Instituto Superior Tcnico

Universidade de Lisboa
Masters in Petroleum Engineering 2014-2015
Drilling Engineering Course

Jos Pedro Santos Baptista

Mining and Geological Engineering Msc.
Petroleum Engineering Msc.

Drilling Engineering Course

2. Positioning
Geodesy
Concept overview Whats the Workflow?
Referencing
Local Coordinates and Depth References Why?
Well Head Placement
Where to Drill What are the key drivers?

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Greek
Division of the Earth (geodaisia) Primarily concerned with positioning within the temporally
varying gravity field.
German
Higher Geodesy ("Erdmessung" or "hhere Geodsie") measuring the Earth on the global scale.
Practical Geodesy or Engineering Geodesy ("Ingenieurgeodsie") measuring specific parts or
regions of the Earth (incl. surveying).

Study of the shape, size and geometrical surface of the Earth (incl. Datum)

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Reference Ellipsoid
Mathematically defined surface that approximates the true figure of the Earth (Geoid).

Used as a preferred surface on which geodetic

network computations are performed and point
coordinates are defined (e.g. latitude, longitude, and
elevation).

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Reference Ellipsoid
Its shape is determined by an imaginary ellipse which generates the ellipsoid when it is rotated about
its minor axis.
Each nation might use its own model in order to obtain a better fit of its own territory.

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Reference Ellipsoid

Semi-major axis

Ellipsoid
Parameters

Inverse Flattening

Semi-minor axis

= (1 )

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Datum
Reference point or surface against which position measurements are made, and an associated model of
the shape of the earth for computing positions.
Horizontal datum

Used for describing a point on the earth's surface, in latitude and

longitude or another coordinate system.

Vertical datum

Used to measure elevations or underwater depths.

Built on top of a selected ellipsoid incorporating local variations of Lat,Long and elevation to reflect the
specificities of a particular region.
Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Datum

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Latitude,
Geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface.
Angle which ranges from 0 at the Equator to 90 (North or South) at the poles.
Lines of constant latitude (parallels) run east-west as circles parallel to the equator.
Longitude,
Geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface.
Angle which ranges from 0 at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England (Prime Meridian) to
180 East or West.
Points with the same longitude lie in lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole.
Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions
Map Projections

Systematic transformation of the latitudes and longitudes of

locations on the surface of a sphere or an ellipsoid into locations
on a plane.
All projections distort the surface in some fashion.
Depending on the purpose of the map, some distortions are
acceptable and others are not.
When converting a projection back to an ellipsoid a correction
factor must be considered (convergence angle).
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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions
Map Projections
There are several different types of projections in order to preserve some properties of the sphere-like body
at the expense of other properties. There is no limit to the number of possible map projections (cylinder,
cone and Azimuthal or plane).

Cylinder

Cone

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Plane

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions
Map Projections

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions
Map Projections

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Masters in Petroleum Engineering

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

Geographic Coordinate System

A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be defined by a set of numbers or
letters.
Coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents vertical position, and two or three
of the numbers represent horizontal position.
A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation.

Latitude and longitude values can be based on different geodetic systems or datum, the most common
being WGS 84, a global datum used by all GPS equipment.

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Masters in Petroleum Engineering

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

UTM Coordinates
GPS UTM
Developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 40s in
order to design grid maps for military purposes.
Divides the Earth into 60 zones (not a single map projection)
6 degree band of longitude
Secant transverse Mercator projection
Between 80S and 84N latitude

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

UTM Coordinates
The true origin of the UTM coordinate System is the interception of
the central meridian with the equator.
The limits of the UTM zone are the same (to all zones) 6 meridian
(longitude)
Northings and Eastings are always positive
UTM zones get thinner when approaching the poles

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2. Positioning
Geodesy Definitions

UTM Coordinates
NATO/Military UTM
The military grid reference system
Each zone is segmented into 20 latitude
bands. Each latitude band is 8 degrees
high, and is lettered starting from "C" at
80S, increasing up the English alphabet
until "X", omitting the letters "I" and "O"
(due to their similarity to the numerals one
and zero).
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2. Positioning
Geodesy Workflow
Workflow

Ellipsoid
Airy (1830)
Everest (1830)
Clarke (1880)
Krassovsky
(1940)
WGS-84 (1984)
Etc..

