About this Training
Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) presents unique engineering and operational challenges that require specialized planning and execution. This course delivers an advanced understanding of high angle well construction, hole cleaning, well monitoring, and directional drilling techniques, ensuring safe and efficient drilling of extended reach and complex wells.
This is an operationally focused course that goes beyond the basics of ERD well planning. Participants will gain a deep understanding of risk factors, operational hazards, and best practices to ensure successful well delivery while minimizing wellbore instability, nonproductive time (NPT), and well cost escalation.
The curriculum follows the latest research and addresses the highest risk areas associated with high angle and complex well drilling operations. The course also critically evaluates how proposed tools and techniques may impact project risk, ensuring informed decision making for complex wells.
Participants will gain practical knowledge that can be directly applied to ongoing drilling operations or future well planning. This training has been proven to deliver dramatic improvements in drilling performance, reduce costs, and increase operational efficiency.
All topics are placed in their operational context, ensuring that each subject is interrelated with the overall ERD drilling process.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand and mitigate risks associated with high angle drilling and hole cleaning.
- Analyse torque and drag issues to extend lateral lengths and improve well performance.
- Design and optimize Bottom Hole Assemblies (BHA) for ERD wells, ensuring minimal tortuosity.
- Improve surveying accuracy and reduce positional uncertainty in ERD well placement.
- Develop ERD specific operational procedures, including tripping, back-reaming, and best practices for managing NPT.
- Apply geomechanical principles to manage wellbore strength, ECD, and pressure related challenges in ERD wells.
- Optimize shock & vibration control strategies to enhance tool performance and wellbore stability.
- Apply advanced ERD techniques to push rig capabilities beyond conventional limits.
This course is ideal for:
- Drilling Engineers, Wellsite Supervisors, Tool Pushers, Rig Managers, and Field Support Personnel involved in ERD or complex well projects.
- Geoscientists & Reservoir Engineers optimizing long geo-steered laterals and directional well placements.
- Operations Teams looking to enhance hole cleaning, torque & drag management, and wellbore stability in high angle drilling.
- Anyone focused on improving drilling performance and reducing costs—even on conventional, low step-out wells.
- Basic
- Intermediate
Your expert course leader is a seasoned drilling professional with over 34 years of oilfield experience, including more than 5,000 days at rig sites and in operational support. With 18+ years dedicated to training and competency development, he has designed and delivered advanced programs in drilling fluids, wellbore stability, stuck pipe prevention, and hydraulics for global operators such as Total and Schlumberger NExT. Consistently rated among the top drilling instructors worldwide, he blends deep technical knowledge of fluid systems with extensive field experience, ensuring participants gain both practical and strategic insights into advanced drilling fluid applications.
Unlock the potential of your workforce with customized in-house training programs designed specifically for the energy sector. Our tailored, in-house courses not only enhance employee skills and engagement but also offer significant cost savings by eliminating travel expenses. Invest in your team’s success and achieve specific outcomes aligned with your organization’s goals through our expert training solutions. Request for further information regarding our on-site or in-house training opportunities.
In our ongoing commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility, we will no longer providing hard copy training materials. Instead, all training content and resources will be delivered in digital format. Inspired by the oil and energy industry’s best practices, we are leveraging on digital technologies to reduce waste, lower our carbon emissions, ensuring our training content is always up-to-date and accessible. Click here to learn more.
To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized “One to One” coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster.
Request for further information post training support and fees applicable
Extended reach drilling (ERD) is a directional drilling technique in which the horizontal displacement (or “step-out”) of the well significantly exceeds the true vertical depth (TVD). Some industry definitions regard a horizontal reach at least twice the TVD (H:V ≥ 2) as ERD.
2. What are the main technical challenges in ERD operations?
Key challenges include managing torque and drag on the drillstring, ensuring adequate hole cleaning in long horizontal sections, maintaining wellbore stability, controlling equivalent circulating density (ECD), mitigating stuck pipe, handling lost circulation, and selecting optimal drilling fluid and BHA designs.
3. What advantages does ERD offer compared to conventional vertical or moderate directional wells?
ERD allows one surface location to access a broader reservoir footprint, reducing the number of wells or surface pads required. It can extend reservoir contact, lower environmental footprint, reduce infrastructure costs, and allow remote targeting (e.g. drilling offshore from land).
4. In which scenarios or applications is ERD most beneficial?
ERD is useful when surface constraints exist (e.g. urban areas, sensitive terrain, offshore resources from land), in mature fields requiring extended drainage, tying back distant reservoirs, or when reducing surface footprint is crucial. It’s applicable both onshore and offshore.
5. How does ERD differ from standard horizontal or directional drilling?
While horizontal drilling focuses on extending lateral section within or near the reservoir, ERD pushes the limits of well length and deviation beyond typical ratios (e.g. step-out greatly exceeding TVD). ERD imposes greater mechanical, hydraulic, and design constraints than standard directional wells.
6. What recent technology trends are enhancing ERD performance?
Advances include rotary steerable systems (RSS) for better trajectory control, real-time MWD/LWD telemetry, digital twin and simulation models, automated drilling optimization, torque/drag reduction devices, new drilling fluid systems, and use of ML/AI to predict hydraulics and hole cleaning.
7. What are the limitations or trade-offs of ERD?
As well length increases, costs rise sharply, mechanical loads grow, pressure windows narrow, and risk of failure increases. There is a ceiling to step-out beyond which further extension is not viable due to friction, drag, and ECD constraints.
8. How is well planning and trajectory optimization approached in ERD?
Engineers optimize the well path (using curve, tangent, catenary shapes) to minimize friction forces, side loads, and torque. They integrate geomechanics, hydraulics, torque/drag modelling, hole cleaning simulation, and pressure window analysis to arrive at a feasible trajectory.
9. What does the future outlook for ERD look like in the oil & gas industry?
Future ERD will see deeper and longer wells, tighter integration with digitalization and automation, real-time adaptive control, advanced materials and tool design, and more robust predictive models. The field may also intersect with geothermal and carbon storage applications.
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