Posts tagged ‘designing horizontal wells’

May 11th, 2012

Designing Horizontal Wells Could Save Money And Time

The practical benefits of designing horizontal wells could save tremendous development costs for commercial and industrial projects. In many cases, horizontal drilling is the only option to tap particular underground resources. The area above the vertical deposit might be a protected wetland or contain infrastructure that makes drilling impractical. In other cases, the disruption of vertical drilling would be undesirable in many physical locations. Horizontal drilling brings modern technological advances to the field of horizontal drilling and hole enlarging that make the processes cost-competitive with traditional vertical excavations.

The underground collection of groundwater lakes, pools, and reservoirs often collect in areas that are wider and longer than they are deep. Collecting from the resources horizontally takes advantage of this type of geography, allowing greater flow rates with less pumping. When industry aligns their wells appropriately, they can take advantage of the natural flow and direction of water, oil, gas, or other deposits. Utility operations, commercial developers, and oil or gas companies need to find the most efficient way to access unusually shaped deposits to cut both developmental and maintenance costs. Horizontal wells usually need one pump, but vertical wells could require as many as five to fight the influence of gravity.

The ability to drill horizontally has earned expert reputations  for companies that can design and plan horizontal wells, avoiding the disruption of vertical drilling in protected or developed areas. These companies work well with local utilities, oil companies, and treatment authorities to solve complex extraction and treatment problems. Water actually benefits from being run through horizontal soil because companies can insert multiple contamination filters. Aerators and treatment protocols can be spaced out along the length of the pipe. One drilling site can serve as the nexus for several horizontal wells at different angles and pitches to access different pockets of available reservoirs. The result is a much smaller environmental footprint. In general, a smaller number of horizontal wells will yield much greater productivity than comparable vertical wells.

The company offers a number of benefits for consultation beginning with the planning process for designing horizontal wells. Directional technologies helps companies by making expert suggestions for treating water, engineering the most efficient piping arrangements, and suggesting appropriate materials for the geographic terrain and climate conditions. The New England area, in particular, benefits from these consultations, because the ground conditions vary tremendously throughout the region. The area has a long history of settlement in the United States, and infrastructure and protected areas also come into play frequently when developing new projects. Independence and environmental concerns often limit projects, and creative horizontal drilling solutions provide answers suitable to the demands of environmentalists and developers’ budgets.

Designing horizontal wells brings creative thinking to the fore of modern commercial development. These wells can access unusual deposits, bypass railroads, roadways and commercial development, and bring greater efficiency to the pumping and treatment processes. Preliminary consultations include taking soil samples to develop the best drilling and remediation plans. In areas where land use is essential, horizontal wells minimize the environmental footprint while maximizing the yield of wells.