A Glance at Directional Drilling, Taking on the Challenges

It should be highlighted that the most significant advantage of such drilling method is penetrating those reservoirs which could not be produced economically except for applying directional drilling technology.

World economy prosperity requires energy resources. According to the present studies and statistics, hydrocarbon will remain as the major energy supply until 2050. Geographical distribution of these resources indicates that by 2025 vision, the main oil producers in the Persian Gulf region will be Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates; in addition, Iran, Russia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will be the main key players in gas production. According to a report published at the end of 2013, Russia possesses the most gas resources of 43/3 trillion m3 equals to %24 of the proven reserves, and Iran follows Russia as the second gas resources owner with 34 trillion m3 which equals to %18 of the world proven reserves. Since access to and exploitation of majority of the hydrocarbon reserves requires application of directional drilling method, it is inevitable to employ such advanced technologies in order to reduce overall drilling operation costs. It should be highlighted that the most significant advantage of such drilling method is penetrating those reservoirs which could not be produced economically except for applying directional drilling technology.

Although it is over three decades since directional drilling has been applied in Iran drilling industry, but supplying main tools, equipment, spare parts & related software is highly dependent to foreign sources, and access to the newest and the most optimized technologies is so difficult and even impossible in some occasions. As the most of active local service providers just play the intermediary role to import directional drilling equipment to cover country basic requirement and due to the fact that there have not been effective efforts for entrance of advanced technologies therefore, a considerable gap could be observed between Iran and Middle East countries in terms of subjected service quantity and quality Commenting about current shortage and challenges of directional drilling service in Iran needs comprehensive database and precise statistical surveys of available information. Nevertheless, the major diagnosed challenges could be addressed as following:

1.Lack of national comprehensive database about past and current directional drilling workloads, future requirements, number of active local service providers and their hardware and software capabilities.
2. Limited access to well-known and valid manufacturers to supply substantial equipment and maintain reliable and sufficient spare parts and poor after-sale services.
3. Limited access to advanced technologies.