What is Directional Drilling ?

 Directional drilling is a broad term used to describe any boring that doesn’t go in a straight line vertically down. In fact, even in a vertical well, it might be necessary to deviate to avoid a geological formation or a previous stuck pipe, then return to the original path. In this instance, the driller uses sidetracking techniques.

In conventional drilling for oil and gas, the drill bit, drillstring, pipe and casing all go down in a straight line. If a driller aims away from the 180-degrees down, that’s technically directional drilling. Nowadays, however, it’s more likely that there’ll be a series of one or more carefully planned directional changes along the wellbore.

Directional drilling techniques have been employed for almost 100 years now. Over the past few decades, technological improvements have meant that angles, turns and underground distances covered are amazing feats of engineering.

Techniques such as multilateral, horizontal and extended reach drilling (ERD) are enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods that can increase the yield of a downhole dramatically. It’s possible for ERD specialists to drill for more than 10 kilometers/6.2 miles. Students of petroleum engineering often get shown illustrations and diagrams that look like tree roots. If we imagine the rig as the trunk of the tree, the directional possibilities of the roots are endless. Even the branches of the roots are comparable to multilateral drilling.