Many of these job titles may not be commonly known to the public, including one of the most important positions: those who control the path of the drilling process. When a reserve of oil is located and is going to be opened for drilling, the prospective drilling company will use advanced technology to take an accurate survey of where the well is located underground, and the best path to get a bore into it. When drilling a well to access an oil reserve, workers use constantly updated information to ensure that the hole is drilled in the pre-determined, most efficient path and follow the designated plan.
The Operators for these tasks, commonly referred to as MWDs or LWDs, are responsible for using the complex technology which provides a second-by-second feed on the progress of the bore.
Directional drillers DD perform similar activities, but they are solely responsible for drilling no-vertical wells, also known as slant drilling. In the oil and gas industry, this can fall into one of several categories: oilfield directional drilling, utility installation drilling horizontal , directional boring, and surface in seam SIS , which creates a horizontal well to intersect with a vertical one and extract coal bed methane.
MWDs and DDs have made it possible to reach deeper, and more difficult wells, giving the oil industry access to reserves that would have been out of reach without the technology that has developed, and the engineers who are so effective at utilizing them. Originally developed and implemented in the early 's, LWD is an innovative and constantly improving technology that can potentially increase a well's production value, and significantly reduce construction costs.
There are several variations of LWD, including:. While MWD can be classified as a type of LWD, there are at least a couple of significant differences between these two techniques. MWD provides real-time data RT to drill operators, allowing them to constantly monitor the drilling operation and make relatively quick adjustments as needed.
In contrast, LWD refers to a methodology in which information is saved to a data capture tool and stored within solid state memory for some time. Then, once the data has been transmitted to the surface, the analyst on duty must perform an "information dump" to retrieve and decode all the recorded data for further examination. MWD typically focuses on directional information, such as the inclination of the well and the azimuth.
On the other hand, LWD provides many more details on the target formation, such as:. Certain LWD tools are even designed to collect fluid samples from a recently drilled well section for more accurate reservoir analysis.
In summary, MWD offers real-time information transmission to drill operators, and is largely centered around direction-oriented data capture. LWD provides previously recorded data for analysis after an information dump, and generally gives much more detail. In almost any operational environment that involves offshore drilling, MWD, or LWD processes, there are strict regulations in place with regards to worker accommodations. To ensure that workers remain safe, both on-duty and off, zoned cabins must meet stringent guidelines for secure accommodations and industrial spaces under hazardous conditions.
In these situations, the LWD measurement ensures that some measurement of the subsurface is captured in the event that wireline operations are not possible. Timely LWD data can also be used to guide well placement so that the wellbore remains within the zone of interest or in the most productive portion of a reservoir , such as in highly variable shale reservoirs. Alternate Form: logging-while-drilling. See: deviated hole , measurements-while-drilling , wireline log. Premium content requires special account permissions.
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