Reducing the risk in drilling production wells: A multidisciplinary approach

Numerical predictive tools are frequently used in the oil and gas industry as a means to determine the optimal procedure to maximize the profitability of a project in a nondestructive and cost effective manner. The present work provides a link between geostatistics and risk engineering to address geological uncertainty in reservoir formations. The geological properties of a reservoir influence the potential productivity of a well. Unfortunately the reservoir properties are never fully known with complete certainty. By quantifying the uncertainty in the reservoir geology a risk factor can be associated with the well path. This risk factor can be improved by adding measurements while drilling to the geostatistical simulations. The demonstration of how to quantify the risk and then apply measurements while drilling to reduce the risk is the key focus of this research. This methodology is demonstrated through the use of two case studies.