What is Horizontal Drilling?

Most people have some sort of an idea about what happens when you drill an oil well. You dig a hole, hit oil/gas, and then retire as a multimillionaire! Yes, or at least, we wish. I have done oil field failure analysis for over 40 years, and have one son who has worked in the oil field for 30 years.

Today we are hearing about a new animal called a "horizontal well." This new technology and methodology is placing new, and therefore unknown forces on the metals and equipment used in the oil field. In the past six months, I have had four horizontal well cases that require metallurgical failure analysis. I recently saw a very good five minute video from Oklahoma gas and oil company OERB that explains how (and why) a horizontal well is drilled. For that quick video, click on the link below:

How Horizontal Drilling Works

As I indicated, we are seeing failures of drill pipe, casing, drill collars, etc., all used in drilling vertical wells failing in new and different ways because of the stress and conditions being imposed on the various types of oil field equipment being used to drill horizontal wells.

Vertical wells use to cost approximately $1-5 million dollars to drill and complete, compared to today's horizontal wells which are in the $15-40 million dollar range. The difference in price may seem staggering, but the difference in output, with horizontal wells being higher-output, is directly proportional to the cost. Therefore, analysis of horizontal well failures becomes much more important, as does the question, "Does the size of the loss (cost of drilling and abandoning the well) justify the cost (of failure analysis)?" The answer is a resounding yes, so get ready for more oil field failure analysis.  

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