circulating fluid flow was first used. It should be noted that the removal of drilled rock by a circulating stream of water was invented in 1848 by the French engineer Fauvelle and first used this method when drilling an artesian well in the monastery of St. Dominica. In Russia, the first well was drilled using the rotary method in 1902 to a depth of 345 m in the Grozny region.

In 1923, a graduate of the Tomsk Technological Institute M.A. Kapelyushnikov in collaboration with S.M. Volokh and N.A. Korneev invented a hydraulic downhole motor - a turbodrill, which determined a fundamentally new path for the development of technology and equipment drilling oil and gas wells In 1924, the world's first well was drilled in Azerbaijan using a single-stage turbodrill, called the Kapelyushnikov turbodrill.

Turbo drills occupy a special place in the history of development drilling inclined wells. The first inclined well was drilled using the turbine method in 1941 in Azerbaijan. The improvement of such drilling has made it possible to accelerate the development of fields located under the seabed or under very rough terrain (swamps of Western Siberia). In these cases, several inclined wells are drilled from one small site, the construction of which requires significantly less costs than the construction of sites for each drilling site. drilling vertical wells. This method of constructing wells is called cluster drilling.

In 1937-40. A.P. Ostrovsky, N.G. Grigoryan, N.V. Aleksandrov and others developed the design of a fundamentally new downhole motor - an electric drill.

In Western Siberia, the first well that produced a powerful fountain of natural gas On September 23, 1953 it was drilled near the village. Berezovo in the north of the Tyumen region. Here, in the Berezovsky district, it originated in 1963. gas production industry of Western Siberia. The first oil well in Western Siberia flowed on June 21, 1960 at the Mulyminskaya area in the Konda River basin.