Datum
NAD 27
NAD83
ED50
WGS84
Etc

Drilling Engineering Course 2014-2015

Projection
Preserving direction:
Azimuthal
Preserving shape:
conformal
Preserving area:
equiareal
Preserving distance:
equidistant
Preserving shortest
route: gnomonic
Etc

Masters in Petroleum Engineering

Coordinate
System
Geographic
UTM
Stereographic
Cartesian
Etc

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2. Positioning
Referencing
Local Coordinates
Selecting a location: Ellipsoid, Datum, Projection and the Coordinate System
Selecting a reference point (known coordinates) as an origin, from where all the measurements can be
carried out
These measurements are referred to as Local Coordinates
X,Y,Z
These coordinates are often used due to the simplicity in, not only collecting data, but also for ease in
obtaining distances and reaching the desired location within a area (i.e. oilfield)

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2. Positioning
Referencing
North Surveying
When a measurement (survey) is taken the tools used (GPS, Total Station theodolite, MWD, Gyro, etc..)
may yield different values for the same point (even with the same geodetic system)
N (0)

Azimuth
O (270)

Inclination

E (90)
I
S (180)
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2. Positioning
True North

Referencing

Magnetic North
N

Grid North

True North

North Surveying

The azimuthal references are

particularly affected
True North
Grid North

Magnetic North

S
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2. Positioning
Referencing
North Surveying
True north (geodetic north)
Direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole
Where the imaginary Rotational Axis of the Earth intersects the surface
Grid north
Navigational term referring to the direction northwards along the grid
lines of a map projection
Equal to the true north in the central meridian (parallel to the YY axis of
the map)

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2. Positioning
Referencing
North Surveying

Grid convergence

Horizontal angle measured from true north to grid north.

True north and grid north are the same along the central
meridian of the UTM grid zone.

Outside of the central meridian, true north departs from

grid north due to the convergence of the meridians.

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2. Positioning
Referencing
North Surveying

Magnetic north

Point on the surface of Earth's Northern

Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic
field
points
vertically
downwards
(perpendicular)
The North Magnetic Pole moves over time
due to magnetic changes in the Earth's
core (55 and 60 km per year).

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2. Positioning
Referencing
North Surveying

Magnetic declination

TN (True North)

Angle
between
compass
north (the direction the north
end of a compass needle
points) and true north (the
direction along the earth's
surface
towards
the
geographic North Pole).

MN

TN (True North)
MN (Magnetic North)

MD = +

MD (Magnetic Declination) = -

MD is positive if MN is at East of TN
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MD is negative if MN is at West of TN

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2. Positioning
Referencing
RTE

Vertical References

RTE

Mean Sea Level

Reference

Ground
Elevation

Water Depth

Depth References are of Utmost

Importance

Sea Bed

Hit the Targets!!

TVD/Ref True
Vertical Depth

Avoid Collision!!

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2. Positioning
Referencing
Vertical References Onshore

Rotary Table Elevation

Ground Level
Well Head

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2. Positioning
Referencing
Vertical References Offshore

Rotary Table Elevation

Mean Sea Level
Well Head

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2. Positioning
Referencing
Vertical References Offshore

Rotary Table Elevation

Mean Sea Level
Well Head

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2. Positioning
Wellhead Position
Overall Constraints Well Objective
Exploration
Throw-away well (abandon after drilling)
Look For Oil and Gas Reservoirs
Look for Geological Structures
Appraisal
Determine the extent of a discovery
Identify boundaries
Might be a keeper (used for production)
Development
Production
Injection

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Vertical Well (minimum deviation)

Drilled over the target
Vertical Well (minimum deviation)
Drilled over the target
Usually Side-Tracked
Minimise footage Drilled
Minimise work over constraints

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2. Positioning
Wellhead Position
Overall Constraints Surface & Geological
Target(s) Location(s)
Well to intercept more than one target

Topography (onshore or Sea Bed)

Geological Constraints
Shallow Gas Pockets
Naturally Deviated
Salt Domes
Avoidance of other geological features

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Reduce Costs
Reduce/Simplify
Engineering

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2. Positioning
Wellhead Position
Overall Constraints
Land Locations
With land wells, the surface location of the well will usually be determined by the factors originally
prompting the decision to drill a deviated (as opposed to a vertical) well
Offshore Locations
Main difference between positioning a surface location on land and offshore is the number and proximity of
wellbores
Offshore platforms (between 6 and 60 wells, adjacent wells may have only 6' feet between
centres).
Factors which directly affect the offshore site: water depth, bottom slope, sandy bottom versus coral reef,
local currents, etc.
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2. Positioning
End of Positioning
Next Chapter: 3. Well Profile Design

Questions?

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