How Beneficial Are Horizontal Wells

By Author: Kathy Sequino
Total Articles: 1
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To remove liquids and gases from the earth’s subsurface is used a wide variety of technologies, of which the mostly preferred is the horizontal wells. You may have known about the two types of wells used for drilling by natural gas companies, the vertical wells and the horizontal wells. What makes these two techniques different is that the vertical drilling goes straight down into the ground whereas horizontal wells bends gradually after going down a certain level.

Horizontal wells find its applications in trenched and directionally drilled modes with the lot of benefits being offered to the fuel industry. Air sparging, vacuum extraction, soil flushing and in-well air stripping are some of the technologies in which is employed the drilling of horizontal wells.

Trenched wells involve the method of simultaneous borehole advancement and an installation with a larger diameter. The approximate depth of trenched wells and not less than 30 feet and can yield higher amount of contaminants for treatment technologies. Directional drilling begins with any angle and slowing turns into horizontal at a certain depth below ...
... ground level. The direction of drilling and the increasing depth for installation are determined by considering hydro-geologic conditions.

Reports states that even the cost factor of horizontal wells is as much as two to three times greater than that of vertical wells, productivity is estimated to be increased as much as more than three to four times. This makes horizontal wells, the most valuable oil drilling technology. To be a horizontal drilled well, it’s not necessary that the angle of inclination should be 90° as most cases involve slow rotation by considering certain factors before installation in a particular area.

Horizontal wells have limited familiarity among public since it’s a mature technology in oil and gas industry. Understanding how advantageous is horizontal wells can help you to learn more about this effective technology. Here are some of the important advantages of horizontal wells in oil and gas industry listed below;

Efficiency: Horizontal wells are proved to be highly efficient in delivering and recovering gases or liquids than other types of drilling wells.

High productivity: Construction of horizontal wells are expensive than vertical wells but are capable of providing a production factor of 15 to 20 times more than that of vertical drills.

Good treatment rate: Remediation of greater volume of contaminants is possible with horizontal wells and so provides good treatment rate for the investment made.

Less maintenance: Even though installation is slightly expensive than other forms of drilling, it can be completed in a simple way and requires only little maintenance.

Hassle-free process: Horizontal wells can be installed in instances where other types of drilling may not be possible. This can be done without any obstructions under buildings, wetlands, landfills, etc.

The author has profound knowledge on oil drilling technologies and has written many articles on the various methods involved in drilling. The above article gives a brief explanation about the horizontal wells and its advantages.